[Elite Suggestion] Nightborn

[Regon Phoenix.8215]

Minor trait 1 (Blood Knight)Unlock Sword for your main-hand and allow to use Seals.Replace Death Shroud with Night Shroud.Reduce your maximum life force by 50%, but your life force doesn't drain passively while you are in shroudNight Shroud - charge towards your target and enter shroud. If you have no target, then charge will not happen. Range: 600.

Major trait line 1Major trait 1 (Night's Flash)Sword abilities recharge 33% faster while you are under effect of Swiftness.Major trait 2 (Blood Drinker)Heal yourself for 15% of damage caused by your bleed effects.Major trait 3 (Conceal Bloodlust)Entering Shroud will grant you 3 sec of stealth.

Minor trait 2 (Pursue the Cattle)Entering combat will grant you 10 sec of Swiftness and 5 sec of Fury.

Major trait line 2Major trait 1 (Deeper Blood)Reduce health cost of seals by 25%. Take 2% less damage per active seal.Major trait 2 (Extraordinary Regeneration)While you have Regeneration increase all healing you take by 10%.Major trait 3 (Nocturnal Recuperation)Remove 1 condition every second while you are in stealth.

Minor trait 3 (Bloodrush)Dropping to or bellow 50% of your maximum health will grant you 5 sec of regeneration. Cooldown: 5 sec.

Major trait line 3Major trait 1 (Overwhelming Supremacy)Deal 10% more direct damage to enemies with Weakness on them.Major trait 2 (Unnatural Predator)Gain 150 power and 150 condition damage while you have Fury.Major trait 3 (Master of Life and Death)Increase damage done by life siphoning effects by 15%.

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Sword 1 (Dark Flash)First part of two part chain ability. Deal damage to single enemy in melee range. This attack have bonus precision.Casting time: 1/2 secDamage: ~450 (scales with power)Bonus precision: 200

Sword 1 (Killing Metal)Second part of two part chain ability. Deal damage to single enemy in melee range. This attack have bonus ferocity.Casting time: 1/2 secDamage: ~550 (scales with power)Bonus ferocity: 200

Sword 2 (Killer's Step)Leap to your target and bleed it. Siphon health if this ability hits.Casting time: 3/4 secCooldown: 15 secRange: 600Bleed: 2 stacks for 6 secSiphon damage: ~300 (scales with power)Siphon healing: ~400 (scales with healing power)

Sword 3 (Vampiric Reflexes)Evade backwards and gain stealth.Casting time: instantCooldown: 20 secEvade duration: 3/4 secStealth: 4 sec

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Shroud 1 (Nightly Feast)Charge at your target if it is within range and deal damage.Casting time: 1/4 secDamage: ~450 (scales with power)Range: 300

Shroud 2 (Darkness Claws)Strike your target in melee range and Weaken it.Casting time: 1/4 secCooldown: 10 secDamage (2x): ~600 (scales with power)Weakness: 6 sec

Shroud 3 (Pursue the Pray)Gain stealth and Swiftness.Casting time: instantCooldown: 15 secStealth: 3 secSwiftness: 5 sec

Shroud 4 (Vampiric Dispersion)Transform into cloud of bats becoming immune to damage and siphon health from nearby enemies. Can move while transformed.Casting time: 1/2 secCooldown: 20 secDuration: 3 secSiphon damage (12x): ~800 (scales with power)Siphon healing (12x): ~700 (scales with healing power)Radius: 450

Shroud 5 (Final Feast)Rush towards your target. If you collide with an enemy, then deal damage to it and stun it.Casting time: instantCooldown: 30 secRange: 600Damage: ~800 (scales with power)Stun: 3 sec

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Healing seal (Seal of Flesh)Reduce your maximum health to toggle this ability. Reactivating this ability will cancel this ability and return health used to activate this ability. While this ability is active you continue to heal periodically and gain Regeneration at set interval.Health cost: 1000Healing per sec: ~300 (scales with healing power)Regeneration: 4 secRegeneration interval: every 8 sec

Utility seal 1 (Seal of Energy)Reduce your maximum health to toggle this ability. Reactivating this ability will cancel this ability and return health used to activate this ability. While this ability is active your movement speed can't be reduced bellow 100% of your normal movement speed and immobilize effects will last 50% shorter.Health cost: 2000

Utility seal 2 (Seal of Spikes)Reduce your maximum health to toggle this ability. Reactivating this ability will cancel this ability and return health used to activate this ability. While this ability is active your attacks cause bleeding. Melee attacks cause more bleeding.Health cost: 2000Bleeding: 1 stack for 3 secBleeding with melee weapon: 2 stacks for 3 sec

Utility seal 3 (Seal of Restoration)Reduce your maximum health to toggle this ability. Reactivating this ability will cancel this ability and return health used to activate this ability. While this ability is active all healing you take from allies is increased by 20%.Health cost: 2000

Elite seal (Seal of Supremacy)Reduce your maximum health to toggle this ability. Reactivating this ability will cancel this ability and return health used to activate this ability. While in combat you slowly charge bonus precision. When this bonus precision gets fully charged, then your next critical strike will have bonus ferocity, cause bleeding and resets precision built by this ability.Health cost: 3000Precision per second: 100Maximum number of stacks: 10Bonus ferocity: 400Bleeding: 5 stacks for 5 sec

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

I like the Shroud and Sword kits a lot, but I do have a few major critiques:

1. Grandmaster traits are boring. None of them are going to change anything at all about how I play, and none of them feel build defining. Sure, you can point to Close to Death as a parallel for Overhwelming Supremacy, but Close to Death has competition from traits that do have an impact on how you play. Spiteful Spirit makes you want to enter Shroud more often while Signets of Suffering changes your entire build. It's okay to have "boring, but effective" so long as the alternatives hold some spice and direction.
2. Seals feel half-baked. They're essentially signets without an active component and cost you max health. Perhaps look into changing them up to give an immediate effect on cast and a constant effect as long as you keep them active? This not only turns them into a skill where you have to think about when you use them, but also adds a dynamic where you have to decide when to end them so you can get the activation effect sooner.
3. Stealth seems like a theme in the traits, sword, and shroud kits, but it feels slightly incomplete. I suggest a trait with a large siphon on your first strike out of stealth. This would help tie the siphoning theme in with the stealth sub-theme.
4. The sword trait feels under-supported in the specialization. You only have one source of Swiftness being introduced outside of the 10 seconds you get at the start of combat. I suggest putting Swiftness on Killer's Step (Sword 2) to help the sword synergize with its own trait.
5. There needs to be some source of life force. The idea of a smaller Shroud is interesting, but you still need to actually generate that life force or else it's worthless.

[Subli.8217]

i don't like a lot of this.

1. mobility skills that dont work without target? no!
2. all the seal skills are worthless. the healing one is basically what blood fiend does already. the utilities don't do anything useful, not even break stuns or stability, no boon gains, no blast finishers, nothing. the elite skill is worthless because the precision bonus resets and the ferocity bonus lasts for 1 hit, which can and will be eaten by a random autoattack or something like that
3. it seems like you're undecided whether its bleeding condi spec or power spec.
4. minor trait 3 - what a waste of space. nobody wants regeneration, it's already everywhere. add some dmg modifier.

overall could be a good specialisation but needs better ideas

[Dadnir.5038]

Zerk spec: 9k hp, 4.5k shroud (2.250k maybe), no damage. I'm affraid core necromancer wouldn't be even close to be able to support such a spec.

all the seal skills are worthless

Seal of spike would certainly see some uses and be nerfed right away.

My opinion is that this might be viable on another profession as a "tank spec" but the issue is that core necromancer would make the survivability ridiculously bad. The amazing thing is that the life siphon would make other professions cry about how op these damage that ignore defense are and in PvE mobs would just flatly laugh at those damages. A charge on shroud#1, remind me of the old ranger sword AA and it's horrendous clunckyness... Thought that's a good way to prevent players from staying in shroud I guess (not that the shroud would last long: 1 Hit). Sword with it's slow AA and it's super long cool down (even under the effect of regen and sword trait) on #2 and #3 seem super weak.

PvP: This spec make you look like a thief with neither mobility nor burst damage. It's probably the game area where the spec would feel "lost".WvW: The lack of mobility exclude this spec from a "roaming" role, however, by focusing on survivability this spec could leech n the zerg despite not being "usefull".PvE: Slot Seal of spike and play it the same way than any other necromancer condi spec for PvE for little to no difference in the damage output.

What's disturbing is that the spec seem designed for small scale fight, yet it's tools will shine brighter in large scale fight due to a core professions to "weak" to support such a spec.

NB.: About the traits, could you categorize them as adept, master and grandmaster to make things a bit clearer? Is traitline 3 a traitline or a column of traits?

[Regon Phoenix.8215]

@"Drarnor Kunoram.5180" said:I like the Shroud and Sword kits a lot, but I do have a few major critiques:

1. Grandmaster traits are boring. None of them are going to change anything at all about how I play, and none of them feel build defining. Sure, you can point to Close to Death as a parallel for Overhwelming Supremacy, but Close to Death has competition from traits that do have an impact on how you play. Spiteful Spirit makes you want to enter Shroud more often while Signets of Suffering changes your entire build. It's okay to have "boring, but effective" so long as the alternatives hold some spice and direction.
2. Seals feel half-baked. They're essentially signets without an active component and cost you max health. Perhaps look into changing them up to give an immediate effect on cast and a constant effect as long as you keep them active? This not only turns them into a skill where you have to think about when you use them, but also adds a dynamic where you have to decide when to end them so you can get the activation effect sooner.
3. Stealth seems like a theme in the traits, sword, and shroud kits, but it feels slightly incomplete. I suggest a trait with a large siphon on your first strike out of stealth. This would help tie the siphoning theme in with the stealth sub-theme.
4. The sword trait feels under-supported in the specialization. You only have one source of Swiftness being introduced outside of the 10 seconds you get at the start of combat. I suggest putting Swiftness on Killer's Step (Sword 2) to help the sword synergize with its own trait.
5. There needs to be some source of life force. The idea of a smaller Shroud is interesting, but you still need to actually generate that life force or else it's worthless.

1. Yeah, those might sound boring, but believe me, they are useful.A ) Overwhelming Supremacy = dagger off-hand + Weakening Shroud trait from Curses traitline + Shroud 2. Lots of weakness uptime and nearly constant damage increase.B ) Unnatural Predator = Furious Demise trait from Curse traitline + Pursue the Cattle.C ) Master of Life and Death = Blood magic traitline. Would essentially allow necromancer to play as a tank.
2. Well, i heave read one of developers commenting that they once wanted to give necromancer abilities who cost health. So, seals.
3. Yeah, but then again it would limit whole elite to one single weapon.
4. Speed of Shadows from Soulreaping traitline, Locust Swarm from Warhorn, Pursue the Cattle, Shroud 3, i think there are alot of way necro can get swiftness.
5. Totally forgot that. Sword 1 should grant life force.

[Regon Phoenix.8215]

@"Dadnir.5038" said:Zerk spec: 9k hp, 4.5k shroud (2.250k maybe), no damage. I'm affraid core necromancer wouldn't be even close to be able to support such a spec.

all the seal skills are worthless

Seal of spike

would certainly see some uses and be nerfed right away.

My opinion is that this might be viable on another profession as a "tank spec" but the issue is that core necromancer would make the survivability ridiculously bad. The amazing thing is that the life siphon would make other professions cry about how op these damage that ignore defense are and in PvE mobs would just flatly laugh at those damages. A charge on shroud#1, remind me of the old ranger sword AA and it's horrendous clunckyness... Thought that's a good way to prevent players from staying in shroud I guess (not that the shroud would last long: 1 Hit). Sword with it's slow AA and it's super long cool down (even under the effect of regen and sword trait) on #2 and #3 seem super weak.

PvP: This spec make you look like a thief with neither mobility nor burst damage. It's probably the game area where the spec would feel "lost".WvW: The lack of mobility exclude this spec from a "roaming" role, however, by focusing on survivability this spec could leech n the zerg despite not being "usefull".PvE: Slot

Seal of spike

and play it the same way than any other necromancer condi spec for PvE for little to no difference in the damage output.

What's disturbing is that the spec seem designed for small scale fight, yet it's tools will shine brighter in large scale fight due to a core professions to "weak" to support such a spec.

NB.: About the traits, could you categorize them as adept, master and grandmaster to make things a bit clearer? Is traitline 3 a traitline or a column of traits?

Trait line 3 is grandmaster.

And aren't you overlooking something? Curse, Soulreaping and Blood magic would actually support this elite quite a lot, i think.

And yes, i do imagined this elite as small scale bruiser who have good engage, good sustain and decent disengage.

[ZDragon.3046]

Its an interesting concept but i dont trust anet to make a sword thats not clunkyThief sword to me personally still feels a bit clunky but hurts quite a bit.Ranger sword use to be very clunkyWarrior sword is still clunky bugged on some races with some skillsGuardian sword is actually not to badd its probably one of the better ones.Ele sword is a mix between good and very clunky so it alright ish. Skills have less range than they really should.Rev sword is buggy the auto attack chain has odd animations.

So if possible I dont want to see another profession with a sword personally.

The Seals dont seem worth much to be honest and there is alot and i mean alot of stealth in this spec. But there is nothing to to really play on it. For example we dont have ambush or sneak attack flip overs on skills or anything like that. With this much access to stealth why not throw some of that into the mix it would promote a different play style that complements using stealth rather than just getting it kind here and there.

Base shroud mechanic conflicts with one of the traitsEntering shroud will cause you to dash at your targetOne of the first traits is gain stealth on entering shroud. Wont be hard to guess with the person is based on the previous location not to mention there are currently alot of on shroud activation skill that would pop you right out of stealth revealing you.Annnddd... you have 2 other dash skills in the shroud itself 1 being the auto attack which i find to be a bit weird

Not sure if you noticed recently anet started matching trait lines in tier order to kind of all effect the same thing.Scourge for exampleThe top row of traits all effect summoned sand shade in some wayThe middle row only effects torment, punishment skills, and adds burning. (also happens to have the weapon cd trait but this can go anywhere)The bottom row is all about boon corruption only and plays on boon corruption.

While you dont have to use all 3 it might help when formulating your ideas to consider doing them this way.From looking at some skills it seems like you want this to be a dps roller but then at the same time i start to see stealth and health regen, then i also see scattered traits about improving power and ferocity and things like that and i get a bit lost.

While its good to consider giving the option of tank via high sustain, power damage, or condi damage im not sure which one this spec is suppose to fall into the path is a bit unclear.

Overall i like the name and some of the base shroud idea but it needs something more.Its not bad to throw concepts out there though is semi neat.

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

@"Regon Phoenix.8215" said:

1. Yeah, those might sound boring, but believe me, they are useful.A ) Overwhelming Supremacy = dagger off-hand + Weakening Shroud trait from Curses traitline + Shroud 2. Lots of weakness uptime and nearly constant damage increase.B ) Unnatural Predator = Furious Demise trait from Curse traitline + Pursue the Cattle.C ) Master of Life and Death = Blood magic traitline. Would essentially allow necromancer to play as a tank.No. You do NOT require Grandmaster traits to need other trait lines to even function at a half-decent level. The closest we have is Blighter's Boon, but that also works off of Chilling Victory, Infusing Terror, YaaW, and Chilled to the Bone just from Reaper. It also works with Blood is Power, Spectral Armor/Walk/Wall, and Well of Power for core utility skills. Of course, it's also important to realize that Blighter's Boon was originally designed to work with all boons gained, not just self-generated ones, making the self-boon generation less important for the trait at the time.

Compare your traits to Close to Death, since they're all about the same. Notice Spite gives tools for getting the target below 50% health and is excellent at finishing them off once they're below that threshold. Currently, your Grandmaster traits are weakly supported by the spec and even when other sources are brought in to cover for this, they're still low-impact.

2. Well, i heave read one of developers commenting that they once wanted to give necromancer abilities who cost health. So, seals.I don't think the developer said that they wanted to give the Necro unimpactful and boring abilities that cost health. The problem is that these aren't engaging skills: they're signets you can't activate.

Think about it in this way: "How does the timing of using these skills matter?" Right now, timing isn't a decision with Seals. You just have them active until you're close to dying, then you deactivate them (ironically depriving you of traited damage reduction and power when you need it most). No actual thought there.

3. Yeah, but then again it would limit whole elite to one single weapon.How? You have stealth in the traits and Shroud. Wouldn't need to run Sword.

4. Speed of Shadows from Soulreaping traitline, Locust Swarm from Warhorn, Pursue the Cattle, Shroud 3, i think there are alot of way necro can get swiftness.Other than Spectral Walk, you just listed all of them.

However, most of those are 30+ second cooldowns and, in the case of Pursue the cattle, never gets reused again in a fight. That leaves you with Speed of Shadows (locking you into Soul Reaping and a specific playstyle to use a Adept level trait effectively) and Shroud 3 (forces you into the same playstyle as Speed of Shadows).

The other thing you should look at is the actual effect of the trait. For upkeeping permanent swiftness, you get 25% reduction on recharge time. As soon as you run into boon rip, this value plummets, especially since Necros are terrible at covering their boons. Having a source of Swiftness on the sword itself does two things:

1. The weapon feeds into its own trait (notice all other weapons with a non-standard CDR trait do this).
2. Improves uptime that the trait is active.