Guild Wars 2

Hey there, I’m fairly new to GW2 but I played the first quite a lot and really enjoyed the Necromancer class in it. I’ve always been a fan of spell casters in RPG games. I’m pretty good at dodging, looking through my skills and thinking of the best combos to use in certain situations; I like to think of things in a very tactical manner.

My first character was a necromancer and got him up to level 18 before deciding to try out another class. For the most part I used my utility skills for summoning minions because that’s always been my favorite way to play the class in games and I like having independent DPS that can also serve as a tank if needed. However I thought the class was very squishy and I felt like it didn’t do enough damage in comparison to what I saw others doing. I did try a lot of different weapons and combos, found the dual dagger to be a pretty cool one but didn’t like how I had to be in the thicket of the battle to do damage with the daggers; just so squishy, I’ll try building him to have more vitality/toughness if I go back to it and see how it is.

Then I tried Elementalist because it looked like a lot of fun but I found it to be lacking as well kind of for the same reason, then went to wWw to see how it was at level 80 and it failed to impress me. I’ve been reading posts about the class on here for quite awhile now and most seem to think it’s playable (of course) but it’s more difficult to achieve things with the class, I like having some difficulty but I hate playing the most kittened classes in games, usually I like to aim for the most balanced ones that are spell casters if possible. Only got the Elementalist to teen levels as well so I feel like I haven’t dedicated enough time to really learn either class to their fullest but felt like trying another class.

This time I went with the Warrior class, wanting the ability to tank more damage but be lethal at the same time. Very surprised, the game is much, much easier with this class and got it up to 17 now. I’m fighting enemies my level or higher in mobs and laughing at how stupidly easy the guy mows them down with the greatsword, situations where I know I’d be rolling left and right with one of my other classes trying to barely pull off a victory. Now it seems too easy and makes me feel like the other two classes were infact inferior. Though how could I say that with such limited experience, hardly any PvP, no dungeon experience or anything.

Either way, looking to get back into one of my previous professions because I feel they were more fun to play, even if more difficult. Which do you guys think is the best for a beginner like me? I would most likely stick with PvE until I hit high level and get more experience but PvP was my favorite aspect of the first GW and will most likely get into it later on.

Elementalist is probably the most “advanced” class there is in the game.

I’d probably go with the Necro if I were you.

The Necro can deal a lot of damage, especially with AoE skills, and also is not as squishy as you might think. Using the Staff, 4 of your 5 skills are AoE. Start with #2 Mark of Blood to apply bleeding to a group, or #4 Chilbains to chill and poison the group. In scenarios where a group of foes and enemies are together and the allies are taking conditions, cast #3 Putrid Mark for high AoE damage, plus it transfers the conditions from the allies to the foes.

The biggest damage dealer the Necro has, however, is when you go into Death Shroud mode (F1) with a full bar of Life Force. The #1 Life Blast skill deals massive damage as long as your Life Force remains high. Use Spectral Armor in a utility slot to mitigate damage and stuns, as it boosts your Life Force so you can go into Death Shroud mode.

Finally, for an added heath benefit, use the Signet of the Locust in a utility slot. This one increases your speed so you can escape better when there is no alternative, but in Active mode it steals health from nearby enemies. You also might consider swapping Consume Conditions into your #6 healing slot instead of Summon Blood Fiend. Yes, you said you like the minions, but you can use the more powerful Summon Shadow Fiend minion skill instead of Blood Fiend, and then use Consume Conditions to heal when your health is low, plus remove any Conditions you have (and get bonus health for each condition removed).

For the alternate weapon set, I play the Sceptor and Dagger. This build is more for single foes, and has excellent DoT (damage over time) skills. Start with skill #2 to apply bleeding and crippling to the foe. Kite around the foe hitting with #1 Grasping Dead while you watch it bleed to death. Apply #5 Enfeebling Blood to apply weakness and more bleeding, then finish him off with #3 Feast of Corruption which is high damage plus bonus damage per condition.

I find myself using the Staff probably 80% of the time, even for single foes. If it’s a Veteran, I may switch to the Sceptor/Dagger if all the Staff skills don’t seem to be enough, but normally, just popping back and forth between Staff and Death Shroud mode gets me out of most situations.

I forgot to mention Traits, but I filled out the Curses line first to make the Conditions more effective. For the first tier Trait skill, I went with Weakening Shroud, which casts Enfeeble every time you enter Death Shroud. For the next Trait line, I went with Soul Reaping to increase the Life Force pool.

Cool thanks for the tips. I went and started my necro up again, I was using scepter/warhorn previously. Went to the trading post and bought improvements in terms of gear and instead of pure power like I had before I got a lot of + condition damage gear and a few + power ones still but better defense ratings. I’m really enjoying the scepter/dagger combo a lot more, #4 is awesome.

Just one thing. Necro is hard to master, but when you do it, you’re almost invincible. There are two health pools, normal and DS, there are three different skill bars, two weapons and DS, and there is traits line. Right now I don’t remember which line does what, but I use the one that gives me retaliation when entering DS, 50% more life gain in DS, 50% of runes on armor and weapons are condition damage, the rest are power, toughness and vitality.
Usualy combat looks like this:
On group of targets, lay down all staff skills, pull mob to you over that “mine field” and they will be on 50%, enter DS, jump in the middle of them, skill number 4 (some kind of life siphon, skill 3 fear, exit DS, retract a little so they group again when they follow you and lay down all of staff skills again. If any of them survive all this just finish him with axe.
I’m level 39 now and I can easily survive up to 5 foes 3-4 levels over me, even if they come one by one. Yesterday I beat up 3 weteran oaks in group, one of them was skill challenge (those are like harder). But necro is not invincible in all situations. If you encounter Champion alone you will still die. Tried that yesterday. After 3-4 minutes he was on 75%, but I was dead.
Remember one thing. If you expect for fight to last a little longer don’t empty your DS bar. Enter DS, 2 or 3 skills, exit DS, do havoc with staff or axe/dagger, then you will learn when DS skills are about to be recharged, DS again even if it is not totally full, rinse and repeat…

Yah the game has gotten a lot easier for me, went and reached level 25 last night.. might have played too much, slept in through my alarm clocks and now I’m waiting to see if I’m going to work lol.

I went and bought a bunch of lvl 23 gear from the AH, went with the blue set that gave precision/condition damage because it looked like the best option (especially with the trait that gives a 66% chance for criticals to cause bleed). Updated the weapons as well, then slotted them all with more precision + condition damage.. Almost everything is based around those two stats, maybe not the best idea but it’s been working out great, I’ve been able to steamroll through story quests 3-4 levels above mine no problem.

Though I’m wondering if it was worth it to invest into condition damage so much at such a low level, would it have been better to get power/precision instead? Still though, got a 56% critical rate based on gear alone and I’m seeing bleeds cause a bunch of 30 & 31’s instead of 21’s like before.

I think I’ve got DS down pretty well now, saved myself quite a lot last night with it while farming 4+ level higher areas, the #4 is indeed awesome and I love seeing it cause crits left and right lol. At some points I’d see it total up to 300-400 damage to each monster in the area which I guess is pretty good?

I haven’t really been finding myself needing to lay down traps with my staff but I do when fighting much higher level creatures or veterans, usually I just initiate as quick as possible because I’m not very patient xD.

With well of darkness and my blinding skill that bounces I find it pretty easy to manage groups, just drop the well, do all my AoE’s, and if needed blind them with #4, probably do a dodge before that though so that while they’re blinded I’ll regenerate the 1 bar of endurance.