ZeftheWicked.3076

> @"Brokensunday.4098" said:

> on the signet of vampirism icd is really bad look ele for example spam 1 you get insane heal, warrior give some what the same at ours but more constant, the rev active heals you completely not sure if is a signet.

> making my point if you remove the pasive on the none active one why not reduce the healing to 200 per hit you are still being hit by 500-2000 damage every sec.

> the active part yes i understand the icd.

> I would suggest why not change the pasive to steal life on every hit damage like 100-150 max like the aura. For the active make it that you get heal for 1000 top and all damage you recive per 6 secs heals you.

This is something necro might use, but not on this skill. Signet of vampirism is one of the core if not the best heal a necro has for 1v1. If you need healing vs swarms of enemies, that is already well covered by other skills - signet of the locust, tons of life leech traits in blood magic, parasitic contagion...

But all these mean little against a strong single opponent. If there are no trash mobs to heal from, all the above heals are at their weakest providing only fraction of healing, while the enemy is hitting you hard. It's at this moment you need a heal that does not scale, but in return is just strong outta the box. That's when signet of vampirism (if traited) comes into play. No only is it passive, but you can activate it and still keep the passive with good shroud management. In this regard it is hands down strongest healing skill you have for such scenario save special cases (like condi spamming enemy).

now if it's anti-multihit heal you need, then we indeed don't have that. Maybe a change to active, to simply lift the icd of passive for a certain time in addition to standard base heal could achieve that. Price of that however would be loss of bit of dps and party utility that active provides. Well that and devs going along with the proposal.

Blood magic is fine btw, dunno why cries to rework it. Only thing wrong with it i see is that all 3 grandmasters are good party utility but we may have only one, backstabbing our support potential.

As for old elites - grim spectre (full condi and boon strip) was excellent move, as for rest i prefer new lich.

As for plague - yes it was great, a real move to tank through getting focused. It had one major flaw however (asides being transform and being able to rely only on passive/over time defenses) - it was easily shut down by polymorphs (mesmer moa and engie moa from elixir X belt skill). This should not be, or at least be blocked by stab.

Deathshroud - in need of major rework since 2012...

it is a bad idea to rely on minions for damage. They are utility, not damage. Using minstrel that has 0 stats for dishing damage is another no-go, twice that on necro. Necromancer is designed for hybrid stat sets such as Crusader or Valkyrie - sets that offer good offense and good defense at expense of precision, that necro (especially reaper) doesn't need that badly, since he has tons of free crit chance from traits.

Minstrel is for dedicated healers, that literally don't need damage because their party will do that for them. Necromancer is not a healer, least not a dedicated one. Closest you'll get to healer role is scourge but even that is considered **offensive** support (that means you're expected to do damage while providing support). Only absolute, dedicated healers such as druids or water tempests should touch minstrel.

> @"Brokensunday.4098" said:

>

> 1. **Signet of Vampirism** ( Heal signet - Trait signet)

> The skill Heal is perfect 5025 on the other side the cast time is too high Should be reduced to 1 second, it would still give the enemy enough time to dodge or block the active part or even interrupt the signet.

Fair enough. Consume conditions is a poster-boy for "1.25s too long for healing skill cast", and signet's active is not as game-changing as consume conditions to justify such horrendous cast time.

> The active need its internal cooldown eliminated. Does not let the skill be combo heal or damage by multiple attacks, reducing our total healing and capabilites.

And then the rapid fire ranger and axe whirwhind warrior will steal all your healing stacks... The icd is there to give everyone (or at lest more then 2 guys) a shot at grabbing some of those heals, including yourself.

> The Pasive Heal coefficents are perfect but again is being hold back by a internal cooldown of 1 second reducing our heal this is a bad design because all clases including necro can deal massive amounts of burst damage or combo attacks hitting multiple times on 1 second.

The icd is good. Without it this skill would be far too powerful. The point of signet passive is not "anti-burst" but "anti-pressure". No other heal (except for consume conditions if you're seriously being condi bombed) comes close in raw healing value when you're under constant pressure. Traited vamp signet is stronger then warrior's healing signet passive. Let's also keep in mind that when traited passive works through shroud, even if active got burned. You can cast active, go shroud, then get double healing - from active stacks as you attack the enemy, and from passive as he hits you. All the while the signet will be on turbo recharge when you're shrouded. 14s of shroud and your heal active is back and ready for action!.

> 2. **Signet of Spite**

> This skills is a condition bomb it's passive part should be change to improve condition damage not power.

> The active part of this skill total ammount of diferent conditions is ok it should only be buff by adding 2 more stacks of bleeding , poison and torment keeping the same ammount of duration.

But ... but we need the powah....

As for active i have totally 0 feelings regarding current iteration save one - cooldown is too long. Saying good-bye to such powerful passive for whole minute is very offputting and i don't recall myself using the active ever (or once in a blue moon) simply because it would deprive me of passive for such ludicrous amount of time.

> 5. **Signet of the locus**

> Change: Gain the Signet of Undeath passive life force generation while mantaining the speed buff on passive.

> Active remains the same only reducing the cooldown to 25 seconds.

> ( if the change on signet of undead does not occur this skills remains untouched justtcooldown reduction).

Hard for me to comment on lf gain, but cd reduction is not needed, at least not with current iteration of Signets of Suffering. I find myself castin it, going shroud and when done with shroud it's already back up, or pretty close to it.

> @"Draco.9480" said:

> > @"DeceiverX.8361" said:

> > That Death Perception and Decimate Defenses changes are damning for the Valkyrie/Shroud SR-Reaper in the PvP modes.

> >

> > The rest seems completely overpowered without substantial splitting, and OP doesn't seem to understand how damage modifiers work at all.

> >

> > No thanks.

>

> I understand much better than you. It's not OP at all. no one cares about valkyrie shroud builds cuz they're bad anyway. sitting in shroud is unrealistic and also a dps lose even if you can sit in shroud 24/7. power reaper is in a bad spot in terms of dps.

In raid setting valkyrie build can get 100% crit chance **all the time** if you're reaper. 50% from decimate defenses, 12% from base crit chance + sigil of accuracy. Then 20% from fury, 15% from warrior and ranger buffs. 97% crit chance right there. Bit extra from infusions, foods, runes..you name it and voila.

So yeah, Valkyrie builds matter. As do Crusader, Marauder and some others. Being able to use many seemingly underdog stat sets to a great result (hi apothecary/settler scourge) is part of necro's identity, thanks to his huge pool of free stats hidden in traits.

So much fuss over nothing.

Go soul reaping, trait Speed of Shadows and then just flash shroud for free 10s swiftness.

You can also equip warhorn and trait banshee's veil on blood magic for huge swiftness uptime. Though you gotta be careful no to initiate combat by hitting mobs with locust swarm ticks as you drive by.

Mounts. Obviously.

Rune of the centaur is another option (great vs getting crippled too).

Also there are two 25% movement speed no swiftness boosts for necro - signet of locust passive and quickening thirst trait if you're holding a dagger, no matter in which hand.

Specral walk can work too, though tbh it has a different PvE use - for jumping puzzles. It'll bring you back to start no matter the pathing, more then can be said for flesh wurm.

Necro is not in the same spot it was at start. He is behind others in damage raid-wise, but it's nowhere near the disaster that core necro 2012 used to be for instanced content.

Since HoT necro received much love, traits are way better, weapons got love (least axe, dagger and greatsword for reaper specialization did), some utilities got buffed and are very useful (corrosive poison cloud for one). He is slightly behind in the damage race, but that's nothing compared to what used to be especially in the days of 25 condi cap on enemies.

As for which xpansion to choose - i will say this. Unless you absolutely hate platforming component of GW2, advice is as follows:

a) you want fun and access to best gear stat combos - Heart of Thorns. Imho most fun and best content in all of the game. Also it'll let you unlock reaper spec which is big fun and what "saved the necro" in 2015. Really after the torment of core you'll be amazed how fun a necro can be once you do some reaping. And gliding rocks!

b) you want the down to earth practical choice - Path of Fire. Maps are far more generic then HoT, very little verticality. It's like core, just with mounts, much bigger maps and some innovations carried over from Hearth of Thorns + few minor of it's own (Bounties, unidentified gear). Mounts are better then glider for mobility (faster), scourge spec is more desired in parties then reaper due to support capabilities (barriers).

The price you pay for all this is that PoF is less fun, both the maps and it's elite spec (scourge). Also not sure if you won't lock yourself out of both best and a lot of very viable gear stat combos if you don't get Heart of Thorns. Losing out on viper stats (PvE) and trailblazer (for wvw) is a huge blow for necro.

Other then that there are non meta, but still very necro friendly gear stats that await in the jungle, such as Marauder and Crusader stats.

If you want to hurl at the mere mention of jumping, being able to fall off from heights and maps that require real exploration, not just running on flat terrain from point A to point B, then you have only one choice - Path of Fire.

Simple: Times of "this guy is meant for power damage only" are long over. Nowadays every profession is expected to have a viable power and condi build. But underwater both warrior weapons are power with very, very small addition of condi, not servicable to be sure.

We had a recent underwater rework for many professions. I believe it's time for round two and making harpoon gun (or spear) a servicable condi underwater option. Not every warr is a zerk warr and I would like my condi build to work just as well underwater as it does on main land.

Not to mention all these combo finishers with no combo field to use them on underwater...

Get the 100% map completion first. It'll give you 2 gifts of exploration necessary for legendary weapon crafting (least the core game ones). This is very important,as this is one of the two things you cannot just gold your way through. This and Gifts of Battle are two components you must get with your own effort and can't get in any other way.

And reason you shold care about legendary weapons is money. Making and selling one can be huge profit, if you'll have the patience. Or you can craft one for yourself (though i'd recommend getting legendary armors first). Just keep in mind that only core tyrian legendaries (the old ones) can be sold on tp. Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire ones cannot be sold and are far more expensive to craft.

Also you can get legendary armor from pvp ranked league seasons (when they are up) and world vs world. Both ways (especially pvp) easier imho then raids, and don't require you to put up with all the meta and elitism crap.

Downside is that raid armors have special transformation animations to them, the others don't. But stat and functionality wise all 3 sets are equals.

As a necro (core & reaper) I absolutely hate the damage meta. Every game with higher tier team (at AT) is basically same ol shit - cc and burst down necro in split second, then same for everyone else (hi shatter mesmers, power heralds, mandatory power holo, occasional plasma beam weavers, and ofc thieves for quick stun **outta stealth**).

This is not about player skill, and observing the enemy. This is about scoring cheapshots (the cheaper the better) and just eliminating enemies without defensive play having any say or balanced spot in general meta.

I find games at my, lower ranks way more fun, not only because of obviously competition matching my level, but because I see ppl trying out different stuff and different approaches, instead of 24/7 assassination squad meta.

Tbh i think what needs to be done is to **do the necro** on remaining other 8 professions and **curb the god-mode defenses**. Evades, invulnies, 24/7 blocks, wth. Either we have attribute system in this game and stats on our characters (including defensive ones) are supposed to mean something, or we don't and then necro needs major overhaul.

Also some damage nerfs, or at least more anti-cheap shot changes wouldn't hurt. This is especially addressed to sudden 100-0 bursts ( hi shatter mesmers).

Because as it stands, anyone can go full or nearly full squish and still be more fine then necromancer gearing pally amulet or other rather defensive option.

> @"Ben Phongluangtham.1065" said:

> > @"Nuvola.9460" said:

> > > @"Ben Phongluangtham.1065" said:

> > > Yes, the current plan is the remove titles next season. The leaderboard itself will remain. We won't remove titles for people who've already earned them.

> > >

> > > Current plan is to also bring back to duo queue for next season.

> > >

> > > We'll have a blog post when the next season is getting close to starting.

> >

> > Why should I even play ranked now? I mean if there is no rewards for leaderboard than better play unranked at least I play with more friends and not just with a single one?

>

> Ranked will still have league rewards. There are no current plans to add pips to unranked. We will be occasionally adding new rewards to the league vendors.

I would rethink that. A lot of ranked players howl because they get teamed up with farmers (like me!) who play ranked for pips and mats, not ranking per se. If we had pips in unranked i would gladly move there and glory and rank seekers would be left to their own devices without me spoiling their fun.

> @"Esquilax.3491" said:

> Honestly I don't know what everyone hates on renegade. Malyx's "Unyielding Anguish" is by far my favourite skill in the game for soloing. It has a huge AoE, 5 target cap, chills everything so you can kite it and applies like 17 stacks of Torment on it's own with a practically instant move which is fire and forget, plus has a small leap for added mobility. It works underwater too. This skill alone is better than anything else I have seen on another class for solo pve. It kills any normal level mobs basically in one attack, I find my self leaping at a group of mobs then continuing on foot to my next destination as they suffer a horrible death.

>

> Revs also have two heals out of the box, plus the Kala elite which can pull you out of a pinch if both are down. Also have plenty of CC, and heavy armor with high base vitality. The Maxe/Ace combo feels meaty, is fun and has a nice kit. The shortbow is a very acceptable ranged option. They even added a trident now for underwater which tears things to shreds.

As a solo rev player i can answer that - problem is his specs and damage. Renegade has great damage, but his sustain is very risky. Basically it's just kalla elite in hopes you're healing more then receiving. Makes sense as he is meant to be damage **support** spec - so he thrives in parties where someone else is holding the aggro.

Herald is a must have for rev that wants to be able to solo engage a 1v5 fight with xpac mobs. Unlike Renegade he sports solid defenses that let him roam and fight almost anything. Much better self healing without ventari, 2 blocks (active and passive crystal hibernation), much better protection access then core, great boonshare and boon duration out of the box.

Problem here is that either your damage will tank compared to renegade (condi), or it'll be great, but at expense of being very prone to dying from a single mistake. Active defenses are godlike when used at right time, but useless if you run out of them too soon or time them wrong. And power herald has no amazing amounts of free crit and ferocity unlike renegade. So he must build full damage, full squish gear, which means his passive, stat based defenses are 0 and null...

> @"KellieTea.5607" said:

> I don't really see myself doing pvp but it's probably too early to know for sure. For dodging is the only way to do so hitting a single button? If it's that necessary can I change it to some kind of a macro to make it more automatic?

Yes and you should never try to macro a dodge! Dodge is your only 0 damage taken defense and should be used vs really dangerous enemy attacks. That's because you got a stamina bar that regenerates one dodge per 10s so you can't just spam them. You can have max 2 dodges in reserve and it takes 10s to get another.

Boon vigor will speed this process up a bit, not that it's related to build I provided, or casting well of power when having self bleeding on you from blood is power. Nope, no such evil synergies there!

Here's my PvE core power necro build:

[gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBIhdu1IHN0Sj90g1NwejDjhK+zBwAQDiqYImpQMkDA-jBCBABVq+DWK/+4EAAwDBwo9HyT/wZKB1/IAAA-e](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBIhdu1IHN0Sj90g1NwejDjhK+zBwAQDiqYImpQMkDA-jBCBABVq+DWK/+4EAAwDBwo9HyT/wZKB1/IAAA-e "gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBIhdu1IHN0Sj90g1NwejDjhK+zBwAQDiqYImpQMkDA-jBCBABVq+DWK/+4EAAwDBwo9HyT/wZKB1/IAAA-e")

You'll notice it's...quite different from above one ;] That's the beauty of it - necro can achieve his goals in myriad of ways.

Short intro on how it works - this build is a bruiser build combining offense and defense using curses line for defense.

**damage** Your biggest damage dealers are well of suffering and dagger auto - stabby-stab-stab!

You got nice ferocity, but crit chance is not 100%. You can boost it a bit by popping shroud (to get fury on shroud from curses "furious demise") trait.

Rune of Rage will give you opportunity for much longer lasting fury cast as you get hit by enemies.

For maximum crit chance you can choose to change soul reaping's grandmaster trait from "foot in the grave" to "Death Perception". If you do that, you'll have perfect crit rate when shrouded. It does come at expense of your best stunbreak and only stab - so choose wisely.

**Might generation:** Since i'm not using spite, might is a wholly different story then for spite builds. Put it simply - cast blood is power, then well of power - it'll convert torment on you into more might! You can do this twice! You have two casts of Blood is Power and well of power is up for 5 seconds! Time it right and you'll end up with 22 stacks of might (16 from blood is power and converted torments, 6 from well of power itself!)

**Vulnerability generation** - focus #4, axe auto and well of suffering should keep these vulni stacks high.

**Anti condi** - consume conditions when you're bombed with large amount of different condies...or just need to heal.

First hit after going shroud will transfer 2 condies off you to enemy hit.

Going into shroud will also remove any movement impairing condies (cripple, chilled, immobilized) due to speed of shadows trait.

Well of power converts conditions on you into boons each second (up to 5 condies converted).

**Anti cc** - your shroud stunbreaks and grants you one stack of stability - so that's one free get outta jail card with 10s cooldown after you leave shroud.

Well of power is also a stunbreak with tiny stab.

At 50% health you'll also get passive spectral armor, which also breaks stun and will give you nice protection (+ lifeforce gain).

**Anti damage** - wells give you protection. Also at 50% health passive spectral armor. Btw when you get it you can go into shroud and tank a lot of punishment like boss this way. They hit you, you lose life force, but spectral armor's effect heals said lifeforce because you got hit, keeping shroud up much longer.

Lastly your crits will inflict weakness, as will shroud entry. Weakening Shroud is often an underrated trait.

**Healing** - dagger #2 is sweet, especially when traited and you're bleeding (extra healing for you). With blood is power or dagger #3, self bleeds won't be an issue. Oh yeah it also hits harder when enemy itself is bleeding, which with Blood is Power....you get the picture.. You also have vampiric presence and vampiric traits from blood magic line, for tiny, but constant heals from the speedy dagger and locust swarm's ticks. Vampiric Rituals also make your two wells siphon health for you.

Generally this build may be bit more defensive then PvE requires. If you intend to camp shroud and just life blast things into oblivion, choosing spite and Unyielding Blast trait in soul reaping are better choices then curses. My build is made more in mind with spending ample time in your base form and having versatile defenses. It's not top damage nor absolutely top sustain, but it's well-rounded for a core build.

I'm simply trying to save OP from turning his back on the profession that might work best for him. He clearly stated his biggest issue was inability to take on a big pack of mobs on his own.

**That is exactly what necro excels at**. I can understand that a **core** necro at lvl 35 (who knows if he has any good survival or damage traits unlocked) can lead to opposite impression. But once you hit lvl 80 and get reaper or scourge unlocked, i doubt any profession comes near when it's time to wipe out hordes of monsters while staying alive in the middle of the fray.

To name but a few "beginner friendly" alternatives:

* warrior has solid sustain and very good damage, but he can't pull packs of monsters to himself like necro, and he's generally made for 1v2, 1v3 skirmishes, not big fights. He's also made for quickly bursting down a target. If fight drags on, warrior's defenses start showing nasty chinks in it's armor.

* ranger has hands down easiest time keeping himself alive, due to pet that can tank and draw aggro off him. But his aoes are either flat out weak or very small in radius. He's not that good at doing mass destruction, again more of a skirmisher.

* ele has huge aoe capability, and massive damage - better then necro. But he is very squishy, and defensive skills and builds take away a huge chunk of his damage. Necro has the ability to gain a lot of sustain at expense of little damage loss. Ele does not - it's sustain or damage, not both.

I'm not being defensive, and I'm not blind to reason. If he said "I want a raid profession" or "I need strong boonshare spec" i would shut right up about necro and suggest better choices. But if he wants to go to open world PvE and take on large packs of mobs like a boss, without getting downed every few seconds then necro is the best choice imho.

> @"Nimon.7840" said:

> Sorry but fear of death would be a pretty useless trait. Cause you don't need stab if enemy is feared.

> Only way it's useable is against rev with its taunt

Stab is not related to fear. Only to skills that fear. Meaning that even if fear fails (like vs stabbed opponent) you still get your stab.

33k dps is pretty darn good if you ask me

Your hatered of necro might be **very** undeserved then. Thing is at late game necro is **the** profession to handle a large pack of mobs **and** survive. No other has similar aoe while having such strong sustain (warr is far less of a mobber, ele is squish).

Before you discard your necro into oblivion, give it another go with the following advice to get you going:

1. Spectral Grasp - it'll grab a handful of mobs for you in an instant and refill your life force like crazy the more you grab

2. Well of suffering - your strongest aoe cleave if you build power (which for core necro i recommend)

3. Corrosive Poison Cloud - it blocks projectiles, and inflicts weakness on those inside it. It also does good poison damage if you're condi.

4. Signet of Vampirism - unless you're under heavy condi pressure (where consume conditions is the way to go), this + Signets of Suffering trait in spite line give some seriously good sustain.

5. Signet of Locust - Signet's of Vampirism's best friend. Vamp sig is great for 1v1, this guy will leech huge health when you're in 1v5 situations.

6. Spectral Armor - the wonder defense - protection + life force gain on hit, + stunbreak

7. Flesh Golem - a good tank. Minions aren't usually good damage, save this guy and Shadow Fiend. But a good helper is good, and your other elites aren't that great for PvE (pvp is a different story)

Early level necro core is indeed not amazing, especially as necro loves having good stats, and low level maps scale stats down rather brutally.

But at lvl 80 things will massively improve as elite spects (Reaper and Scourge) are both amazing mobbers, great tanks and vastly superior to core necro. Reaper is great at cleaning up packs of 5 fast and brutal, scourge is slightly less faster killing, but he can get even more enemies at the same time thanks to his shades, and has unique barrier support in his kit.

I get you don't like necro, fine. To each his own. But necro is **not** a pet class. You're not forced to pick minions at all. With exception or ranger and mesmer to a degree (clones), no profession is forced to have ai companions out. Most have an option to summon something, but you're not forced to go that way.

Also "you hated necro". Care to elaborate why? It could go long way to picking another profession if we know what turned you off in necro.

You **love** being a healer and long range combat? Ranger.

You **love** doing whatever you like (dps be it condi or power, support, healeir) as long as it's not a ranged fight? Revenant.

Problem with soulbeast is that if makes a poor alt to warrior. The two are far too similar in plastyle and what they can do, especially if we're leaving druid and long range on the bench. And bad news is - sb is less useful then a warrior - both can pretty much do what the other does, but warrior is ahead in that race because of spellbreaker's boonhate, something ranger lacks and is always helpless against enemy overbuffing himself.

So i'll say again - go necro. He has many unique and fun things about him, with completely different approach to combat then a warr or ranger for that matter, which makes him fun!

Main warr, pure and simple.

Alt necro - reaper. Is melee, is engaging (far more then warr) has both solid condi and power builds, only won't be loved at raids and maybe some fractal elitist teams.

While he will do well in pvp (scourge support), wvw (anything really) and open world PvE (anything really).

I play necro as main, ranger as alt, and currently bit of warrior, but case is simple here - nec is 100% fun, far more engaging then any of the two.

I'll throw in reaper. I won't say it's better then scourge - in some areas scourge is clear winner, in others reaper does better. But i will say he is tons more fun to play then a scourge. If you're not hell bent on being best support you can be (scourge's niche) then you won't be losing much by choosing reaper over scourge result-wise.

> @"Egorum.9506" said:

> Sr is a utility traitline, not a dps traitline. And it performs in that role perfectly.

Tell that to Dhuumfire, Death Perception (which out of two of us you call a major dps trait) , and the master minor trait (5% extra damage over LF treshhold).

> Blood, support. It adds to the group more than personal dps

> Dm, tanking

> Curses and spite, damage

> Sr, utility. Which has value for every necrosis regardless of build.

> So these changes are for raiding? That thing that 1% of the gw2 population does? Wvw and pvp both run death perception because you need that extra tankiness to survive on a class with little to no stab, poor mobility, and long cd stunbreaks.

>

> Placing it in the same tier as reapers onslaught cripples those game modes.

You got a new 10% damage trait in place of Reaper's Onslaught **if reaper**, that is shroud independant on top of that - your base form gets10% damage as well when melee. Meanwhile core necro and scourge that did not have access to Reaper's Onslaught at all, now do. If you build Death Perception for tankier stats - that's a fair trade don't you think? You lose some damage opportunities for getting more beefy.

> By who? Another necro? They'd be in the same boat.

>

> On demand stab would greatly benefit the class as a whole, since we have no form of damage mitigation and have to eat what we can't dodge. I'd rather my stab get corrupted to fear once a match than eat 2s stuns once my breaks are down by far. Dodge the boon rip and you're golden.

Well true that spvp may have skewed my views, since another necro is always there and loves to corrupt my stab.