Guild Wars 2

Hi All,

It’s been ages since I last played GW2. I actually started on the release day and kept playing for a good few months. I guess pretty much everything changed since then, both in the game and in my life. The time has come though to return to Tyria…

Just before quitting I was levelling a Necromancer. It seemed to be the most bugged class in the game. I heard many negative comments about it’s usefulness in raiding and PvP. Some spells were broken, others weren’t implemented. There was chaos… But I saw this armour somewhere on the Internet, an armour that made the wearer look like Death itself… Grey wings at the back, robes with bones attached to them and a skull mask to frighten the most fearless warriors… No matter how badly the Necromancer was broken – I wanted that gear!

Now, the time has come for me to embark on that quest once more and claim what has always been my dream. Please, tell me Friends has the Necromancer been fixed? Is it balanced? Do his spells work the way they should? Is he a desired class on raids? And above all else, what are the most successful builds used by the Necromancers in Guild Wars 2?

Thanks for reading!

A ton of bugs have been fixed, although there are still some that exist. Not many that I personally find effect me in PvE much.

However, Necromancers are, with exception, not considered “desired” in PvE content. That isn’t to say you can’t perform just fine in a group (especially unorganized ones), but you won’t find any posts asking for a Necro. Power builds are the “meta” right now, either DPS dagger, DPS DS, or minion. I’d suggest you find someone called spoj on the forums and check out the build in his signiture, that is probably the most optimized build.

Other than that, you’re fine to run Necro without many issues in all PvE content. Its not like you’ll get wiped just because you have a Necro there (in fact, certain Necro setups are very good to handle bosses in bad groups).

A number of things have been addressed since you left.

• Minion AI now works reliably. They’re also 50% more durable than before.
• DS can now be traited to be used as an effective weapon on its own. (Power based, Life Blast was reworked.)
• A new stat combo, Dire, has made condition builds a lot more survivable. (Condi damage/toughness/vitality)
• Corrupt Boon is now more reliable. (Doesn’t require forward facing any more, but can still be dodged)
• A new condition called Torment. (AKA new DS 5 skill, Tainted Shackles)
• Burning condition was given to us via trait in Spite.

Unfortunately there are still a number of issues.

• Still no cleave.
• Life Siphon still sucks.
• In PVP we’re still no more “attrition” than before.
• Condition cap still exists.
• Condition damage is still worthless against structures.
• When they added new heals to the game, the devs basically flipped us the finger. Not figuratively, I mean literally. Go look up the youtube video of them showcasing the new heals. Words cannot express my how utterly appalling their behavior was.

All in all, I still love the class, but its far from whats considered a meta class.

In WvW, some necromancers are wanted in almost every raid.
Condition necromancers can be found roaming and are very strong 1v1/smallscale.
For larger raids a power necromancer (utilizing some wells) is more suited and wanted. I think almost every WvW/GvG guild has some slots in their roster for (power) necromancers.