Community Built Necro - LF and Shroud

[Plastazote.7914]

It has been interesting to see everyone's ideas on how to effectively balance properly. I think it would be neat to discuss and systematically build what the community feels the necromancer should be like for funsies. It could start by discussing core mechanics like LF generation and shroud to going into each trait in skill tree and we could have polls if enough people are interested to get an overall vibe of how people feel.

 

1) LF mechanic: Is it working fine as is? Does it promote engaging gameplay? Should LF generation be consistent and reliably attained?

2) Would you change it to improve the necro and if so how?

3) Shroud: What should be the function of shroud in general? Should each shroud have a theme / focus? Should it provide a second health bar? Should we be able to use utilities in shroud?

4) In general, how would you change core shroud and reaper shroud?

 

My thoughts

1) LF generation is uni directional (doesn't allow players to make interesting choices) and inconsistent. Some weapons build LF quicker than others and you are forced to use them even if it doesn't fit the build you are thinking of. It's hard to build enough LF when you need to go into shroud or use scourge skills.

 

2) LF should depend on the skill being used. Skills primarily used for damage would all build some LF (most weapon skills) while skills meant for utility like a blink or evade would cost or use up LF. This makes sense lore wise because the necro is technically stealing LF by damaging others and spending it on things that improve his quality of life so to say. The amount of LF gained or lost would be roughly based on cooldown times. It means that when you are out of shroud you are in a LF building phase which is reliable but can be slowed by excessive use of non damaging skills. The same thing would apply while in shroud. The difference would be that LF rapidly decays (LF decay phase) on its own and you are trying to damage enemies to extend your time in shroud. It puts the emphasis on damage and adds an element of skill in how well you can extend shroud time.

 

3) The function of shroud would be to have a window of time where the necro is extremely powerful in a certain role (DPS, support or tank/control). Core necro shroud would focus on ranged DPS while reaper would focus on being tanky and unstoppable. The second health bar aspect of it should be removed because it pushes every necro into a tanky direction whether or not that is the focus and muddles the purity of purpose for each shroud. And utilites should be available in shroud. The catch would be that they use a significant amount of LF and greatly shorten your time to shine in the spotlight and should be avoided if possible.

 

4) I'd suggest that core shroud would be focused on ranged nuking (wraith?) by increasing the damage of skills and providing a blink skill to reappear in a different location to compensate for the loss of a second life bar. Again, it would be best to avoid blinking as long as possible to maximize damage (creating a trade off between damage and survivability). Reaper shrould would get more stability and active defensives instead of second life bar as a HP sponge.

 

I'm curious to hear all your thoughts on the foundations of how necro plays. Maybe there are easier or more effective ways to improve our favorite class.

[Dadnir.5038]

1) I think lf gen is ok out of shroud. But I also think that allies should be able to contribute to our lf gen when we are in shroud.

2) not really

3) We should be able to trait for defensive shroud as well as trait for offensive shroud or utility shroud. At the moment we don't, we have tons of traits that are supposed to improve our shroud dps yet it doesn't even put the shroud damage at the level of our out of shroud damages.

4) I'd change the traits to be more impactfull, remove the innate damage reduction while in shroud and add a trait for that while making sure that if a necromancer trait for a dps shroud it will be worth entering shroud to do damages.

[Plastazote.7914]

I agree with you that LF generation isn't broken and works more or less fine. I'd still prefer it to be more consistent but that's a preference. The bigger issue for me is that it's an opportunity to fundamentally change necro gameplay into something more dynamic, fun, skill based and engaging if I was dev for a day.

 

I'm curious to know how you would implement some of the changes you suggest. Would allies contribute to LF while we are in shroud be based on % of their damage converted to LF? Do you have ideas on specific traits you would like to see to boost shroud function? I'm assuming you would put shroud DPS traits in curses or spite, support ones in blood and defensive ones in death. Sounds like a lot of changes to traits. Do you think trait lines are salvageable as in can have minor numbers adjustments or trait position changes to to promote build variety? Or would a majority of traits have to be revamped to be impactful? (i'm mostly thinking curses spite and soul reaping since the blood and death are known to be a bit lackluster)

 

What do you see as the overall function of shroud though? Why should players press the shroud button in the first place? What do you see as the benefits of shroud?

[Dadnir.5038]

Well:

Party member contribute to our LF: It would just be that the necromancer gain 1% LF each time he receive heal while he is in shroud. Death magic.

Defense: Removing shroud baseline damage reduction and making it dependant of a trait in soul reaping GM trait.

Offense: reduce base damage of shroud but,

Power Offense: Switching the focus of damages to the shroud by creating a GM trait that greatly improve direct damage while in shroud in soul reaping.

Condi Offense: giving an extra second of burn to the dhumfire trait.

 

I'm making sure that shroud offense and defense fight each other in a single traitline.