Greetings, gamers! My name is Taylor Brooks, and I am a designer on the Skills and Balance Team here at ArenaNet. I hope you are all hungry for another look at a new weapon, because today I'll be giving you a taste of necromancer swords!
Expanded weapon proficiencies are coming in 2024 during the second major update for Guild Wars 2: Secrets of the Obscure™, bringing a new weapon and skills for each profession. Don't forget that you'll be able to try out all these new skills, along with the new weapons for other professions, during our Expanded Weapon Proficiency beta event, starting on November 28 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8).
Insatiable Appetites
Necromancer sword skills focus on dealing powerful strike damage in an area while consuming enemies' vital energy to sustain the wielder. The main-hand sword skill 3, Path of Gluttony, will allow the necromancer to leap to their enemy, healing themselves for each enemy struck. Hungering Maelstrom, off-hand sword skill 4, will damage and steal health from enemies in a targeted area.
With so much healing, a necromancer might find themselves with a surplus of health! Luckily, their swords always hunger. Each sword skill has a secondary ability that can be activated by sacrificing health to sate your swords. Path of Gluttony can be reactivated to cast Gorge. You leap again, repeating the effects of the first leap while also corrupting boons on enemies struck. Hungering Maelstrom's reactivation is Gormandize. Gormandize will damage and chill enemies struck by Hungering Maelstrom.
Necromancer swords will allow you to sustain yourself through fights while also increasing your offensive capabilities at the price of your own health. Will the risk be worth the reward, or will you find yourself eaten alive?
As mentioned above, you'll be able to try out all of the upcoming new weapon and profession combos during the Expanded Weapon Proficiency beta event starting at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8) on November 28 and ending at 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8) on December 3. Please note that since this is a beta test, there will be placeholder UI, art, and audio assets for some of the weapon skills. Be sure to tune in to the Expanded Weapon Proficiency preview livestream on November 27 at noon Pacific Time (UTC-8) to get a more in-depth look at all the new weapons.