Spectral Skill Rework [Idea]

[Justine.6351]

Spectral Mastery: Added 20% boon duration.

Spectral Armor: CD reduced to 35sec, spectral armor duration reduced to 5sec, gain 5% life force and 500 barrier when struck 1sec icd. Gain protection and resistance for 5sec. If used to break stun, gain 2stab for 5sec.

Spectral Grasp: Idk, its actually kind of deceptively OP when traited atm.

Spectral Walk: 0sec recharge. Break Stun. Spectral Walk for 5sec and gain 1sec superspeed each second at the cost of 5sec recharge per second and an increasing 1-2-3-4-5% life force cost every second. If ended early you return to your previous location.

Lich Form: Idk.

Idk just some thoughts.

[Loopgru.1026]

Forgot Wall there.

By and large I think Grasp, Wall, and Walk are fine. They are oddball tricks mostly for WvW. I might throw an ammo mechanic on grasp like they did for Rocket Boots, but the new multi target functionality is pretty sweet anyway.

Armor could use some love. It is just so totally outclassed by Rise! it's not even funny. Might be interesting to see this use the barrier mechanic somehow, maybe with a retributive aoe strike for however much damage is done to it? Would be an entertaining response to the tired drum beat of Focus the Necro.

Lich just got a rework, not much chance of changes there. I don't much like long CD abilities, so not much opinion here.

[Lahmia.2193]

IMO the only one that needs a rework is Lich Form. Despite Anet reworking it recently it is still trash and deserves to be put on the fire and replaced with a non form useful elite.

[Justine.6351]

@Loopgru.1026 said:Forgot Wall there.

By and large I think Grasp, Wall, and Walk are fine. They are oddball tricks mostly for WvW. I might throw an ammo mechanic on grasp like they did for Rocket Boots, but the new multi target functionality is pretty sweet anyway.

Armor could use some love. It is just so totally outclassed by Rise! it's not even funny. Might be interesting to see this use the barrier mechanic somehow, maybe with a retributive aoe strike for however much damage is done to it? Would be an entertaining response to the tired drum beat of Focus the Necro.

Lich just got a rework, not much chance of changes there. I don't much like long CD abilities, so not much opinion here.

Idk how I forgot wall, I spent 30min going over it ingame. I guess I didn't really find it out of line overall.

Spectral grasp is wierd simply because traited or not it's over 75% life force with near zero skill required. It doesn't actually require targeting despite description, pbaoe attack 1200 radius. They would have to nerf the life force gain before adding an ammo mechanic or even a cd reduction to it.

[ElderNewt.5840]

Issue with Spectral skills is to make them any good we need the Spectral trait... which is in the same middle line as VP which trumps it all the time

[Loopgru.1026]

@Justine.6351 said:

Spectral grasp is wierd simply because traited or not it's over 75% life force with near zero skill required. It doesn't actually require targeting despite description, pbaoe attack 1200 radius. They would have to nerf the life force gain before adding an ammo mechanic or even a cd reduction to it.

Thing is, after the speed of shadows nerf, the ability to bomb out that much LF just isn't that valuable. With A+F you can easily refill your whole bar in less time than it takes to come off CD, and GS isn't far off. I don't know how condi specs fare that way, but I can't imagine it is too far from there.

[Dadnir.5038]

None of the suggestion are satisfying in my view.

• spectral mastery change barely impact the necromancer as he is
• spectral armor is overbuffed
• spectral walk is ruined... I know PvPer don't like it as it is but man this is one of the most usefull utility skills that the necromancer have.
• spectral grasp is what he is... It could be change fro something more practical or original but as it is it does what the name say.
• spectral wall was forgotten because it doesn't feel like a spectral skill at all I imagine. I'm probably the only one that think that but I prefered it when it wasn't fearing foes.
• lich... I just hate this skill but that my opinion. I think anet overestimate elite transformations, giving them average damage, long cool down and short duration. Just give us an aura that strengthen allies that's close to us instead, like a lich would strengthen it's minions with it's aura. This would allow us to get rid of the ugly and cluncky thing in which it currently transform us.

[Zero Solstice.9754]

Lich Form would probably benefit from no longer having the "Form" part, but I think the actual effects of all of the Spectral skills are quite strong. If anything, I think it would actually be cool if they modified the trait to grant Spectral skills' bonuses to nearby allies instead. Make it so that Spectral Armor gives nearby allies Protection, Spectral Walk gives nearby allies Swiftness, Spectral Wall gives you and allies Stability instead of Protection when you walk through it, Spectral Grasp gives a small amount of Resistance when you use it as a counterpart to the Chill application, and Lich Form... does things.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

About spectral rework:

• spectral mastery - boon duration is an excellent idea! Though I worry it gives soul reaping too much dominance over other lines...
• spectral armor - the barrier idea is solid, as long as the life force per hit aspect is maintained. No stab, unless via trait - it can be corrupted into fear, so this should be a player's choice, not baseline functionality.
• spectral wall - make it be the center of fears it generates - walled ppl running away form the wall, not the necro.
• spectral walk - nah, it's good as is. Necro is not too mobile, so he needs his movement buff to last, not be bursty.

Also ppl put too much weight on vital persistance (unless they're scourged then it's justified). On core necro and reaper I often pick spectral mastery over it and have 0 regrets or issues with my choice.

[Lexan.5930]

Spectral skills addong barrier is a really cool idea.

Superspeed on spectral walk is like super op, no way

[Zephar.4519]

Spectral skills should deal in spectral matters; spirits, shades, manifestations of terror.How about we rip the enemy soul out and have a spirit clone harass them?How about spectral hands from the ground to cripple and torment foes?How about a wave of madness, a cone of applied confusion and torment?

It's past time the developers acknowledged that many core Necro skills are lazy and lack creativity.

[Dadnir.5038]

@Zephar.4519 said:Spectral skills should deal in spectral matters; spirits, shades, manifestations of terror.How about we rip the enemy soul out and have a spirit clone harass them?How about spectral hands from the ground to cripple and torment foes?How about a wave of madness, a cone of applied confusion and torment?

It's past time the developers acknowledged that many core Necro skills are lazy and lack creativity.

Well spectral skills are just that. Spectral skills primarily deal with life force which lead to the shroud. And the shroud is supposed to be an out of body experience (spirit form if you prefere)

• With spectral walk you leave a spiritual trail behind you that allow you to return to a position you were in the past.
• With spectral armor, you surround yourself with a spiritual armor
• with spectral grasp you send spiritual hands to grab your foes
• with spectral wall you create a spiritual breach that fear foes and protect allies.

All of those skill grant you life force from one way or another, all of those skills rip away some of the spiritual power of your foes and make it yours.

This is exactly what you ask except the form is 5 years olds and if it was in the form you are asking from the begining maybe today you'd ask for a wall of terror or a flying hand that grab your foe, maybe an spectral armor, even a mobility trail. There is a limited number of skill per skills type and anet made their choice more than 5 years ago for spectral skills.

[Subli.8217]

no thanks. i want spectral armor to grant invulnerability or turn incoming damage to life force (without damaging you).spectral wall should reflect projectiles and last longer and be on shorter cooldown.spectral grasp should be on lower cooldown.spectral walk is finelich form needs better dps and not disable utilities. also the shadowstep attack is some kind of joke, its clunky and uselessspectral mastery is also useless, make it baseline and introduce a new trait, maybe 10% dmg modifier for power builds