Curse

zwei2stein · Aug 16, 2008, 05:15 PM // 17:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moloch Vein

Dark Bond belongs in Death Magic as has been the case as long as it's existed.

I actually think Curses could get Dark Pact.

Technically, it is unlinked skill (requires 0 att points to be usefull).

Moloch Vein · Aug 16, 2008, 05:20 PM // 17:20

If you actually use it as a MM it's very annoying to have to recast it so often, especially with a 2s cast which is pretty likely to be interrupted.

Mad King Corn · Aug 16, 2008, 06:09 PM // 18:09

The biggest problem with blood magic is that most skills require a sacrifice, and most of those sacrifice way too much for what little the skill actually does. When you sac, you are putting yourself at a great risk, so the reward should be well worth it, the way its set up now, you get too little gain for way too much sacrifice. It would not be so bad I suppose, if they would remove the energy requirement all together so the skills just used blood instead, perhaps that would be better.

Moloch Vein · Aug 16, 2008, 10:17 PM // 22:17

Blood Renewal should sac 10% and have a casting time of 1/4. Right now Hexer's is so superior it isn't even funny. It even gives more health regeneration.

Xenomortis · Aug 16, 2008, 10:41 PM // 22:41

Blood Renewal's advantage is that it doesn't end prematurely if you do anything other than Hex something and it gives a big health boost when it ends.
But the 25% sac killed me more often than not when I needed it as a newbie necro (stupidly running blood).

Lakdav · Aug 17, 2008, 09:41 AM // 09:41

I recently ran a sacrifice build(just to try out somethin challenging) with [Ravenous Gaze][Awaken of Blood][dark pact][blood of the agressor][blood renewal][signet of lost souls], and holy crap it is challenging :P It worked well when no monk healed you and no enemy targeted you (i only tried it in RA yet), but then again, most builds work well if nobody targets you...
"Due to the sacrifical nature of their methods, Necromancers must practice patience and and self-discipline to survive." (Guild wars prophecies manuscript)

Xenomortis · Aug 17, 2008, 10:14 AM // 10:14

Running a sac heavy build for the purposes of skills like Grenth's Balace and Ravenous Gaze is time consuming, challenging and often fatal. Ravenous Gaze's condition promotes suicidal play on the part of the Necromancer. Monks often won't allow you to stay below 50% health (unless I specifically tell them not to). Whilst potentially powerful (easy to do 138 Life Steal with this), it's too difficult to set up.

System_Crush · Aug 20, 2008, 06:11 PM // 18:11

I think I'll dump something here we have been discussing in the Concept Class forums[edit: a loooooong time ago].

Its about 'blood minions', that instead of natural degen cause their owner to lose X% of the health they lose when taking damage.
While those minions aren't something that I think will end up in GW1, but the resulting function it gains the necro is interesting.

[Blood Bond]

[Current Form]
[Energy Cost 5][Casting Time 1][Recharge Time 2]
[Enchantment]
[For 5...17...21 seconds, target other ally gains +1...5...6 Health regeneration and you suffer -3 Health regeneration.]

[Suggestion]
[Sacrifice 17%][Energy Cost 10][Casting Time 2][Recharge Time 10]
[Enchantment]
[For 10 seconds, target whenever target other ally takes damage, that ally steals health equal to 5...80...105% of that damage from you.]

It will protect the ally from direct damage that gets through their armor/prot spirit, but not from damage due to degen and conditions.
Of course it is not at all without risk to the necro, its a quite costly skill.
This will offer a great way to protect your allies, especially a monk in RA and enhances what I think is a tradition started with [[Foul Feast],s current effect.

[Well of Suffering]

[Current Form]
[Energy Cost 10][Casting Time 1][Recharge Time 10]
[Well Spell]
[Exploit nearest corpse to create a Well of Suffering at its location. For 10...26...31 seconds, foes in that area suffer -1...5...6 Health degeneration.][Death Magic]

[Suggestion]
[Energy Cost 15][Casting Time 1.5][Recharge Time 20]
[Well Spell]
[Exploit nearest corpse to create a Well of Suffering at its location. For 6...12...15 seconds, whenever an ally in the well takes damage, the source of that damage loses health equal to 15% of the damage(max. 3....27...35 health)][Blood Magic]

This is a general counter against AoE spikes, because they would be a big problem to minions that return some of their damage; it would make a nice detergent for the gimmic builds with AoEDoTs.

I tried to keep them balanced, but basically instead of heals and spikes a blood binder would be about prots and vengeance damage.

================

The idea is to rework all life steal skills into conditional team defence.
The skills being conditional and protective balances the effects of a slightly larget life steal and enhances the necro's support role.

draxynnic · Sep 08, 2008, 07:20 AM // 07:20

Generally, the way I've thought of all the life-stealing skills is as a means of regaining health after using sacrificial spells (the various Orders come to mind) rather than doing damage. Of course, this requires the healer to cooperate and hold of from throwing a heal in your direction unless it actually looks like you're in trouble.

Still, in this vein, what about making some or all life-stealing skills behave similar to the Mesmer energy draining skills - giving back more than one point of health for every point stolen? This would make these skills at least more viable as self-heals, without bringing bloodspike back into the equation. (Which, as I recall, translated into Energy was why the Mesmer energy drains got reworked that way - to make it harder to completely drain someone while making it still moderately useful as energy management.)

'Course, we'd need to make sure those dratted touchers don't get too much of the benefit...

legacyofkain85 · Sep 13, 2008, 02:39 PM // 14:39

i would:eliminate the mechanic of Life stealling and change it do shadow dmg for example,that way blood spells could be buffed,also reduce some of the sac of some spells cause some of them have to much sacrifice.