Guild Wars 2

So I am playing a necromancer and I have done a bunch of research but I would like to hear peoples opinions about the game and the class.

Well I like mine but I don’t play it often.

Firstly, welcome to the game!

1. “opinions about the game” – Only yours matters (I will say though that I have been here since day 1 and I am still enjoying it)

2. “opinions about the class” – Only yours matters (however, I have played necro a little and it can be a lot of fun. I find the class more dynamic than many of the others. Necros have historically had a bad rep as one of the more useless classes but they seem to be getting more respect nowadays).

1. Gotta agree with Silvatar above that only yours really matters to you but personally I’m enjoying the game.

2. Necro – I love my Necros. So much that I have 2 :-P My personal overview for the class (for me this is) -

PvE – Good fun but can be slightly less desirable in some dungeon groups. I still run dungeons with mine and have fun. Very good in open world content.
WvW – Good in groups and large scale fights. I’m not very good at solo roaming on mine but that could just be me.
PvP – Can be quite interesting depending on which build you run. I like to mess around with builds and weapons. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Silvatar.5379:

Firstly, welcome to the game!

1. “opinions about the game” – Only yours matters (I will say though that I have been here since day 1 and I am still enjoying it)

2. “opinions about the class” – Only yours matters (however, I have played necro a little and it can be a lot of fun. I find the class more dynamic than many of the others. Necros have historically had a bad rep as one of the more useless classes but they seem to be getting more respect nowadays).

Makes sense to me. I am personally LOVING the dynamic feel of the game.

Why would Necromancers have a bad rep? They seem fun and strong in my eyes due to being able to prepare battle areas for sPvP with marks. As well as having many possible minions and a TON of customization. Though that could also be a downside . .

I am loving this game, such low system requirements yet such a beautiful game.

Necro is the worst pve class, because they have little access to support. The Eu meta doesn’t use necros much, but it’s a good class. Get countered and counters things. They are especially useful in www, for more than 5 man content. Less than that, the lack m=of mobility starts to be an issue.

oxtred.7658:

Necro is the worst pve class, because they have little access to support. The Eu meta doesn’t use necros much, but it’s a good class. Get countered and counters things. They are especially useful in www, for more than 5 man content. Less than that, the lack m=of mobility starts to be an issue.

What do you mean little support? Minions are a form of support (though they should not be good at it) They have Wells and some of their marks seem great. Is their fear not that good as a CC method?

Myscio.9120:

oxtred.7658:

Necro is the worst pve class, because they have little access to support. The Eu meta doesn’t use necros much, but it’s a good class. Get countered and counters things. They are especially useful in www, for more than 5 man content. Less than that, the lack m=of mobility starts to be an issue.

What do you mean little support? Minions are a form of support (though they should not be good at it) They have Wells and some of their marks seem great. Is their fear not that good as a CC method?

oxtred is probably referring to the fact that Necro’s lack the ability to reliably offer offensive or defensive boons. In fact the only one I can think of off the top of my head is protection when traited.

By offensive boons we’re talking about things like Might, Fury, etc. and defensive ones being Aegis, Stability, Vigor etc.

The two things Necros do have easy access to are blinds and group condi cleanse but Thief (and to an extent Guardian) do blinds better, Guardian does condi cleanse better.

Unfortunately Minions are dumb as a sack of rocks and don’t help the user half the time let alone anyone else.

Saying all that I still enjoy playing my Necros and still take them into dungeons and group content. Just in more relaxed runs of the content when I’m running with guildies and we’re having fun.

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Myscio.9120:

oxtred.7658:

Necro is the worst pve class, because they have little access to support. The Eu meta doesn’t use necros much, but it’s a good class. Get countered and counters things. They are especially useful in www, for more than 5 man content. Less than that, the lack m=of mobility starts to be an issue.

What do you mean little support? Minions are a form of support (though they should not be good at it) They have Wells and some of their marks seem great. Is their fear not that good as a CC method?

oxtred is probably referring to the fact that Necro’s lack the ability to reliably offer offensive or defensive boons. In fact the only one I can think of off the top of my head is protection when traited.

By offensive boons we’re talking about things like Might, Fury, etc. and defensive ones being Aegis, Stability, Vigor etc.

The two things Necros do have easy access to are blinds and group condi cleanse but Thief (and to an extent Guardian) do blinds better, Guardian does condi cleanse better.

Unfortunately Minions are dumb as a sack of rocks and don’t help the user half the time let alone anyone else.

Saying all that I still enjoy playing my Necros and still take them into dungeons and group content. Just in more relaxed runs of the content when I’m running with guildies and we’re having fun.

I have noticed that. . . silly Blood Fiend attacking mosquitoes while the raptor tries to nom my ears off. . .

They do have access to offensive conditions though like Bleed, Poison, ad Vulnerability which I think is really helpful.

I just like the feel of the Necro so much. . . it just feels right in what it is bringing to the table as a Damage dealing CC of sorts. . .

Might, fury, unique buffs ( banners, frost spirit, spotter, empower allies), vulnerability ( necros have quite a bit but other classes do it better), protection, aegis, blinds, projectile defense, stability, combo blast finishers and stealth are the things you want in dungeons, mainly. And necros have little acces to that. Minions are unreliable and die from aoes anyway.

Myscio.9120:

AdaephonDelat.3890:

Myscio.9120:

oxtred.7658:

Necro is the worst pve class, because they have little access to support. The Eu meta doesn’t use necros much, but it’s a good class. Get countered and counters things. They are especially useful in www, for more than 5 man content. Less than that, the lack m=of mobility starts to be an issue.

What do you mean little support? Minions are a form of support (though they should not be good at it) They have Wells and some of their marks seem great. Is their fear not that good as a CC method?

oxtred is probably referring to the fact that Necro’s lack the ability to reliably offer offensive or defensive boons. In fact the only one I can think of off the top of my head is protection when traited.

By offensive boons we’re talking about things like Might, Fury, etc. and defensive ones being Aegis, Stability, Vigor etc.

The two things Necros do have easy access to are blinds and group condi cleanse but Thief (and to an extent Guardian) do blinds better, Guardian does condi cleanse better.

Unfortunately Minions are dumb as a sack of rocks and don’t help the user half the time let alone anyone else.

Saying all that I still enjoy playing my Necros and still take them into dungeons and group content. Just in more relaxed runs of the content when I’m running with guildies and we’re having fun.

I have noticed that. . . silly Blood Fiend attacking mosquitoes while the raptor tries to nom my ears off. . .

They do have access to offensive conditions though like Bleed, Poison, ad Vulnerability which I think is really helpful.

I just like the feel of the Necro so much. . . it just feels right in what it is bringing to the table as a Damage dealing CC of sorts. . .

Touché I did forget about the Vulnerability. Also in defence of Necros they can output some decent direct damage. All I’m going to say is if you’re enjoying playing as a Necro then keep going. If you play on EU servers hit me up in game sometime and I’d be more than happy to take you dungeoning or help out if I can.

oxtred.7658:

Might, fury, unique buffs ( banners, frost spirit, spotter, empower allies), vulnerability ( necros have quite a bit but other classes do it better), protection, aegis, blinds, projectile defense, stability, combo blast finishers and stealth are the things you want in dungeons, mainly. And necros have little acces to that. Minions are unreliable and die from aoes anyway.

Here is a question, those other classes that do those Boons better, do they have access to the wide range that Necromancers do?

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/death-becomes-you-how-to-be-a-better-dungeon-crawler/
I understand that other classes “do it better” but that can’t be the end all be all of things. Staffmancers are strong in marks and can do some very flavorful things. Not to mention the Necromancers have the ability to convert Conditions to boons and Boons to conditions.

I never said they couldn’t. I’m trying to get necros in speedruns since quite a while, mainly with their op boon and condi management. Let’s not transform that into an argument about necro viability. Everyone knows they are underperforming in pve, and everyone knows a good necro is still better than a bad warrior.

oxtred.7658:

I never said they couldn’t. I’m trying to get necros in speedruns since quite a while, mainly with their op boon and condi management. Let’s not transform that into an argument about necro viability. Everyone knows they are underperforming in pve, and everyone knows a good necro is still better than a bad warrior.

Ok! I was just starting to worry that because I played a Necro they would not want me to dungeon crawl. . .

you’ll probably get kicked on sight in some parties. And there’s even advertisement for “no necros”. But there’s plenty of lfg groups, so you will always find one suiting your needs, especially if you take a good build and know the encounters.

oxtred.7658:

you’ll probably get kicked on sight in some parties. And there’s even advertisement for “no necros”. But there’s plenty of lfg groups, so you will always find one suiting your needs, especially if you take a good build and know the encounters.

That is kinda cruel. . . How is one suppose to learn the encounter from the Necromancer’s standpoint if they are getting kicked. . . That is like having an entry level job for people with 2+ years experience only. . .

There’s a lot of “newcomers” and " everyone welcomed" parties, but you obviously won’t learn the best strats there as they are mostly running around like headless chickens. I don’t mind having necromancers in my group myself, so if you want to do some dungeons, pm me.

Myscio.9120:

oxtred.7658:

you’ll probably get kicked on sight in some parties. And there’s even advertisement for “no necros”. But there’s plenty of lfg groups, so you will always find one suiting your needs, especially if you take a good build and know the encounters.

That is kinda cruel. . . How is one suppose to learn the encounter from the Necromancer’s standpoint if they are getting kicked. . . That is like having an entry level job for people with 2+ years experience only. . .

The groups you should join at the start are the ones with no requirements such as “P2”, “P1 All Welcome”, “P3 We have cookies” etc, Actually always join the cookie LFG’s. They’re good fun. Another option is to join a guild and run with them. When we do guild runs we don’t care what players bring or what level they are (as long as they’re the right level for the content).

Or just make your own LFG. “Story – new player” “P1 New player” “P2 All welcome” etc.

oxtred.7658:

There’s a lot of “newcomers” and " everyone welcomed" parties, but you obviously won’t learn the best strats there as they are mostly running around like headless chickens. I don’t mind having necromancers in my group myself, so if you want to do some dungeons, pm me.

I watch videos. Research, and ask questions. Only way to get a clear picture.

I need to level higher first :P I will also have to figure out my build for each dungeon though I think Staffmancer may be dominant.

Here is a question. With the fact that the Necromancer has Death Shroud ability. Does that not make them useful in the regard that they can go in deal a ton of damage while being invulnerable for a short time?

Deathshroud is a cool mechanic… totally not suited for gw2 pve. All classes rely on active defense ( blinds, block, dodges via weaponskills/vigor). Necro has to facetank with ds. In low level dungeons you’re invincible, but in fractal 50, where you get crit’s for 50k in some encounters, all that passive health buff doesn’t help. Their main advantage is great burst and sustained dps, selfish portal tricks with wurm and spectral walk like thieves and mesmers can do, control, boonhate, condi management and a bit of vuln stacking. Staffmancer is a pretty bad build for pve. Dagger auto attack is the best dps you can get coupled with warhorn 5 and focus 4, and since you’re a dps focused class, you better have the maximum dps possible.

oxtred.7658:

Deathshroud is a cool mechanic… totally not suited for gw2 pve. All classes rely on active defense ( blinds, block, dodges via weaponskills/vigor). Necro has to facetank with ds. In low level dungeons you’re invincible, but in fractal 50, where you get crit’s for 50k in some encounters, all that passive health buff doesn’t help. Their main advantage is great burst and sustained dps, selfish portal tricks with wurm and spectral walk like thieves and mesmers can do, control, boonhate, condi management and a bit of vuln stacking. Staffmancer is a pretty bad build for pve. Dagger auto attack is the best dps you can get coupled with warhorn 5 and focus 4, and since you’re a dps focused class, you better have the maximum dps possible.

So the support staffmancer is not good at all. . . and I really like those marks though that auto attack is a bit slow . . .

It’s not that is bad per say, It’s not suited for pve.

oxtred.7658:

It’s not that is bad per say, It’s not suited for pve.

One would think that AoE with masses of conditions and a few finisher types would be great for PvE . . .

IF those aoes did significant damage and weren’t with long cooldowns, and if conditions were worth anything in group pve, then yes. But condis suck and you’d be better with dagger small cleave and wells.

oxtred.7658:

IF those aoes did significant damage and weren’t with long cooldowns, and if conditions were worth anything in group pve, then yes. But condis suck and you’d be better with dagger small cleave and wells.

Hmmmmm much different then other mmo’s I have played. . . more information and research will be needed it seems. . .

Myscio.9120:

oxtred.7658:

IF those aoes did significant damage and weren’t with long cooldowns, and if conditions were worth anything in group pve, then yes. But condis suck and you’d be better with dagger small cleave and wells.

Hmmmmm much different then other mmo’s I have played. . . more information and research will be needed it seems. . .

Condition in PvE is a huge problem since day 1 and Anet don’t seem to be about to fix it. Its not bad, but for efficiency reason they are capped. 1 condition player will pretty much capped them by their own, making any other condition damage player useless in a dungeon or any other group content.

Condition are good if you solo, but since most people play in group, everybody use direct damage. Since Necro is better at condition than direct dmg, they are automatically view as one of the worst class for PvE.

But keep in mind worst class in PvE, don’t mean that they can’t participate or are horribly bad. They are just not as good as the other profession in that particular part of the game. They are in the top professions in sPvP and WvW.

Thaddeus.4891:

Myscio.9120:

oxtred.7658:

IF those aoes did significant damage and weren’t with long cooldowns, and if conditions were worth anything in group pve, then yes. But condis suck and you’d be better with dagger small cleave and wells.

Hmmmmm much different then other mmo’s I have played. . . more information and research will be needed it seems. . .

Condition in PvE is a huge problem since day 1 and Anet don’t seem to be about to fix it. Its not bad, but for efficiency reason they are capped. 1 condition player will pretty much capped them by their own, making any other condition damage player useless in a dungeon or any other group content.

Condition are good if you solo, but since most people play in group, everybody use direct damage. Since Necro is better at condition than direct dmg, they are automatically view as one of the worst class for PvE.

But keep in mind worst class in PvE, don’t mean that they can’t participate or are horribly bad. They are just not as good as the other profession in that particular part of the game. They are in the top professions in sPvP and WvW.

Which is sad because I never have been much of a PvP player though I can learn. I will likely do WvW once I can get some decent gear and get to 80.

So, a Necromancer is just not “efficient” compared to other classes. . .

Here is a question. If Condition damage is capped, why are there items or abilities that increase the overall damage?

Here’s a post about condis and their flaws: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/No-love-for-scepter/first#post4538655

I will also give one big piece of advice:

Everything is the best/the worst on the forums, and things change over time. My main is a ranger, which was ridiculed as the most useless thing ever for the longest time, and with a recent balance patch now suddenly is completely overpowered according to some.

Looking in the class forums can be really depressing, because they are mostly filled with details on how every class sucks and needs to be made better. A lot of the time this is because people got used to one mechanic which was then changed (like adrenaline or the greatsword for warriors) or they are annoyed that one build variant is less useful than the others (like ranger spirits).

Trust your gut. Figure out what you feel like playing. In most content necros/conditions are fine, and in those that aren’t there are more direct damage necro builds that will work instead.

The thing I love about guild wars is that there is literally NO cost to respeccing skills and traits, I usually have at least two different armor sets in my bags (three for my ranger) and it just takes a couple of minutes to switch from my crit/condi based warrior setup, to the toughness/vitality/power based setup I need for the Tequatl encounter (who is immune to critical hits) for example.

The in class flexibility is what I really love with this game.

Also, the current meta for what is “efficient” changes all the time, so what is true today might not be true tomorrow. And the “efficient” bit really comes into it when it comes to speedrunning dungeons, which is a very small part of the game.

I was talking to my guildies and I have heard (I want to confirm this) that a member in DoC named Doommuffin has soloed some dungeons to a point as a Necromancer. I got to figure out how it was done. (Not saying he has completed them just taken down a boss or so in lv 80 areas made for groups)

On a side note. I think I will just test and try it out for myself. Only way to learn right!

Soloing as a necro is harder than other classes, but it’s doable.

oxtred.7658:

Soloing as a necro is harder than other classes, but it’s doable.

I dont mean just leveling. I mean Dungeons and world bosses.

I don’t count leveling as soloing. It’s easy. I was refering to dungeons.

Actually I kind of like my necro. I don’t do minions (staff, dagger – dagger pve), but I am thinking of trying a minion approach to the new LS chapter.

Anyone able to relate experience ?

Minions are unreliable, makes losing certain mobs impossible, die in aoe attacks.

Wells can mess up other more valuable fields while providing insignificant boost to the necro. In regard of condi removal (Well of Power) mesmer and guardian outshines the necro while providing more utility and useful ones. As in boon removal the above mentioned class is simply better (sword auto on mesmer removes a boon, OP as hell).

Conditions applied passively by a lot of classes and while not building for condition damage the damage is meaningless. If you do however, its still bad due to the condition cap and lower damage potential, especially on necro. Warrior and engi has better potential as a condi class.

Beside that necro can’t offer much more. Axe is a bad weapon, staff is a mixed weapon with seriously nerfed (putrid mark) and useless (reaper’s mark) utility. Scepter is a condi weapon so its already out of the question so you should stick to dagger as your best damaging weapon but it still offers nothing just auto attack spamming while still being in the bottom of the DPS charts.

Also their defensive potential is less compared to others, since while others have plenty of extra dodges with good accessibility of Vigor or evades on weapon skills, blocks, invulnerabilities, reflects/absorbs, whatnot, Necro has 0 access to these. Only DS which not prevents you from getting in combat, getting CC’d, getting conditions applied to you, getting damaged, while others does.

tl;dr: Enjoy the game, play with whatever you want, but if you want to play PvE in a serious way please reroll from the worst PvE class.

Just one word of advice:

The classes everyone talk bad about now, might be the best ones tomorrow. And everybody has different views. Right now everyone is complaining about the necro, yesterday they were complaining about the ranger, and tomorrow they will be complaining about something else.

The single important thing here is whether the class feels right for you, and whether it does what you want to do.