Guild Wars 2

So, I have narrowed my WvW profession search down to Necro and Engi. I think engi would be fun because of versatility, but I love the way the Necro “feels”. I just never seem to hear people talk about Necros in the scope of WvW. Are they severely weak, underplayed, or both?

Thanks! Also, any input on Engineers would be helpful too.

ive been engi from the get-go and while i consider it one of the better / best classes in wvw with all the escapes and awesome talent tree, warrior or necro are much more fun. I know warrior wasnt on your list of 2 but.. go with warrior or necro. Necro will have a harder time with thief but it’s still more fun than engineer,.

best thing about Engineer in WvW is you can walk up to the door and use your flame thrower to damage stuff on the other side

you can even run outside click on the ram run back inside go to the door and auto attack the ram on the other side of the door

Am I forced into a staff build as a necro? My only concern is being pigeon holed.

Those two are possibly the worst classes for WvW, I know people will come in here and refute me, but it’s likely because they haven’t played any of the other classes.

The necro, necro attrition builds are incredibly effective simply because WvW is skewed to burst damage. Minion masters don’t fare well in large battles because so much aoe is being thrown around, and Conditionmancers are somewhat effective, but any enemy worth his salt will have ways to cure conditions..

Engineer- Lots of people say a power/precision rifle build is good, but I don’t see it being anywhere near as effective as other classes. the one thing they can do really well is sit on top of a wall during a siege and chuck nades on the enemy’s head, but they are nearly useless in open area fights because of their hilariously long travel time.

Well, that puts a bit of a depressing spin on my choices Now I’m sad.

I play Engi only so am biased here but I do think it’s one of the better classes for WvW. Grenades are sweet, you are like mobile artillery clearing walls and making people in the enemy zerg dance all over the place :P Only drawback is the blast area is much lower than AoE from a Ranger or Ele, so you can’t clear carts as easily. Then you have the supply drop, excellent for initiating charge into a camp or enemy zerg, it stuns stuff and drops goodies for your team, as well as rooting enemies and healing allies. You can pick runners with riffle net shot, knock enemies off cliffs, and light the way with your flamethrower should you get lost in the dark room. On the negative, I find we lack ways to escape danger, once they get you, you either kill them or are toast, no stealth-god-mode-with-culling-exploits escape tricks like some classes *cough*thief*cough*.

Engineer can also use “jump shot” to make it impossible to fail jumping puzzles and bypass large parts of them

Metalripper.5406:

Those two are possibly the worst classes for WvW, I know people will come in here and refute me, but it’s likely because they haven’t played any of the other classes.

The necro, necro attrition builds are incredibly effective simply because WvW is skewed to burst damage. Minion masters don’t fare well in large battles because so much aoe is being thrown around, and Conditionmancers are somewhat effective, but any enemy worth his salt will have ways to cure conditions..

Engineer- Lots of people say a power/precision rifle build is good, but I don’t see it being anywhere near as effective as other classes. the one thing they can do really well is sit on top of a wall during a siege and chuck nades on the enemy’s head, but they are nearly useless in open area fights because of their hilariously long travel time.

This person has no idea what he’s talking about. As an engineer you don’t run an out of date glass cannon rifle build in wvw, you run a grenadier build which gives you infinitely spammable AoE at a range of 1500, making it one of the most useful classes for attacking/defending keeps and towers.

Useless in the field? Engineers have more CC than any other class, and much of it is AoE cc. Lemme guess. You thing AoE knockdowns, freezes, stuns are useless in wvw too?

Actually, its kinda funny: “Minion masters don’t fare well in large battles because so much aoe is being thrown around.” Guess which 2 classes have the best ranged aoe in the game: elementalist and engineer.

PotatoOverdose.6583:

Metalripper.5406:

Those two are possibly the worst classes for WvW, I know people will come in here and refute me, but it’s likely because they haven’t played any of the other classes.

The necro, necro attrition builds are incredibly effective simply because WvW is skewed to burst damage. Minion masters don’t fare well in large battles because so much aoe is being thrown around, and Conditionmancers are somewhat effective, but any enemy worth his salt will have ways to cure conditions..

Engineer- Lots of people say a power/precision rifle build is good, but I don’t see it being anywhere near as effective as other classes. the one thing they can do really well is sit on top of a wall during a siege and chuck nades on the enemy’s head, but they are nearly useless in open area fights because of their hilariously long travel time.

This person has no idea what he’s talking about. As an engineer you don’t run an out of date glass cannon rifle build in wvw, you run a grenadier build which gives you infinitely spammable AoE at a range of 1500, making it one of the most useful classes for attacking/defending keeps and towers.

Useless in the field? Engineers have more CC than any other class, and much of it is AoE cc. Lemme guess. You thing AoE knockdowns, freezes, stuns are useless in wvw too?

Actually, its kinda funny: “Minion masters don’t fare well in large battles because so much aoe is being thrown around.” Guess which 2 classes have the best ranged aoe in the game: elementalist and engineer.

Ok, that makes me feel a bit better. So, I noticed you didn’t say much about Necros, do you feel they are on the lower end of the WvW Profession spectrum?

One useful thing about Necros in WvW is Epidemic. Yes, you will use Staff kitten and you better pack Greater Marks. It is much harder to score kills with condition damage especially if they can retreat beyond your range, remove/heal and come back. Burst direct damage has higher chance of knocking them straight down before they can do that.

I found the most success on my necro running a wells support role. It’s viable for keep defense and keeps your battlements healthy, Well of Blood and Life Transfer with Transfusion are some of the bigger AoE heals in the game.

Other than that, I don’t see everyone dying to play support, but the option is there and it’ll definitely help whoever you’re with. You will NOT be the second coming of dark robo jesus smiting those you see fit as the Necro in WvW that is for sure.

There are a lot of nice ways to contribute to your team in WvW as a necro. One of the reasons why i started to play my necro was the ability to pull people off the walls in sieges, or right into the zerg in open field battles with spectral grasp. And if you can’t pull them down from the wall, bleed them to death with your staff marks and Scepter/dagger AoE. Don’t think you help you side with beating against a door with your head – thats what siege equipment ist for. But you are good at putting pressure on those who are defending the walls, and also at catching enemy players who try to run into the castle/tower. With the right spec, you can perma-cripple foes with your scepter nr.2. Combined with spectral grasp and it’s pull + chill, not many enemys arrive at the door when they try to run in solo. So definetively usefull in sieges.

For defense you have an endless arsenal of AoEs you can place on the gate. All the marks on the staff, your wells, death shroud nr 4, the marks in lich form or your plague form, you can put a lot of pressure on the attackers from behind the gate. So definetively useful in defending stuff.

In open field battles, you can use your staff or scepter/dagger from a relatively safe distance, but when your group charges, you can easily run with your heavys right into the enemy, drop your wells (very awesome in these situations with all their effects like turning all the buffs from the enemy group into conditions …), go into death shroud and aoe with DS nr4, and then catch those who try to run away with your grasp and cripple. With DS and your high hitpoint pool you won’t die in these attacks if you don’t get focused by the enemy group. So definetively useful in open field battles.

And spectral walk ist the perfect skill for traveling the long distaces in WvW, 30+ seconds of swiftness can bring you very far, no matter wether you want to get supplys, want to arrive in time at a tower which is under attack, or if you want to flee or catch an enemy.

And if you just want to see high damage numbers on enemys, you can still man siege equipment like every other class.
I’m haveing a lot of fun on my necro in WvW. And don’t forget you can change your utility skills between battles so you always have the right tools for each situation.

Nice insight. I love the way necro plays and I just wanted to know if they can hold their own.

Most necromancers we face give us free rallies with all those pets. Engineers can take out siege from long distance with grenade spam.

I can really only speak to a rifle/grenade Engineer.

Grenades are helpful for either defending or attacking walls and cliffs, and for driving enemies away from chokepoints like bridges, stairs, archways, and canyons.

Grenades are also useful in open battlefield areas, since they tend to herd enemy groups the way you want them to go, whether you are chasing enemies away from one or two friendlies who got isolated from the group, or warding off flanking attacks, or trying to herd all the enemies together into one clump.

Partly this herding ability is the result of the grenades’ conditions (blinding, bleeding, chilling, poisoning), but partly it is the psychological effect of explosions (and their circles on the ground) scaring players away.

If I want to attack one particular enemy, I can add in my rifle skills to stop the enemy with my net, or knock him (and me) backwards, or do great damage at melee range, or damage at long range.

Necros I only used a couple of times in WvW, but I think if you love the class, go ahead and play it. A class you love is a class you are likely to play well.

Since they are a less commonly used class in WvW, many of your enemies will be uncertain how to counter your class’ little tricks. Necros excel at surviving, which means they can stay and fight through an entire battle, instead of wasting time jogging back across the map after dying.

Not everyone enjoys playing support classes, and they say support players don’t win as much loot, but it can be very satisfying to know your boons and conditions are helping to turn the tide of battle.

If you don’t enjoy support, Necros still put out a lot of damage. Burst damage might be favored in small sPvP fights, but sustained damage in large groups definitely has its place in WvW.

If you do get downed, Life Leech is my favorite downed skill, and there’s a good chance Life Leech will put you on your feet again.

Necromancer is the epitome of the phrase, “pigeon-holed”. Every builds uses staff because it offers the best utility (albeit, on long CD’s), every build also uses scepter/dagger for conditions unless you’re really trying to convince yourself that power builds are any good.

The Necro has a significant amount of AoE damage and control — their conditions aren’t merely bleeding.

Necromancers have the easiest and longest access to Chilled, which is greatly overlooked in WvW. In addition to Chillblains, Necro’s can spec for longer range on the Focus and get an unbuffed 5s of Chilled at 1200 range. With Epidemic and some food, I can easily spread 9s of Chilled onto a large group of foes. Every 15s.

I’m playing a corruption necro and I’d say it is mostly effective. The times I feel much less effective are when I am on the wall defending a keep as all the conditions I can throw get removed easily via combo fields and people retreating out of range. Fighting in the field is extremely effective.

One thing that should be avoided though is minions. As someone above said, those minions are a free rally for the other team and especially in small group fights. This is also why despite using marks I will not spec to make them larger.

Every single class is viable in WvW so pick what you enjoy playing.. Each class has there own particularly feel and if your not enjoying a class then it isn’t for you

Class breakdown
Engi
*Great support character through elixers, lots of buffs for the team
*good damage capabilities through a lot of means, condition/power.. whatever really

• Has a lot of versatility in builds, and as others have said are useful in many of the different roles in WvW

This engi video says hello too.. absolutely amazing player
http://youtu.be/O9IdpgUJCvs

Necro

• lots of aoe available
• a great pusher class, damage and buffs aren’t the only way to support your group.. built well you are an amazing damage soaker with DS
  *condtion spreading can be unbelievable powerful when able to pull of.. while you can do it by yourself with a bit of focus conditions on one target and you can obliterate groups.

I play a necro in WvW and don’t listen to the haters.. whatever you want to do you can find a place in WvW. While i think maybe dagger main hand is out (too little damage for being up close and personal) i think any other combo of weapons is workable. I personal like Axe, the damage is a bit low but you can have a very ready supply of retaliation available.
Bone minions have a place too if used appropriately (don’t let enemies rally of them)… well of blood BOOM BOOM instant area of affect retaliation. There’s sneeky ways to use flesh wurm too

Play a little of both of them in some hot join… you can mess around with traits and such to get a feel for it

Power necros are fun too. Try a dagger build with wells, the long cooldowns can be a little daunting at first but they are effective once you learn to manage them.

My PVE Build is a minion master Axe/Focus. I think Power Precision Crit (And some toughness) is very viable for a necro. When i go into WvW I switch out my minion skills for better WvW skills. (like spectral walk and grasp, signet of undeath, and lich form). As a necro your high health pool can keep you in the battle longer than any other class and its a shame not to explore weapons other than the staff. Of course I switch to staff when I need to focus a pot of oil or something equally far away but it helps to be able to stack vulnerability like nobody’s business. So I’ve loved my necro, and he isn’t a staff necro.

My necro built is dagger/focus for close range, and staff for long range attack/support. And i change my skills depending on the situation of the moment, melee, swarm, siege.
You can always keep some siege weapon plans also, if you like to use those and have friend that can help you build them.