Curse

Sniper22 · Jul 01, 2009, 10:18 PM // 22:18

Ok, for pvp we all know that blood magic is rarely used except in A/P spike builds and Blood spike/spam builds. Blood magic can also be overpowered in the blood spam builds. Yeah they can be beaten but they can also roll teams without using any real skill at all. So here are my list of changes for buffs/nerfs.

Barbed Signet: Reduce recharge to 10 seconds. (Recharge time is way too long. This life steal mechanic did not get changed for potential blood spikes since this has a 2 second casting time.)
Blood Drinker: Deals shadow damage instead of life steal if target foe has less health than caster. (I don't want to completely eliminate the life steal mechanic, so I think this will allow prots like spirit bond to catch most of the damage.)
Life Siphon: Reduce casting time to 1 second. Increase recharge to 5 seconds. (The casting time is ridiculously long for its effect).
Life Transfer: Reduce recharge time to 12 seconds. Increase energy cost to 15. (This skill is really useless. It can provide a nice health regen to the caster but it is a very weak elite. I think this will allow the skill to be used to spread degen around but not be overpowered because its range is limited to adjecent and it will have a higher cost to prevent spamming on a 40/40 set.
Mark of Subversion: Reduce casting time to 1 second. (This skill is very similar to shame except that it steals life rather than energy. The long casting time makes it harder to get off on time since necros do not have fast casting).
Offering of Blood: Functionally change to: All allies within earshot gain 1...4...5 energy. (Necros should not have to worry too much about energy management. Skills like GoLE provide plenty along with the occasional death that fuels soul reaping. This skill is also inferior to Cultist's Fervor when it comes to managing energy. This new skill will provide more party support).
Vampiric Bite/Vampiric Touch: Reduce energy cost to 10 seconds. This skill is now a spell. Increase recharge to 5 seconds. This skill will deal shadow damage instead of life steal if target foe as less health than caster. (This skill was only usable on touch rangers. This should make the skill more usable for builds.
Vampiric Gaze: This skill now deals shadow damage if target foe has less health than the caster. Reduce recharge to 5 seconds. (This again prevents spike damage and will allow the skill recharge to reset back to the skill's pre-nerf. The skill descriptions will basically be like Jaundiced Gaze: "Steals 18...52...60 Health if target foe has more Health than you. Deals 18...52...60 damage if this foe has less Health than you.")
Vampiric Spirit: Functionally change to: 10e, 1c, 5r. Sacrifice 17% hp. The next time an ally within earshot takes damage. They steal 5...30...35 health from the attacker. (Removes this skill from blood spikes is good. I'm not too sure about the new function of the skill as its like Vengeful Weapon but for the party.)

Skills like Signet of Agony and Unholy Feast are used in blood spam builds, but they do not need a nerf considering your party should spread out against this and destroy them with AoE if they bunch up.

Well spells in general need a buff as well as they are never used.

Overall, I think blood magic needs to be reworked to be used more for party support like it was supposed to with skills like dark fury, blood ritual, etc. and to assist with spike builds with skills like strip enchantment and order of pain.

i farm baddies · Jul 02, 2009, 12:33 AM // 00:33

lol you lost to bspike

ImpressiveSkilled · Jul 02, 2009, 12:59 AM // 00:59

nice buff OoB

theicydragonsword · Jul 02, 2009, 02:35 AM // 02:35

why make a skill with "touch" in the name a spell instead of a touch skill?

Sniper22 · Jul 02, 2009, 03:04 AM // 03:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by i farm baddies

lol you lost to bspike

Won and lost, easier to beat in GvG. Vampiric Bite/Touch is a spell so it wont be abused by touchers but will allow synergy with cultists fervor.

funway ftw · Jul 02, 2009, 09:31 AM // 09:31

why not remove all spikes so monks req no skill to catch em........ blood spike wasnt over powered when it was actually good decent teams monks would catch blood spike easy and it actually required timing not spamming like the new one.

Arghore · Jul 02, 2009, 05:46 PM // 17:46

In general /unsigned

Nerf the Necro ? ... its hard enough to get a good PvP build for a necro atm anyway, if anything perhaps needs to be nerved its Elementalist Fire Magic? (given perhaps other Ele is buffed so more builds have a chance to work, esp. since if Fire magic is the only build that does work, nerfing it would leave Eles without good builds..)

I have a bloodspike build i use in RA, which only works so/so, depending on wether there is a good monk on the team... Though there is one Necro skill i find over powered atm. which is Vampiric Spirit, instead of totally change it, the regen could be a little less or the recharge time a little longer; because how does one kill anyone with a perma +10 regen. (tho given you use the right skills, its easily dealt with, as i have noticed also

)

Life transfer used to be a spike on one target, and i had quite some fun with it combined with other life transfer and degen spells/skills/we. The build doesnt work anymore due to casting time/function of life transfer and life siphon (speaking from a RA perspective/but then i didnt try it with a 40/40 set yet)

I do agree with the Life siphon casting time, as currently from bloodmagic only the Bspike seems to work ... with life siphon back to 1sec casting time, perhaps other combos with blood magic will work (given they dont meet a build that has skills to deal with the particular build)

Sniper22 · Jul 02, 2009, 07:00 PM // 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by funway ftw

why not remove all spikes so monks req no skill to catch em........ blood spike wasnt over powered when it was actually good decent teams monks would catch blood spike easy and it actually required timing not spamming like the new one.

Yes, good teams can beat blood spike. However, blood spike games are basically 7 necros vs 1 monk since the prot monk is basically useless. This pretty much forces you to wipe the other team before your monk burns out of energy. This update would allow spikes to be caught almost like any other spike. The only nerf would be that some skills would deal shadow damage instead. It would still allow skill to catch spikes, but it also requires the bspike team to actually SPIKE and not spam skills all over the place. The current BSpike build is used for bad guilds to climb up the gvg ladder.

Arghore, most of these skills are actually buffs, and if you are having trouble finding a pvp build for necro, look at the curses line and how strong it is. You also have to look at pvp outside of RA. Blood magic has no real use.

Arghore · Jul 02, 2009, 08:13 PM // 20:13

Curses is not as strong as you suggest it to be...

And i have limited experience outside RA, so it hard for me to speak for those, so can only speak out my concerns from this perspective. And bloodmagic did have a decent build, but like i said they nerfed it mainly by changing life transfer and life siphon..

And my concern with your shadow damage is that it then becomes hard to stay alive, when spiking one target, as this changes the life support you get from this target to sustain damage from the other 7 foes. Meaning you would have to change target every time, which then means you can no longer spike... Im pretty sure that if your guild looks into the Bspike build some more, you can come up with ways to beat it

Aljasha · Jul 03, 2009, 10:41 AM // 10:41

make the bskills less spamable and more potent, or make them deal damage to the target and convert the dealt damage into hp gain in pvp. /problem solved