Guild Wars 2

Necros are generally my favorite class in any game, close with Ranger/Hunter iterations, some games do them justice, some don’t.

I haven’t played GW2 since around launch, but I remember giving Necro a go for obvious reasons, and in the end, I just didn’t like the playstyle that the class seemed to be designed for. Not knocking ArenaNet, it is a design I can appreciate it, I just couldn’t find my groove I guess.

I tried the Minion Master setups, not being able to heal my minions made them seem somewhat unreliable, it was something I just couldn’t settle into. I mainly rolled around with a staff and all the minions I could, seemed ok, but seemed like it was missing something.

Then I tried a “tanky” Necromancer, since the GW2 Necro seemed to be catered towards that type of playstyle, Dagger in the main hand, can’t quite remember what was in the off hand, but it was kinda fun, didn’t seem like it was a lot of damage though, and that was kind of what I was looking for.

To me when I think Necromancer I think one of two things, minions and/o damage over time spells. The way GW2 deals with Conditions is somewhat weird to me, I was able to figure it out on my Ranger, which of course was just Bleeds, I learned that different Conditions work differently, but I still couldn’t find a way to play a Necro that made me happy.

But, it’s been a while since I’ve played, maybe things have changed? Are there any good builds for Necros for PvE? Specifically, dungeons and leveling. Minion Master any better? I’ve read a little bit from this forum that leads me to believe Condition damage Necros aren’t as good because of Condition caps.

What about PvP? The way I would want to play a Necro in PvP would be something kinda tanky, that could do decent damage, whether it was conditions or direct, and have a good time.

Like I said, it’s been a while and I haven’t kept up with updates or the state of the game and how much it may have changed.

Necromancer is significantly stronger than at launch. It’s minions are wiser and more durable, too.

THings have changed for sure.

PvE Necros are fine. Anything short of serious dungeon/fractal running we are perfectly capable of doing, and are arguably the best at (between minions for solo farming and mass AoE for event farming). In serious dungeons we aren’t bad, you can complete any dungeon and fractals just fine, but you will be slightly sub-par in the DPS department to what people are looking for. Again not a huge issue, but its there.

Minions are a lot better. They have gotten a bit of HP/toughness increases, AI has been vastly improved, and Death Nova now does direct damage on death as well.

PvP we are great. Condition and Power builds both work great even up into the highest levels of play (even though condi is favored in the meta), both max-DPS setups and tankier ones, and if you are just looking at hotjoins/yoloQ then even minions are a good setup. Just build more selfishly than if you were on a team.

As Bhawb said
IF you want a good tank/dps MM build PVT , you can check mine > http://tinyurl.com/opjsdrw