Guild Wars 2

They seem to be my bane of late. Well, I guess they are the bane of a lot of folks, but any tips on beating them? I don’t know the class at all, something I probably should rectify by playing one I guess.

They seem to have both insane defense and lots of condition cleansing, making it pretty hard to take them down.

I’m currently running a phantasm/PU hybrid and tinkering with a shatter build, though I haven’t run shatter in a “serious” engagement yet.

Thanks.

Qaelyn.7612:

They seem to be my bane of late. Well, I guess they are the bane of a lot of folks, but any tips on beating them? I don’t know the class at all, something I probably should rectify by playing one I guess.

They seem to have both insane defense and lots of condition cleansing, making it pretty hard to take them down.

I’m currently running a phantasm/PU hybrid and tinkering with a shatter build, though I haven’t run shatter in a “serious” engagement yet.

Thanks.

Offensively, I’ve not found it difficult to bring a necro down with either condition or power builds. To your point, they have pretty good active defense against both specs. Honestly it’s more of a game of attrition most of the time.

So, condition management is key. If you get that right, you can outlast their condi-spam ftw. Best way to do that is to slot the iDisenchanter or what I’ve been doing lately is taking mantra of resolve along with traiting mender’s purity. This provides very strong defense against conditions on relatively short cool downs.

One other tip, signet of spite has a very obvious animation (google if you’re not aware), and can be dodged with practice.

I don’t know much about necro’s but i think i remember reading that one of their healing skills allows them to turn condi’s into health, so if you’re relying heavily on condi’s then that could be an issue (basically feeding them health). I run a dps/phantasm 30/30/10/0/0 build and don’t have too much trouble with them. I just make sure I have my condi clear mantra up before going into a fight. I wanna hear other responses though too.

When using GS i’m quite successful to go for max range as long as possible, grinding down their DS and only going in when a fast disengage (F4, Blink, …) is available.

Lay the conditions on them and when they go into Death Shroud, use your Scepter #2 Block to put Torment on them and watch their HP go down.

Mainly the disenchanter is all you need to deal with condition necros. Get one up and you’ll be untouchable.

For a power necro/minionmancer you need to be careful. If you don’t realize what they’re running quick enough, you’ll be dead before you can react. Minionmancers rely on spike damage following an immobilize, so hold some strong defense for when you get hit with that. Power necros spec for death shroud damage, so be wary of getting bursted down when they enter it. You can use projectile reflects to reflect the life blasts, or just dodge/block them.

Coming from a shatter perspective essentially you want to play very aggressive and end the engagement as fast as possible. If they don’t have fear wall/aren’t playing full fear there’s little they can do to keep you from sticking on to them. By aggressive I mean going so far as landing sword autos under a full illusion distortion, using diversion as a means to max out your burst damage, and so on.

For a run-of-the-mill glassy condi Nec, the key skills to avoid are all of their Staff Marks (particularly the fear) and ideally you want to take minimal Scepter auto hits; make sure to reposition or worst-case break the stun on the Flesh Golem elite if they have it, too. If they hit Spite Signet it can be tempting to hit Null Field, but unless they follow up with a burning proc you can often just wait it out.

Thanks for the replies.

I’ve used the disenchanter and I’ll keep trying it. It does get killed or rotated out by other illusions fairly quickly, but I’ve noticed it has a mercifully short cooldown.

Shimmerless, your post makes clear what my problem is: I’ve never played the class and don’t even know what most of those things are. Seems impossible to get good at PVP in this game until you know all the classes…

Qaelyn.7612:

Seems impossible to get good at PVP in this game until you know all the classes…

Sounds about right. How can you counter something if you don’t know what it is?

Having an in-depth understanding of every class you face is absolutely necessary to be effective at PvP.

To be honest my tactics against necros is to kill them faster than they kill me ^^.

But what if’ve learned in general:

When they Use Deathshroud #4: either interrupt it or shatter your illusions. Dont give them something to heal.
In general, they seem to be vulnerable to interupts (-> Halting Strike). However, they usually have rly a lot HP which makes it hard to fight them.

When using plague form, somtimes it works fine to use Cry of Frustration / other sources of Confusion, as necs spam a lot of skills in this form.

Something I also try somtimes (against Minion Necs) is when entering the fight to use my first burst on the Flesh Golem (Pets can dodge) in order to negate a part of the necs damage right on the beginning.

Edit:
And I only can agree to what pyro said. Knowing the class you are fighting is a big element of pvp. It also is usally recommended players who have problems against mesmers

Hmmm…

First, you want to adjust your play style to not be a target: LoS, stealth, and pop lots of clones. Second, sustain as much damage as possible with phantasms. Third, counter DS with CC (daze, knockback, pull, etc) and then back to create some distance using range weapons to allow DS to burn off. Finally, stay mobile with strafing, blink, and dodging to make it hard for the necro to place marks and wells.

Remember, the necro is very slow in combat. The best disengage abilities they have are DS and Plague form which are both very obvious and slow. If you can keep two or more powerful phantasms like iZerker or iDuelist on a necro for 20 seconds or more you should win.

Also, Flesh Golem is worth taking out early if possible.

I’m a ranger so.. cant really give Mesmer-specific advice… but Necros rely on their insane health pool for their defence, meaning bursting them down is hard – coupled with their potential for one hell of a condition bomb makes going head on at them risky for almost any class/build.

They have poor healing and mobility though, so you can quite happily wear them down as long as you can avoid being hit by all their conditions at once, something mesmers should be good at with plenty of access to longrange attacks, mobility skills and phantasms/shatters to go in and do the damage whilst you stay in relative safety.

If WvW, you don’t even need enchanter. Stay at max range and let your Izerker do the rest. Go in only for the kill. The only thing you should be worried about at max range is signet of spite or spectal grasp both are easy to avoid. Other than that, enjoy the hand massage at 1200 range.

MIrra.3604:

If WvW, you don’t even need enchanter. Stay at max range and let your Izerker do the rest. Go in only for the kill. The only thing you should be worried about at max range is signet of spite or spectal grasp both are easy to avoid. Other than that, enjoy the hand massage at 1200 range.

You truly expect to beat any semi-competent Necro by merely ‘staying at 1200 range and letting the iZerker do the rest’?

Funny I was thinking the same. They know how the skill works too and they don’t make it easy to get far away.

I did actually beat one yesterday and I think I’m getting a bit more comfortable with them. Appreciate all the tips in this thread.

I do feel like I need to roll one of them, and probably also an engineer, before I can fight them well. The other classes I haven’t played — ranger, elementalist, guardian — seem a little more straightforward.

Man that’s going to take a while. I prefer to level up chars rather than jumping to 80 in PvP, since I feel you learn the class better that way.

Well, I sure won’t be bored anyway!

Like someone else posted already. Stay at max range and just let your phantasms do the work. Do let them lure you into a small confined area. Now if you are condition build I have no idea how to beat them.

Yep, max range, preferably with ranged double weapon.

But if the Necro is really good, you cannot beat him – it doesnt matter how you twist or turn your build or skill, they can always beat you. Tanky condition necros is one of the most OP builds in the game – far outweighing a Phantasm build. Yes, they are even worse than Guardians, at least the Guardians do crap damage if they go all out tank.

Of course I have met plenty of Necros that I beat the snot out of with my Mesmer but that only mean I was the better player, caught them by surprise or just had plain old fashioned luck. Really the only class I dont want to meet on the battlefield. A perma-stealth berserker Thief is easier to kill :/

i think necros are my favorite class to beat on my lockdown Mes. Long casttimes, well telegraphed skills, few boons, almost no stability. They are usually dead without firing a single skill and eating 10-12k Halting strike damage.