Do you want Epidemic to be removed from the game?

[Oglaf.1074]

Are you crazy? Epidemic is literally the last leg Necromancer has to stand on in order to be allowed into Raids (Gorse orbs, MO statues, Sabetha/Trio adds and so on).

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

Hell no.

Epidemic is an iconic ability of condi necro, that defines his unique role as master of condition manipulation.

Also i **don't need a top dps at raids**. What i need is a strong **role** in them. That could be tank or **support** (wink, wink, scourge wink).

[Sarrs.4831]

Epidemic doesn't need a nerf

 

The arguments I see are:

- Necromancer is balanced around Epidemic and they cannot be buffed to viability in PvE because their 'perfect situation' is too good

- Epidemic blocks interesting fight design because adds can't be meaningfully used

 

But those are nonsense

- If Epidemic is too powerful then buff Power Reaper; power class can't use Epidemic anywhere near as effectively

- Give bosses Resistance skills or projectile destruction or condi cleanse

 

> @"Dadnir.5038" said:

>I'm pretty sure in arena net's mind _epidemic_ is a valuable tool for power spec because it spread soft conditions and thus it's important to keep the power necromancer's dps to a manageable level. In short since you are able to spread movement impairement condition, in order to allow players to avoid being insta kill, the power necromancer's dps need to be low.

 

If the power necromancer can fit Epidemic on their bars then power necromancers are already insanely powerful

[NikolaiLev.8492]

Of course not a total removal. But it could probably use some nerfing **so long as** Necro received buffs elsewhere to ensure skill variety.

[Imperadordf.2687]

Epi is the reason why Arenanet aren't buffing Necro in PvE. It is utterly useless or extremely powerful depending on the situation. Like, without Epibounce Scourge dps is around 25-26K, with epibounce it's like 35-36. One skill shouldn't make that much difference. Like with ChronoDPS. The build was relying on Chronophantasma and Signet of The Ether so much that those 2 made a 11K difference.

 

If they remove Epi, they will have to compensate by buffing Necromancer. And I think that will be good.

 

**buff necro**

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

Needs a rework so that it functions differently for both Condition and Power builds, that way Power Reaper can get a fun broken ability too to make us relevant.

[Vino.7923]

is this a troll post?

 

[Deadvillager.1956]

You need another option: No, stop fucking asking. Honestly, if it breaks WvW split it. It is in no way breaking PvE so stop pretending it is.

[Khagan.3478]

Blaming epidemic for necro dps is a foolish fotm answer. ANet has always said shroud is what concerns them about necro and they have been pushing reapers shroud more towards burst and away from survivability recently which I think is a good direction. From the condition side necro has always been about corrupt and control instead of raw dps and apparently it's working great in pvp and wvw. I would love to see necro get a balls to the wall pve dps spec but it should be through an elite, not by changing the core of the class.

[vicious.5683]

No, cause it's fine as it is.

[vicious.5683]

> @"Imperadordf.2687" said:

> Epi is the reason why Arenanet aren't buffing Necro in PvE. It is utterly useless or extremely powerful depending on the situation. Like, without Epibounce Scourge dps is around 25-26K, with epibounce it's like 35-36. One skill shouldn't make that much difference. Like with ChronoDPS. The build was relying on Chronophantasma and Signet of The Ether so much that those 2 made a 11K difference.

>

> If they remove Epi, they will have to compensate by buffing Necromancer. And I think that will be good.

>

> **buff necro**

 

Buff necro, THEN nerf epi , if you like.

I don't trust Anet balance team.

[Anchoku.8142]

Why not make just a few encounters where Epi is mandatory? Oh, wait...

[Kam.4092]

I wish bouncing between Necros was removed, and they buffed Necro DPS then by itself. Epidemic is fine, but when it's bounced back and forth, it's game breaking. A nice buff to DPS would be lowing the Demonic Lore ICD to 1 second, or just remove the ICD, and Sadistic Searing doing 2 Burning instead of just doing 1 stack.

 

[crepuscular.9047]

No... only if anet give me [GW1's Putrid Explosion](https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Putrid_Explosion "GW1's Putrid Explosion"), and have to be spamable (0.5-2sec cd) as long as there are corpse

[Carighan.6758]

Honestly, yes. Or at the very least make it an elite + rethink how elites work for all classes.

 

I don't like when a single skill is **so** pivotal that it shrinks the design space for an entire class. It prevents loads of cool skills simply because everything has to be build around it. There is a thing which comes to mind from FF14: In there, each target takes **less damage** from the spread conditions than the other ones. Spread to 5 enemies, the last one will only take 20% damage from the DoTs. Send those back later, 20% of 20%. And so on. So it's possible to AE infect mobs, actually a whole lot of them, but not for a whole lot of damage per target, only overall.

 

-> Perfect group clearing skill, but doesn't weirdly interact with bossfights.

 

But just removing it would be better, GW2 really isn't a game in which overloaded special rules work. Which is why so much skill/trait design feels so wonky and combat is so spammy, skills **are** too overloaded with functionality and special rules right now.

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

It's a very situationnel skill, and even, need a prompt coordination. Most of necros team failed it cause of bad timing or lazy rotation/not enough conditions at t moment.

It'll be a shame to purely remove this skill because some guys did it better on benchmark.

 

Include a buff like "Have been infected (#s)" on the target or enemies around, to prevent bounce and let it be more regular in rotation.

[Anchoku.8142]

The developers have many options for dealing with Epidemic short of deleting it.

 

For example, they could have Epi buff the target with resistance for a few seconds to nerf damage from bounce-backs. If that boon is too easily stripped or corrupted on bosses, a special anti-Epi status can be added or the boss could execute a reflect skill after being hit with Epi.

 

There are a lot of ways to address Necro-stacking besides gutting a unique and situational skill.

[DaVid Darksoul.4985]

Rework epi so it is a 1200 radius aoe on the caster that for 15 sec draws ally conditions and transfers them to enemy. Otherwise keep it as is.

[Kiroshima.8497]

Personally, instead of copying all conditions, I'd prefer it put a unique effect on the target that pulses incoming conditions in an aoe. Something like...

 

Epidemic

1200 Range, 20 Sec CD, 1/2 Cast Time

240 Radius

Unblockable

Max Stacks: 1

Duration Modifier: -50%

Marks the target for 8 seconds. Marked target pulses a copy of incoming conditions, no ICD. No matter how many stacks are applied by the individual skill, Epidemic will only pulse 1 stack. Duration is reduced by 50%, multiplicative.

 

This makes it so resistance isn't an all or nothing counter to Epi, but instead you have to continually hit the single target with more conditions. It also prevents downs or (in wvw) lords from destroying nearby enemies when you stack 100+ bleeds on a single high HP target. it also allows defensive reactions, the marked target's allies have a chance to flee instead of already being Epi Bombed. This makes Epi a powerful isolation tool, which is what a plague/sickness should do thematically; make everyone quarantine the victim.

[Khagan.3478]

I understand the desire to trade the epi bounce mechanic for better personal condi dps, I think I would take that deal in a heartbeat. Any other change to epidemic would be needlessly gutting one of the few remaining unique skill ideas in this game. No thank you.

[Nimon.7840]

> @"Anchoku.8142" said:

> The developers have many options for dealing with Epidemic short of deleting it.

>

> For example, they could have Epi buff the target with resistance for a few seconds to nerf damage from bounce-backs. If that boon is too easily stripped or corrupted on bosses, a special anti-Epi status can be added or the boss could execute a reflect skill after being hit with Epi.

>

> There are a lot of ways to address Necro-stacking besides gutting a unique and situational skill.

 

Now it's necro stacking. After epi gets heavily nerfed, there will be another class to stack. And necro will be out of the meta.

 

I see the problem with epidemic. Yet I don't want it to be nerfed. It's only a thing for premade groups. In pugs it doesn't work.

Well we even use necros on gorse to bounce on the very small ghosts.

There is a much easier way to nerf necro stacking

So when next wing comes up. Just make bosses without adds.

Bam, necro nerfed without actually nerfing necro.

 

But actually. I like how it is right now. You can take almost all classes to raids.

[Rym.1469]

You do have to consider that Epidemic is sort of like flagship unique utility skill of the class, much like Portal for Mesmer, "SYG!" for Guardian etc.

 

It's something that defines the class and removing it puts a big dent in the theme.

 

As I said previously, the skill itself is not an issue - furthermore, it can be your selling point as a Necromancer, the unique edge you bring over other class. Last time I've seen it tested, Epidemic still couldn't get past Ele and some other AoE builds in cleave damage, but it was competitive.

 

The issue here is purely caused by double-dipping on Epidemic aka copying conditions to the target you Epidemic from, which is not the intended use. This is essentially solved by a PvE-only debuff.

 

I believe that blaming Epidemic for every shortcoming of Necromancer's design and making a sacraficial lamb out of it, hoping it will bring a sudden rain of buffs is a wishful thinking at best.

[Simeonus.9237]

Not gonna lie I couldn't care less about epidemic. All I want is to make power necro viable.

[ZDragon.3046]

I would say no just cause its a thing and there is no real reason to remove it but i could careless if they did remove or change it.

I LITERALLY NEVER US IT!

 

Running a power build its not my thing and it never was and never will be my thing.

 

Leave it as is its not the issue skill or skill in question that hold necro back from having acceptable potential to the overall community.

 

At best rework it but i have 0 ideas on that it seems to do just fine as it is.

[Khagan.3478]

I get that Simeonus, I love power reaper and want to see it get stronger as well. However, calling for a nerf on an aspect of our class just because you don't play it is really kitten and also expecting power buffs to come from a condi nerf is kinda silly. We know scourge was supposed to be defensive support and reaper a tanky buiser, so we should have dps elites to look forward to. Maybe epi bounce gets looked at, maybe not but I really doubt it will lead to any buffs