Guild Wars 2

What are according to you the most useless elites for the necromancer, and why?

I realized there are several elite skills that never ever make it onto my skill bar. The only ones I ever use are Plague, Lich Form and Flesh Golem.

Avatar of Melandru

I never use Avatar of Melandru. The biggest problem I have with this elite, is that it leaves you very slow and vulnerable. And on top of that of course a very long down time. Most of my parties usually include classes that are far better at providing healing and protection for me and my allies, so I never equip this elite.

Hounds of Balthazar

A very poor summon ability. The damage is disappointing, it lasts very short, and the hounds die quickly. Not worth it’s elite slot in my opinion.

Reaper of Grenth

Okay-ish, I guess. Some people might find a use for it. But I never use it, since for damage I might as well bring Lich Form, and for control I could bring Plague.

Summon Mistfire Wolf

I wish this exclusive elite was more awesome than it really is. I wish it was truly something epic to behold. But like Hounds of Balthazar, the damage is poor, and it lasts too short. And visually it doesn’t look the least bit interesting either, and that makes it worse, since it’s an exclusive elite.

Artillery Barrage says hi!

I’d rather have an extra utility than any of the elites of the necro. And that is quite the opposite of elite skills in gw1.

lol yeah, Artillery Barrage is the worst, not just for necros.
It’s a much weaker version of Meteor Shower, it deals fiewer hits with less damage, at a much shorter range, but it’s an elite skill with a 4 min cooldown!

Avatar of Melandru at least has a snare, something Necromancer’s are weak at.

Avatar of Grenth is useful for running with the hammertrain. (If you don’t have stability at the start of a fight then you will be in static field stun hell).

The Hounds and Wolf are both pretty good. The hound will do a high damage leap shortly after their summon, and the Wolf has a useful high damage AoE that sometimes it can use twice before it goes away. Neither of these are as good as the golem, but not every class has the golem.

Other races have better and worse racials.

Hounds of Balthazar is great for a burst build. I’ve insta-gibbed people quite a few times with them.

I use Mistfire Wolf when I want burst damage in an open area. It’s pretty good at that.

But I can definitely vouch for Artillery Barrage being the worst elite in the game. For everyone.

aspirine.6852:

I’d rather have an extra utility than any of the elites of the necro. And that is quite the opposite of elite skills in gw1.

That would be awesome for necro… I’m a roamer in WvW most the time and no elites are that useful, one that can be some sort of useful is Flesh Golum but it dies too quickly… I had a guardian aoe it down in about second while hitting me also for same damage.

Though knowing most things if we can swap out an elite for a extra utility other classes would get most out of it somehow haha.

Summon Druid Spirit (Sylvari Elite) – This one is pretty high on my useless elite skill list with the long cast time, the very long cooldown. Then when the Spirit is out the thing is slow and cumbersome and tends to stay static and hit everything other than what you want it to hit and thats when it does actually attack.

To be honest im not a fan of most of the Sylvari racial utilities never mind elite skills I think grasping vines is the only utility that gets pass marks. I used to like Take Root till I discovered a static Necro in WvW is a dead Necro and if your being jumped and use it as protection you get more bang for buck out of Plague.

flesh golem is quite powerful tho, it can take down enemies that most professions need help with.
then again, the biggest problem with it is that it can’t be used underwater, all elites except plague (which is so useless i never use it outside the water) can’t be used under water.
the biggest problem with elites is that it’s seen as a normal skill by Anet, they need to see them as critically powerful skills.
see them a bit like a limit break, instead of doing some normal stuff you pull all gears and take the enemy down in full force.
make plague have a constant effect when passing an area, make lich form like certain doom on the battle field.

sorudo.9054:

flesh golem is quite powerful tho, it can take down enemies that most professions need help with.
then again, the biggest problem with it is that it can’t be used underwater, all elites except plague (which is so useless i never use it outside the water) can’t be used under water.
the biggest problem with elites is that it’s seen as a normal skill by Anet, they need to see them as critically powerful skills.
see them a bit like a limit break, instead of doing some normal stuff you pull all gears and take the enemy down in full force.
make plague have a constant effect when passing an area, make lich form like certain doom on the battle field.

Plague is ridiculously powerful in pvp and wvw.

Even if you’re a pure power build, it applies an AoE blind, gives you stability, and a ton of toughness and health.

It’s a fantastic initiation or escape tool.

Kashijikito.1864:

sorudo.9054:

flesh golem is quite powerful tho, it can take down enemies that most professions need help with.
then again, the biggest problem with it is that it can’t be used underwater, all elites except plague (which is so useless i never use it outside the water) can’t be used under water.
the biggest problem with elites is that it’s seen as a normal skill by Anet, they need to see them as critically powerful skills.
see them a bit like a limit break, instead of doing some normal stuff you pull all gears and take the enemy down in full force.
make plague have a constant effect when passing an area, make lich form like certain doom on the battle field.

Plague is ridiculously powerful in pvp and wvw.

Even if you’re a pure power build, it applies an AoE blind, gives you stability, and a ton of toughness and health.

It’s a fantastic initiation or escape tool.

Plague is one of the best skills for zerging in the game. Constant AOE poison, blind and, if traited, chill. It messes zergs up and greatly facilitates offensive pushes through front lines.

Also, Golem is a great elite in small fight situations. It procs elite-tied runes like Mad King both on spawn and rush. Fairly awesome.

a) Hounds is awesome *wrong use of the word since bad/other word for booty/behind is kittened* and on par with most profession elite skills, 2 2 second hard cc, each massive hp since the patch and really good long burning for condi builds that scales of your cond damage (which i think was patched in during the illusions scale of condi patch too).
b) Reaper used to be our Deathly Shivers, as what used to be a necro trait was turned into a elite, thus obviously not really balanced.
c) Mistfire is a fire and forget version of golem, i think it was just designed so that non sylvari rangers and ele got a strong early elite/its designed for leveling. Either way also has ok synergy with necro but not even close to as strong as hounds.

Real kittenty elites *cough melandru, barrage, all golems, fern hound and to a much lesser degree druid since he is just a uncontrolled long cast time version of SoN that can move without traits* need fixing. On the other hand some norn elites could be toned down to be more transform less use for 1-2 skills since only wolf on necro is actually used for its full duration (raven is for knockback, leopard is stealth/dash, udyr is for double cc)

you should actually see race specific skills as something else, this is a necro forum so at least stay within the necro line.

nekretaal.6485:

Avatar of Melandru at least has a snare, something Necromancer’s are weak at.

Avatar of Grenth is useful for running with the hammertrain. (If you don’t have stability at the start of a fight then you will be in static field stun hell).

The Hounds and Wolf are both pretty good. The hound will do a high damage leap shortly after their summon, and the Wolf has a useful high damage AoE that sometimes it can use twice before it goes away. Neither of these are as good as the golem, but not every class has the golem.

Other races have better and worse racials.

Weak at snaring? You’re joking right? Did you completely forget about tainted shackles? Hell, I use that skill even when i’m NOT using a condition build.

I think the problem is more with the Racial elites rather then how useful they are for the necromancer. All the necromancer elites are useful if not a bit underwhelming. And truth be told I would much rather have a utility skill then any of the necromancer elites. But that isn’t to say their elites are bad. Just not very impressive.

Lily.1935:

I think the problem is more with the Racial elites rather then how useful they are for the necromancer. All the necromancer elites are useful if not a bit underwhelming. And truth be told I would much rather have a utility skill then any of the necromancer elites. But that isn’t to say their elites are bad. Just not very impressive.

That tends to be the problem with every class’s elites though…with a few exceptions.

Become the Raven, nuff said.