Petition to make the Necromancer spell line more innovative [Skill Spoilers GWEN]

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

Alright. To start this thread, I know that wiki must be taken with a grain of salt when it comes to spoilers. I also know that the skills to be introduced in GWEN are probably set in stone already and that this is a pointless thread. However, I feel like posting it anyway, so here we go.

When I look at the wiki page for the upcoming skills, I can't help feeling slightly disappointed. Blood Magic gets two new skills, as do Death and Soul Reaping. Only Curses, arguably the most fleshed-out line of ours, get four. To be honest, since the nerf bat hit Soul Reaping a few months ago, I would have assumed THAT spell line would get the most new spells. I seem to have been wrong.

Blood gets two conditional life-stealing skills. To be quite honest, Blood has enough life stealing skills already. This is quite sad.

Death gets a half-baked toned-down crossbreed of Icy Veins and Reaper's Mark, plus a support spell for warriors.

Of the Curses spells, only Atrophy is truly original. Rest are the standard anti-melee spells that this line is famed for.

For Soul Reaping we simply get a self heal for midliners and a new, albeit nice, energy management enchantment spell clearly targeted at minion masters.

To make myself clear - I think the Necromancer line is a little dull. It has no stances, no glyphs, no forms. It is the only spell line that is unable to effect the movement rate of either friend or foe. In fact, the only unique thing the Necromancer has is corpse exploiting.

I would have liked to see a hex or two in Blood. It's not a very versatile spell line. For Death, since after all what it's used for is minions, I'd wanted to see a scalable minion spell that would again make MMs interesting in true high-level PvE areas. For Curses, I'm not sure what I'd like, but I guess I'm fine with what we seem to get. For Soul Reaping... a stance? A form? Anything mildly original, more original than a regeneration spell? (Though I admit I love the skill name Masochism.)

I have some detailed ideas, but I would like to hear your input on this.

Kindly, Moloch

Patrick Stealthwind

Academy Page

Join Date: Nov 2006

HOT

W/N

idk, i think most of the new skills are sort of dissappointing, but the skills arent why im buying the game. im buying to have fun with dungeons and get new armor

Miral

Miral

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2005

Hell. AKA Phoenix, AZ

The Gear Trick [GEAR]

W/A

I was hoping for a summon fleshreaver that would be a decent tanking pet that vampirically healed itself (like a flesh golem wielding a vampiric weapon)... but no such luck

doinchi

doinchi

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2006

Singapore

Sheperd of Souls

W/Mo

Maybe give them an undead companion that works out like a ranger pet? Make it just like the one Miral suggested. Maybe make them take double Holy damage and heal vampirically, just to make it different from ranger pets. Make it a soul reaping skill so its unique to a necro, as Avatars are to a dervish.

Shadow

Shadow

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2005

None

I'd suspect it's far too late, and I very much doubt they'd make any alterations to skills as per request.

Jecht Scye

Jecht Scye

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Dec 2005

Lucky Crickets[Luck]

N/Me

Meh, I'm good with my unimaginative killing sprees. Seriously though, with the current skills, theres no telling what kind of mayhem you can cause with the upcoming GWEN skills. We'll just have to wait and see.

pingu666

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jul 2006

guildhall

[DETH]

checkout the mesmer ones before u complain :P

darkknightkain

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Mar 2007

P/W

I was originally hoping for an "Animate Target Ally" skill for Necro. ie. Exploit target corpse to reanimate it to fight for X seconds until it degen to death. That's what Necromancer is all about. Oh well.

Nevertheless, the Necro line is already the most versatile to even need anything that is new. Everything from insane energy to attack to defence to heal to regen to buff to hex to condition to spike to aoe ... they have it all. I stil don't understand why it still have to keep stealing stuffs from what the Mesmers should have had.

Cacophony, read the descriptions, the new kin of Backfire down to the damage, it should have been a Domination skill.
Atrophy, the description is practically screaming at you it should have been an Illusion skill
And how come even Hexer's Vigor is not in Inspiration?

Master Mxyzptlk

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2007

Obey My Command [sudo]

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by darkknightkain
...I stil don't understand why it still have to keep stealing stuffs from what the Mesmers should have had.

Cacophony, read the descriptions, the new kin of Backfire down to the damage, it should have been a Domination skill.
Atrophy, the description is practically screaming at you it should have been an Illusion skill
And how come even Hexer's Vigor is not in Inspiration? Nobody should be surprised by that though, it's always been happening, and necros are the biggest (but not only) thief of the mesmer's skills, spiteful spirit, even spoil victor makes a bit more mesmer since (that ones kinda on the line). It's just more concentrated (and perhaps a bit more blatently obvious) is GWEN.

divinechancellor

divinechancellor

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2006

Limited Liability Company [LLC]

E/

All corpses in the area are exploited. You summon a level [xx] [name of monstrosity] that deals [xx] damage. For every corpse used to make [name of monstrosity], [name] has +[x] levels and +[xx] health.

One minion to rule them all ^

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

As I mentioned I am aware that this is probably way too late to make them change anything, but that doesn't matter we can't discuss it, does it?

I have up until now avoided to present any half-witted skill ideas of mine... but I guess I might as well.

Deprive
Hex Spell
Soul Reaping

For x...y seconds, target foe's level is reduced by 2.

Skeleton Form
Form
Death Magic

For x...y seconds, you are immune to Bleeding, Poison and Disease and gain +40 armor against Piercing damage, but you take double Light damage and whenever you are healed by a monk spell, you lose x...y health.

Ghost Form
Form
Soul Reaping

Sacrifice x...y% energy. Lose all health and all health and energy regeneration. For x...y seconds, you can only die if your energy drops below 0. When Ghost Form ends, you return to your original health.

Turn Undead
Hex Spell
Death Magic

Target foe is hexed with Turn Undead and suffers -1 health degeneration for x...y seconds. If target foe dies under the effect of this spell, he returns as an Undead minion under the control of the caster at 20...8...4 levels lower than the original. If the caster summons another Undead, the level of all minions under his control is reduced by 3.

Price In Blood
Hex Spell
Blood Magic

For x...y seconds, whenever target foe casts a spell, he or she sacrifices 10% health.

LifeInfusion

LifeInfusion

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

in the midline

E/Mo

Consider the prevalence of Necros in all formats...do they really need a buff?

Master Mxyzptlk

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Feb 2007

Obey My Command [sudo]

Me/

not at all, but I do like some of those skills. I'd vote for more interesting skills for a lot of classes, not just necro. But I settle for using uninteresting skills in interesting ways, its almost as good.

that form of ghost would quickly work its way into my running build.

Mekkakat

Mekkakat

Whiner

Join Date: Aug 2006

necromancer is one of the most diverse, overpowered classes in the game. i really dont think they need a buff...

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

First of all, obviously, all classes get a "buff" by inclusion of more skills. Second, all the necro has seen lately have been nerf after nerf. Third, I am not advocating introducing unbalanced skills. As all others, they need to be toned down in the line with the others. It's the ideas that count, what makes the characters more versatile and fun to play, isn't it?

Sleeper Service

Sleeper Service

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Dec 2005

CULT

One thing I’ve always deplored and hoped that GwEn would do is finally return to Necros what should have been their original calling....reanimation presently its only animation, in general lore necromancers usually bring back the dead to serve them. IE: When am I going to get my Stone Summit Zombie to serve me? And where my SKELETONS!!! -.-

Shadow

Shadow

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2005

None

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleeper Service
One thing I’ve always deplored and hoped that GwEn would do is finally return to Necros what should have been their original calling....reanimation presently its only animation, in general lore necromancers usually bring back the dead to serve them. IE: When am I going to get my Stone Summit Zombie to serve me? And where my SKELETONS!!! -.- I mentioned something of this back around the time before NF's release. At least, the reanimate portion of it. Doesn't seem like it's gonna happen, ever. ;-;

But you never know.

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sleeper Service
One thing I’ve always deplored and hoped that GwEn would do is finally return to Necros what should have been their original calling....reanimation presently its only animation, in general lore necromancers usually bring back the dead to serve them. IE: When am I going to get my Stone Summit Zombie to serve me? And where my SKELETONS!!! -.- That was the general idea behind the Turn Undead spell I suggested. A minion with the appearance and name of the original foe, maybe with same skill (and no elites, exact tweaking done as needed.)

Like I said, fun.

Ensign

Ensign

Just Plain Fluffy

Join Date: Dec 2004

Berkeley, CA

Idiot Savants

Curses and Death are really powerful. Blood is pretty bad though and could use some love.

Moloch Vein

Moloch Vein

Forge Runner

Join Date: Apr 2007

Reactive Hexing Sucks

[Thay]

N/

Let it be said... I do not complain about the power of the Blood line. As a matter of fact, I generally run Blood in both TA, RA, AB and Hard Mode PvE.

My specific build is:

PvE:

Arcane Echo - Spoil Victor - Life Siphon - Web Of Disruption - Cry Of Pain - Necrosis - Vampiric Gaze - Signet Of Lost Souls

PvP:

Mantra Of Resolve - Spoil Victor - Life Siphon - Web Of Disruption - Jaundiced Gaze - Vampiric Gaze - Signet Of Lost Souls - Resurrection Signet (yes, I pay 9 points of Inspiration just for interrupt immunity)

And let me tell you, this does _far_ better than an SS build in the situations I've described. However this is just about the only truly powerful offensive caster build I have managed to come up with for Blood, and practically all it does is damage, albeit a lot.

There should be a little more excitement involved.

kazjun

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2006

HoVa

W/N

Well, I was a little disappointed that there's no new animate spell. Every chapter so far, there's been new minions to play with. No such luck this time round. Guess I'll just make do with the summons. Go mursaat

Cloudpiercer

Cloudpiercer

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Sep 2006

R/

I'm sorry but Necros are very versatile, also your asking for diversity but asking for more minions?

They actually fared pretty well compared to some of the other classes and I'm looking forward to there new skills, dont care much about the ones in the blood line but the others look fun. Cant wait to take a swing at a ranger and deal 100+ dmg when he blocks it.

ravensong

ravensong

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2006

Croatia

Me/

Quote:
Originally Posted by pingu666
checkout the mesmer ones before u complain :P I agree...

...necros got the skills which should belong to mesmers...

And I find new necro skills kinda refreshing

Nuclfus

Nuclfus

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2007

Screw guilds.

Me/

You might think forms or glyphs would make for more interesting necro skills, but from a "profession dynamic" perspective I don't see it making any sense. Forms are uniquely dervish and glyphs are exclusive to the elementalist, with good reason because they fit right along with how those professions behave (enchantment-type buffs/effects are crucial to the dervish for their damage/defense effectiveness, while the "magic-powerhouse" elementalists use the glyphs to tweak the performance of their heavy spells). You'll notice the pre-GW:EN necro doesn't have any of those, which is a result of (or perhaps further perpetuates) their inherent personality.

If suddenly necros get such skills in GW:EN, then not only are they not functioning the way they're supposed to as per Prophecies thru Nightfall, but also they lose alot of their identity in emulating other professions. A necro with GW:EN shouldn't seem like a different profession from the one with just Prophecies - they should seem like the same class, just with different skills or abilities that still reflect the profession's general role in the game. It would be like giving GW:EN mesmers a corpse exploit skill to interrupt nearby foes (call it "putrid interrupt" ). Sure it's an innovative new skill for the mesmer (who is supposed to be the interrupt specialist), but you can see he's messing with the necro's turf.

As for reanimation, it's a neat concept but I think it's too much like a weak middle-ground between minion animation and outright resurrect. In a game where a player's life can be restored by one spell from a monk, giving someone "undead" status just doesn't have as much bearing or point. I wouldn't be surprised if in the design phase Anet decided to scrap a "reanimate" concept for their original necromancer ideas in favor of the grittier "constructed-from-rearranged-dead-flesh" minions that made it into the current game.

Sleeper Service

Sleeper Service

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Dec 2005

CULT

oh i dunno Nucifus, it could have simply been an issue with recognising the enemy and animated allies. The "undead" already exist ingame and we get to battle skeletons, ghould, ghosts , specters, a lich...

come to think of it...one of those shadow ghost thingies would have a real comfy space on my skillbar....one day.