Guild Wars 2

Heya all good and decent people of the GW2-forums!

So I’m a lvl 80 necromancer trying to find my way in the world of Tyria. I leveled up my way to 80 by focusing on conditions, but when I started doing dungeons I realized I wanted to try different builds, and so I found myself looking at Nemesis’ videos (you can find it in the sticky-section) of various builds for various goals. My attention was directed almost instantely solely on his bursting-build, the glass canon necromancer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqLt4dD93pU

Since we focus on bursting damage, I go with the berserker-prefix on my gear and weapons, as Nemesis suggests. All is good and dandy.

BUT…

People seem to not like glass canon necromancer at all. I try to run Citadel of Fire most of the part, and people in general seem to have something against this type of necromancer. They seem to vastly prefer warriors and thiefs for the role I’m trying to fill, with the argument that “they do more dps” or things along that line.

So since I’m a n00b when it comes to this type of stuff, I just wanted to ask you guys in what area(s) the glass-canon bursting necromancer shine? I really want to be able to defend my playstyle, since I greatly enjoy this type of build.

Thanks in advance! :)

Sincerly / Seriegubben

You can’t change someone who is stuck in their ways until they see tangible proof.

NOW that being said, Power necro shines pretty much everywhere a normal Berserker would, I think, since you can get LF quick and you will have nice sustain in DS (thus meaning you will also deal very very good damage most of the time). Also, lich form.

Beserker necro’s will never be picked over warriors and thieves. It is just the most useful type of build you can run when taking a necro into a dungeon.

I have never played a Zerker Necro (it may be my next necro armor set), but here’s the rundown as to why other players want other classes in most Zerker situations:

The reason why they prefer Warriors or Thieves is because their burst skills and class mechanics allow for more dps over time to more enemies. The more dps over time to more mobs means quicker dungeon runs, which is the primary goal of say CoF Path runs. Once a dungeon becomes a cake walk for glass cannons, people gravitate towards what is the most efficient mob killing machines and that is not a Necro.

That’s not to say that the Necromancer Zerker doesn’t have it’s merits. It has better survivability tricks with DS compared to a Warrior and can keep at ranged with Axe/DS. What holds Power Necros back is that most of the high damage weapon skills are single target, do less dmg than other classes’ versions of the same, have longer recharge times, don’t cleave, and/or the cleave is very small. The weapon skills that do have lots of AoE like staff marks do very little base damage, save for Putrid Mark, and are more condition application/CC oriented. Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption are the best Necro AoE dmg skills, but the recharges are long (better now post June 25/13 path) and require some investment in blood magic (20) for quicker recharge times.

I would really have to test our DPS after all these changes (which I can’t since I don’t have a Zerker set), but the simple reason why they prefer other classes is:

Zerker “Insert usual DPS Class here” > Zerker Necro, because they just do damage better.

You will still find groups as a Zerker Necro in the usual places a Zerker build is wanted above all else (especially if running in a Guild group since you could probly get away with not even being zerker), but I a lot of pug groups that consist of people that run CoF a gazillion times a day are not going budge on having Zerker Warriors etc., because they really want the dungeon to take 1-2min less time each run.

As a warning all Zerker builds run into issues in harder more attrition based content which can sometimes be mitigated by player skill (sometimes… not so much). More tankier sets can go a long way in other parts of the game where those builds and Necros are more welcomed than glass cannon Necro.

People are just stupid and like big numbers thinking necros cannot do that (nemesis and co proving them wrong multiple times but strife kitten ed in peoples heads that 4charrior 1mesmer is optimal for everything so they follow like sheep); only a perma backstab thief can do more dps than any class in full zerker setups (all doing close to same), but they kinda die when looked at and require a boss that can be hit from behind.
*tldr – necros are just as good in dungeons as every other profession people just whine/kick necros (and some engies) out of the party about it because they are idiots.

If you are going necro for dungeons (not harcore farms or exploit runs), by how well people/pugs tend to pick you up are ususally: Cleric(apoth if you gonna be secondary condi)>Soldier(Carrion if you still wanna be the boss pull but wanna use scepter to hybridize damage, Knight if you like big numbers – it does the same overall as soldier but with less hp)>Rampager(Rabid if you wanna double dip with undead runes and aint sure about going glass hybrid/condi)>rest (never saw valk, magi or giver necro, but valk could be zerker like now with DS focus and 30 SR).

So much misinformation here. Cof is universally known to be incredibly easy and everyone can finish the whole dungeon in melee range. That is why people prefer thieves or warriors for it. There is no need it any utilities when nothing can kill you.

I have a zerker grenade engineer, warrior, thief, and nerco.

People hate thieves in dungeons if there is already another one (even for cof). I get a lot of “too many thieves?” Thieves are good on paper, since they do more damage. However, unless you have perfect Internet and never make a mistake, everyone knows that thief gets down a lot. In the end, due to its weak defense in zerker, thief will be less effective overall.

Engineer is great, since it is ranged. The damage I fantastic, but it is no very different from the necro post patch. Not much to say here. People do not complain about my engineer at all.

Warrior does not do more (or much more) raw damage by himself. However, warrior has better team buff skills when it comes to might, fury, precision..etc. That is why people might prefer warriors in parties. Honestly, no one has ever asked me to switch to a warrior when I’m doing dungeons.

As for necro, I have never ran into anyone who cared enough to kick me or asked me to switch class, even when there are another necro in the party. Necro does great damage, especially with all of it in ranged. It makes for great dps because you are not down all the time nor are you forced to dodge as often.

For what it’s worth, people have a negative view on warriors and thieves because most new players like them.

Ignore andele. Hes just kitten that his favourite class isnt the best for dungeons.

SnyderHall.7263 brings up a good point.

People seem to forget about Zerker spiking that it’s burst and you need to constantly be doing damage to keep your DPS up. Sure you can do alot of spike damage, but you’re at risk of either dieing or disengaging to recover a lot, which means no to little damage in those time frames. Save for Dagger main usage, a Necro doesn’t need to be in direct melee range ever to do really good bursts, can abuse DS as damage mitigation while still being engaged and doing great damage. We can sit comfortably within 600 range always and always hit our target which allows Zerker necro to perform better over time.

That doesn’t change the fact that Warriors can easily hit 25 stacks of might, give stacks of might to others and spam their cleaving super damage skills. Team 25 stacks + Zerker stats + the biggest burst dmg skills = a lot of dead enemies in a very short time. The proof is in the pudding sort of speak. CoF1 runs if i’m not mistaken take the least amount of time with a Zerker warrior group.

CoF is run by two types of groups.

The first group demands 4 Warriors and 1 Mesmer, all with Exotic+ Zerker everything. This group will finish CoF p1 in ~5-7 minutes.

The second group doesn’t really care who’s in the group. Three Necros and two Rangers, 5 Eles, whatever. This group will finish CoF p1 in 8-10 minutes, or up to 15 if you have a bunch of newbies to the dungeon.

I run CoF p1 fairly frequently these days and while the former group is a big smoother, it doesn’t really matter what you run as long as your party isn’t uptight, which can almost always be determined from the LFG post. My time isn’t at such a premium that I really care about taking another three or for minutes a run, and most people are in a similar boat.

Basically, I just watch for “all professions welcome” groups and do perfectly fine regardless of which profession I play or which spec I’m using.

I have been able to shine in dungeons as a zerker necro. I honestly prefer a berserker necro over a thief. Reasons: I have a full zerker necro and a thief, I still feel like my overall DPS is higher on my necro. The auto attacks from necro dagger hit hard, and combined with the extra DPS that wells bring makes it soar. Whenever I run cof path 1 I volenteer to kill the gate mechanism, pop down wells, flesh golem charge, and it does down fast. I’ve had people comment on how fast is has gone down. Most of the time that I see a thief attempt to break down the gate, they are able to do it, but also go down in the process.
Another reason is that (at least one Thief playstyle) does not sit in combat the whole duration. They hop in and out of stealth in order to get the big backstab damage. As a Necro, I sit on top of the boss and never let down DPS until the boss is dead (possibly having to roll out of range and switch to staff/axe and wait for heal cooldown or hop in DS). Even though I would love a siphon buff, I am able to keep myself up fairly well.
Thieves bring a little more utility with stealth but I think that necromancers do more long-term, sustained DPS.
Not even going to talk about comparing Necro’s with Warriors until we get a cleave weapon that isn’t staff.

Luckily, no class does damage or damage buff better than warriors, so we are on even grounds wih other class in that regard. However, since this game is about having fun, all classes are pretty much viable, and no one will comment on you not being a warrior (unless you join a “lfg all warriors”), you will have a blast using zerker necro.