MethaneGas.8357

How does condi allow you to be more tanky? You only get Vitality with Carrion....

Agreed! ?Quite refreshing indeed and the scale + deathmatch style is a good change of pace from conquest.

Hello all, I can't personally test at the moment, but I'm 90% sure it works this way. Signets of Suffering makes you gain all passive effects of signets in shroud regardless of whether the signet is on cooldown or not. This means that by taking the signet heal and Signet of Undeath, with Signets of Suffering, that single trait makes you gain health while in shroud each time you get hit, and also makes you gain shroud every few secs. Permanently. With just one trait. Isn't this the biggest source of sustain at the moment?

If they HAD to nerf something, I think all they need to do is nerf Death Magic. It's a proper defensive traitline with good defense against power and condi damage. Necros taking signets (which give huge sustain) would have pretty weak cleanse if they didn't have it from Death Magic, so if shrouded removal takes a hit, this would make signet necros weaker to condis. Or you can lower the toughness gained from carapace, along with potentially lowering the protection output. Lower protection output is also an indirect nerf to Dark Defiance, so with lower protection, the necro would be weaker to both condi and power. And, as you said, lowering the life-force generation from certain sources could be an option. Like Unholy Martyr. Make it give less lifeforce? I honestly think that just a wee shave across a few traits is all that is needed. Together, it would add up without destroying each individual trait. Last point: Signets of Suffering gives you the passive effects of signets in shroud even while your signets are on a cooldown, if I'm not mistaken. So you can use the heal signet right before going into shroud and you get the passive back. Camp shroud and the heal skill is recharged by the time you exit shroud. Rinse and repeat. This is probably a bug and it's amazing, but borderline broken. Maybe all they need to do is nerf this trait, because essentially, you permanently have Signet of Undeath passive while in shroud, and this makes you permanently gain life force in shroud. You also permanently gain health when hit in shroud cuz of the passive from the heal. But.... the problem is pairing a Necro with a FB in a 2v2 because the FB spits out protection and cleanse so even if those things are nerfed, the problem remains. Maybe if FB is nerfed, necros would be indirectly nerfed. Along with a few tweaks and voila, happiness and rainbows all around. But, balancing around 2v2s is not smart.

Doesn't it apply cripple - > corruptor's fervor - > carapace? :# Edit: wait.... It doesn't cause cripple anymore?! :o :o :o :open_mouth: Edit 2: omfg you're right............ Edit 3: hyperventilating

A good way to generate carapace is using Spectral Walk, and going into shroud with Shourded Removal. You'll cleanse a million condis (such that you can tank condi mesmers, or anything really). On top of that, you'll get carapace from Plague Sending in Curses... So right there is lots of potential to stack even you in a 1v1 if they have at least some condis. Can also get a few from crits - > bleeds from Barbed Precision (not as good with Carrion or the dumb new life steal locust swarm... but still). And 3 stacks from Weakening Shroud with weakness, bleed, 1 corrupt.... It works well when fighting groups and is harder in 1v1s but there's still potential there.

May have been Moa?

I would be interested in seeing your gameplay... PM me if you have footage.

If you build heavy into cleanse then you're damage isn't enough to kill the tanky condi builds. Those tanky condi builds don't have to sacrifice their damage for survivability. They can both be offensive and defensive at the same time where with power you have to open yourself up to counter pressure in order to pressure someone. I wish this was true.

Necro in general is bad against burst, but I'd say that Dark Defiance (protection on CC) can be pretty decent against burst, because a lot of burst relies on CC, so at least you have protection when that happens. Blood magic is mainly defensive and "sustainy" and when you think about it, isn't that much different from taking Death Magic, except Death Magic makes you even more tanky against both power and condi. What you could also try and do when you see Mesmers is.... when they stealth, try and go into shroud as soon as you can (if you have a decent amount of life force). They will almost certainly try and burst you when they stealth, but if you have shroud, they can't do that as well and you should survive their burst. From that point, count your blessings and see how it goes. Or you could try and run the other direction as fast as you can when they stealth, or hide behind line of sight. In any case, I would try and go into shroud just as another layer of protection. Two more things.... they usually do a lot of damage when they use two of their greatsword skills - Mirror Blade (animation: they lift their hands and throw a sword) and Phantasmal Berserker (animation: they spin around). Dodge immediately if you see them use any of these two. Just as an example, in this video you can see sort of what the skills look like: It's skill #2, and skill #4. When you see these, try and dodgeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :P . They are usually followed up with more damage.

I actually think there's too much cleanse...

Yes - Death Magic with core Necro is quite strong. I'm not sure what the craze about Blood Magic is tbh. What would you like to know about it?

Also you could try the new Death Magic, as it makes you more tanky overall. If you go Reaper with GS over staff, you could even sacrifice Soul Reaping for Death Magic.

Aaaaaaand once again, Wurm and Spectral Walk are meta =) who woulda thought? As a Necro, you'll generally be focused like crazy as soon as you show your face. Sometimes, especially against good players, ALL you'll be doing is kiting and surviving the whole 10+ minutes of a match. It just comes with the package of playing a Necro. A lot of people don't like that because it's not exactly as relaxing as other playstyles and can be frustrating at times, but that's just the name of the game. I'd say that at least 80-90% of players don't like using Spectral Walk and Wurm because it's not straightforward to use and requires planning. On top of that, Wurm takes a long time to get used to when you are just starting to use it because there are many spots that don't work with it. At the same time, there's spots on each map that almost certainly always work too - it's just a matter of figuring out which ones work and which ones don't. If you don't enjoy that kind of playstyle, then I would say that your best bet is probably to go with Reaper because I think Reaper can survive a bit better without those 2 utilties because of stability and mobility. I haven't played Reaper in a long time, but what you could try is removing either Wurm or Spectral Walk, and adding in something like Spectral Armour or Spectral Wall. Both of those skills can make you more tanky and can build a nice amount of lifeforce. Also, Runes of Speed seem to work really well on Reaper. I've seen some Reapers -cough- Gamble -cough- that use Runes of Speed and it gives you crazy mobility so you're really hard to catch. So using something like Spectral Walk, Corrupt Boon and Spectral Armour could potentially work? Alternatively, you could try using Runes of Speed on core Necro as well, as that makes you harder to catch. Again, you could try Spectral Walk, Corrupt Boon and Spectral Armour/Wall and see if that works out. I have no idea, as I have never not used Wurm of Spectral Walk in a build.... You probably already know this, but use any of the spectral skills before going into shroud cuz it makes you tanky - you gain life force even when in shroud. Or use Locust Swarm before going in - does the same thing. Other than that, all you can do is pray.

make the Necromancer have as much life and shields as the elementalist and the balance will be successful confused Necro noises