Core Necromancer Suggestions

[Rex.3516]

I dip into Necromancer every now and then, and I thought I would chime in on the core side of things.Last balance patch core Necromancer saw a slight revaluation of its shroud skills among some other tweaks, and while it has benefited from all the axe changes aimed at creating the current monster that is Reaper, it was nice to see changes to the core skills that have stayed relatively unchanged since core.

Personally I have a niche love for core Necro; it is just stellar. Reaper is a devastating force of nature that can wipe out entire groups in seconds, but then on the other side of things we have the core alternative, which is simply an all out tank.Blood magic, soul reaping, and spite make for an interesting set of utility offerings, such as massive vulnerability up-time; soft CCs for days, might, and general debilitating effects. I personally run Axe/Focus - Dagger/Warhorn for an invincible siege engine unable to be vexed by anything. And it is so satisfying.

However, my one concern is the lack of AoE pressure a core Necromancer has. So, my suggestion is cooldown reductions! That's right. I think its damage is just fine: even if it isn't as high as Reaper, this spec offers more in the way of resurrection potential, potential AoE condi cleanse, and just being an all out annoyance for any mob fighting it. But on its own, it can lack kill potential for groups that leads to it fighting one group far too long; it quickly becomes boring when mobs survive too long. Especially now that mobs often buff themselves in Elona. It can make fights too drawn out; even with all out damage gear.

This can be easily remedied, in my opinion, with a reduction in the cooldown of its main shroud skills. The big boys, "Life Transfer," and "Tainted Shackles." Remember when Elementalist's Fire Grab cooldown was just too long? Well I believe these are the same, and they require the same treatment Fire Grab got. 40 seconds is just too long, and 32 with the reduction trait seems equally enormous of a time to wait. I find myself going into shroud after its 10 second cooldown, and cringing that I have to wait so ungodly long for these skills again, since they are my main AoE damage.I appreciate that Life Transfer in particular is very powerful due to how much life force it restores while dealing damage. So I would also suggest potentially reducing the amount of life force it can drain, but reducing the cooldown to make up for it. And if the torment from Tainted Shackles would be too strong at this point, perhaps reducing the torment duration would be a decent trade if we're taking PvP into account. 40 down to 20 seconds, but 6 seconds of base torment rather than 12. And similar treatment for Life Transfer.

I think in the current meta, cooldowns this long are practically archaic, and reflective of a time when the game was much less fast paced. But today, for Necromancer to really shine, at least in my opinion, it needs to catch up. The change to the shroud auto attack was fantastic, but I think this needs looking into, as well.

I hope there are other people out there who would love to see Necromancer perform well in its base form, and that they agree that such changes would be prudent. I would encourage people to make further suggestions if they have any, that being the case.

[Dadnir.5038]

I agree with Life Transfer, it really need to have the same coold down as soul spiral (30s). However, I don't think it's necessary to reduce the cool down of tainted shackle and I don't think ANet issue with the skill would be torment but Immobilize.

[Kiroshima.8497]

Tainted Shackles is actually fine right now, as is Doom (instant cast unblockable fear with a really low cooldown), and the newly buffed Lifeblast is quite smooth. The only bad skills on core shroud are:

Shroud 2 - Dear god this projectile is underwhelming. Being slow with that range means you can just turn around and run away. But it also means opponents forget about it and then you suddenly shadowstep on top of them xD. It also is underwhelming, 2 bleeds and a chill. Either add in Weakness for more control, or it needs torment/more bleed (2 stacks more should be good).

Shroud 4 - Wow is this weak for its cast time. Arguably better than dagger 2, but against single targets, you lose life force channeling this thing for barely any damage. NOT COUNTING PVE where Soul Spiral (Reaper 4) does double damage than it, it's still really weak (3.8 vs 4.8 on soul spiral in pvp/wvw). It also offers no condition pressure at all, unlike Soul Spiral (poisons per hit btw), or any utility at all really. Honestly, rather than more damage, it just needs utility. Perhaps it can steal boons, heal the necro instead of restoring life force, inflict weakness, give stability, anything in that direction. You can't even use it in a group fight since it takes ages to cast and the life force granted isn't enough to sustain shroud when being focused (which is what should be happening). Perhaps you can add a outgoing damage reduction debuff to enemies drained of their life instead of weakness so core shroud can support his team more. I dunno, anything would be great at this point.

[Sigmoid.7082]

@Kiroshima.8497 said:Tainted Shackles is actually fine right now, as is Doom (instant cast unblockable fear with a really low cooldown), and the newly buffed Lifeblast is quite smooth. The only bad skills on core shroud are:

Shroud 2 - Dear god this projectile is underwhelming. Being slow with that range means you can just turn around and run away. But it also means opponents forget about it and then you suddenly shadowstep on top of them xD. It also is underwhelming, 2 bleeds and a chill. Either add in Weakness for more control, or it needs torment/more bleed (2 stacks more should be good).

Shroud 4 - Wow is this weak for its cast time. Arguably better than dagger 2, but against single targets, you lose life force channeling this thing for barely any damage. NOT COUNTING PVE where Soul Spiral (Reaper 4) does double damage than it, it's still really weak (3.8 vs 4.8 on soul spiral in pvp/wvw). It also offers no condition pressure at all, unlike Soul Spiral (poisons per hit btw), or any utility at all really. Honestly, rather than more damage, it just needs utility. Perhaps it can steal boons, heal the necro instead of restoring life force, inflict weakness, give stability, anything in that direction. You can't even use it in a group fight since it takes ages to cast and the life force granted isn't enough to sustain shroud when being focused (which is what should be happening). Perhaps you can add a outgoing damage reduction debuff to enemies drained of their life instead of weakness so core shroud can support his team more. I dunno, anything would be great at this point.

It has a higher range and ignores vertical and horizontal LoS, which SS does not do as it only ignores horizontal.Drop the cooldown by 10s and increase the cast speed to 2~2.5s and its a very strong skill.

[Stand The Wall.6987]

I would rather life blast hit faster for less damage.I do agree with your suggestions tho.

[Zex Anthon.8673]

Life Blast too slow.

[XECOR.2814]

Every patch high cd's of death shroud are mentioned but no reductions untill now. I dont think its going to happen. They think its fine LUL.

[Anchoku.8142]

Core Necro's peak dps and sustain are still low, IMO. I would like to see Death Shroud cool down reduction, a Death Magic rework, more damage on MH dagger, and tweaks to focus.

[Swadow.6213]

Core necromancer needs ds1 to transfer conditions and reduced cast time, ds2 a rework to targeted teleport rather than a projectile and improvements to daggers.

Dagger 1 should have aftercast reduced and perhaps apply regeneration in area with the last hit. Life siphon should be channelable without facing target and restore health to allies Dark pact should also have a supportive component, perhaps vigor? Dagger 4 has too small casting radius causing it to often go on small CD because enemy stepped lightly to the side. Dagger 5 just has too long delay between cast and effect.

And the obvious Death Magic rework

[killfil.3472]

Underwater Death shroud is arguably better than the land variant… which is quite the thing to say.

[ZDragon.3046]

If you just want to improve core only the only things you can look at is the shroud itself.adding to any other weapon or traits only pushes reaper and scourge farther away from core as they can benefit from any core changes made that are not simply the shroud itself.

DS1

• is pretty good right now but it should transfer a condition or something even if you have to take the (unyielding blast) trait to make it do so as the trait is pretty poo atm. Making this skill transfer a condition would actually make plague signet make a lot more sense in its passive mechanic.

• If it was me giving core total rework I would make this skill change all together based on what weapon was in your main hand when you activated shroud.

• Staff = life blast (utility based, xfers one condi per shot,

• Dagger = fast cleave attack at close range steals life for light sustain (heals in shroud but not too much)

• Axe = ranged none projectile attack high single target damage (stronger than life blast)

• Scepter = none projectile slow but heavy in condition application single target

DS2

• The projectile is one of the best tracking projectiles in the game although its a bit slow. It simply needs more of an impact on hit. For its cool down its does not do enough. Damage is low conditions applied are small and weak. (Some times with the path of corruption trait) it can still be very under whelming if you convert boons that don't matter and this has no practical use in pve. If it is going to become a targeted teleport make it similar to mesmers Jaunt with 2 charges.

• If it were up to me i would change this to the under water skill Dark Water for a ground targeted aoe on land. Rename the skill to "Miasma" (Night Air) so it fits the land purpose. This provides blind and poison in a pulsing aoe for sustain and damage not to mention its strong traits like "path of corruption" for people willing to stand in it.

DS3

• Is pretty solid but the range restriction needs to go. Make it always use the highest base fear on the list
• If it was up to me i would change the skill to always use its underwater variation Wave of Fear which is a wide but small traveling cone that applies fear in front of the caster for 2 seconds. Its not instant but you could hit more than 1 person with it (maybe do what you did with necromancers scepter.) Taking a certain fear trait like "Fear of Death" changes the skill from "Doom" into "Wave of Fear"

DS4

• This skill literally just needs a lower cooldown and slightly faster quicker channel time. Its damage is pretty considerable (not the best) but not bad. Its biggest flaws is that it just takes too long to use and the cooldown is extremely high. Possibly trade its life force gain mechanic (which usually feels none existent) for something new (0.5 slow on hit per pulse 4.5s) Slow would mean reduce damage as actions are slower, the same feature that the life life force drain, mechanic attempts to imply but making it more noticeable from the players perspective.

DS5

• For the love of god please remove the immobilize from this skill the damage is good, the condition application of torment is good. The immobilizes is pointless though and counterproductive to the torment application.
• Give the skill some cool interaction between the necromancer and tethered targets like foes tethered by this skill get pulled back or foes tethered by this skill take considerably increased damage from other shroud skills while under its effects.
• If we need to retain some sort of crowd control in the skill make it pulse daze on each new application of torment through its duration this does not hinder the torment application and makes ignoring the skill risky without some form of hard strategy and also good for doing damage to defiance bars.

While i do approve of a Death magic rework it wont result in improving core as much as people think. IF it actually improves core then it also improves reaper and scourge meaning core is still left behind as it was before. Meaning it wont feel improved or good enough. People will still feel like they have to play reaper or scourge to be even remotely competitive in any game mode. While you do have the odd balls here and there like myself who will try to force core to work you quickly realize that it just gets ran over in it current state. People are not scared of core utility very much or core shroud.

If we really want to improve core its shroud needs to be as effective as reaper shroud in forcing people to burn defensive tools or keeping people away as scourge shades and desert shroud do.

Once again i do approve of the following things on necro in general but they might only keep the gap between core and the elites the same or make them wider

• Fear improvement (Feared foes drop all targeting while under its effects just as taunt forces one to change targets.) Stop making ["Fear of Death's"](https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fear_of_Death ""Fear of Death's"") increased fear duration work like expertise when it should be increasing the base skill duration time. Because it works like expertiese it means that any extra we stack ontop can lead to easy over capping meaning we cant get true fear durations. We cant even make the most of our limited use fears.
• Rework of Death magic
• Improved trait of Foot in the Grave
• Improvement of some minion skills and how they function all together
• Add functionality / mechanic for skills that only focus on hitting foes with boons to have a bonus effect when you hit a foe with no boons for pve use and functionality. (We have too many skills that are lackluster or pointless if enemies never have boons in general pve and some high end areas of pve)

[Kiroshima.8497]

I actually really appreciate the root on Tainted Shackles as it allows you to stay away from melee builds, which is usually more valuable than just more torment damage. It basically forces them to choose to either remove the immob, and eat the torment, or just sit there and let you life blast them from a distance.

Or it could taunt enemies at the end. I'd take that since core shroud is a tanky shroud.

But don't take away my instant cast 1200 radius fear. It's the only good fear necro really has besides staff 5, and the only way necro can actually do interrupts.