Guild Wars 2

sustain , condi damage , fleeing , cc , condi removal , health regen , pets ,

practically every skill a necro has at their disposal is out done by some other class .

the on going trend that people keep telling themselves is that necro is an attrition based class , yet you can have that in the guardian .

so . here are some solutions to fix that ..

abilities that do self harm need to be buffed and the self harm removed .

the casting times for skills need to be quicker .

pet health need to be increased .

fear needs to be over all changed . instead of being a skill that does damage , remove the damage and increase the time for the fear itself as a proper cc .

over time for snares and roots need to be increased .

life siphon needs to be increased

condition transfer needs to be increased from 3 to 6

and death shroud skills need a speed increase in cast , projectile , and recast of duration needs to be lowered .

A lot of the problems you are trying to address here are fixed when using the correct builds. Specializations, armor, runes, etc. really make a class/build shine. I find that necromancers make superior tanks for my play style (I myself playing almost exclusively tank builds). Necro’s can seem very underwhelming if you don’t have everything planned out just right, they are a bit tricky sometimes.

If they were suffering as bad as you say here in your post, then why are soooo many people playing them? Why have they not fallen off as the “worst class”? It’s not because of some insane cult fandom. There are people who know how to make them work very well.

I would suggest making a build as to what style you would like to play them in, not what you think is their strongest ability. What would be the most fun for you? Then post that build in the forums asking to see if maybe there is something that isn’t meshing all that well. It could be as simple as placing the wrong attributes in one specialization line.

lorndarken.3702:

sustain , condi damage , fleeing , cc , condi removal , health regen , pets ,

practically every skill a necro has at their disposal is out done by some other class .

the on going trend that people keep telling themselves is that necro is an attrition based class , yet you can have that in the guardian .

so . here are some solutions to fix that ..

abilities that do self harm need to be buffed and the self harm removed .

the casting times for skills need to be quicker .

pet health need to be increased .

fear needs to be over all changed . instead of being a skill that does damage , remove the damage and increase the time for the fear itself as a proper cc .

over time for snares and roots need to be increased .

life siphon needs to be increased

condition transfer needs to be increased from 3 to 6

and death shroud skills need a speed increase in cast , projectile , and recast of duration needs to be lowered .

fear doesnt do ANY damage unlesss you trait for it.

The reasons people still play necro is because many like the class. Necro’s are not bad, but they are on the bottom tier. Biggest problem is really that necro’s aren’t special. They just work, regardless of skill level. That’s why you still see 4 necro, 1 druid parties in LFG. It’s simple, reliable and some like casual playstyle.

Necro’s are very good in dealing with huge groups of enemies and can take more hits then other classes. I’d be nice if they got a huge single target buff too, so they can used more in Raids. And power necro could use some buffs too, mostly in PvE and WvW. They still somewhat work in PvP

Particularly if you play spvp although according to some people play specs that have been around for a year plus and you’ll pwn apparently. All I know about Necro is spvp and right now there is no reason to play them in that game mode. Zero.

i play necro in pvp, and i can say from experience you are still quite valuable in sPvP. If you are just learning i recommend you use a meta build or whatever you are most comfortable with and focus first on your positioning and kiting because the biggest issue necro is getting focus fired.

If you need help on necro in pvp feel free to message me. Im not the best but ive manage over a 60% winrate career on necro.

Zinthos.5893:

It’s not because of some insane cult fandom.

Don’t underestimate the edgelords.

what?

necros have something they will never get, the glorious second hp bar!!!!

#2ndHpBarMasterRace

I play sPvP and necromancer is always a easy class to kill. If you do a 1v1 against a necro you’re shure to win, unless the necro have a full Lf and you di some mistakes. I don’t know a class unable to kill one. (maybe the revenant after his little nerfs, but they can still burst you down fast).
Is good in group to spam chill and do some corruption, while able to inflict a good amount of damage (if you don’t play condi). But any focus can burst you down in 4 seconds without any mercy, making you useless against a coordinate or experienced pug team.
Is a really hard class to play and grant to the team really poor things compared to all the thing he need to survive or be useful in a fight.

In PvE the necromancer don’t have a high dps (both in condi or direct damage), don’t have any kind of support (only vampiric and few poor things), unless you play in some specific raids his boon corruption is totally useless and the only thing he can do is survive a little better than some other classes.
Epidemic is good but to inflict a really good aoe damage you need at last another condition class to obtain some Real condition damage to spam. 3 bleed from every chill can grant you a good damage, but it’s not enough if compared to more or less all the other classes.

In WvW is good as a dps with wells and AoE with the old Death Shroud power build. I don’t know in roaming, but with his totally lack of defensive and mobility skills is really hard find a necro good enough to kill anyone. If the enemy is near to die a simple hide or movement skill can grant him the safety at 100%, then after the healing cd he can turn back ot kill you while you had wasted your LF for nothing.

There’s really few things a necromancer is good to, and frequently they’re not so useful.

Some kind of improvement in our damage should be good. But, as always, out theme keep us back. And we’re the only class locked down by his theme. (guardian dps, just to say…)

Have not seen a class that can boon corrupt or even boon removal comparable to the necromancer.

Justine.6351:

Have not seen a class that can boon corrupt or even boon removal comparable to the necromancer.

mesmer sword autoattack?

Raven.8941:

Justine.6351:

Have not seen a class that can boon corrupt or even boon removal comparable to the necromancer.

mesmer sword autoattack?

For boon removal/corruption to mean anything it needs to be aoe/pulsing/piercing/corruption in some combination.

Not even Nullfield is all that great except for its other utility, traited or not. I run it traited on my Mesmer because its better than most other utilities when playing support. For some perspective on that, I don’t run well of corruption on my boon corrupt necro simply because I don’t think it does enough for the precious utility slot. I love my Mesmer but when it comes to needing boon removal nothing tops reaper.

Hum … and still people play and have fun with the class. How does that happen? OH, probably because it doesn’t matter if other people do things better than you do when playing the game.

lorndarken.3702:

sustain , condi damage , fleeing , cc , condi removal , health regen , pets ,

practically every skill a necro has at their disposal is out done by some other class .

the on going trend that people keep telling themselves is that necro is an attrition based class , yet you can have that in the guardian .

so . here are some solutions to fix that ..

abilities that do self harm need to be buffed and the self harm removed . disagree

the casting times for skills need to be quicker . maybe on dagger and focus 5

pet health need to be increased . disagree

fear needs to be over all changed . instead of being a skill that does damage , remove the damage and increase the time for the fear itself as a proper cc . strongly disagree

over time for snares and roots need to be increased . disagree

life siphon needs to be increased indifferent

condition transfer needs to be increased from 3 to 6 disagree

and death shroud skills need a speed increase in cast , projectile , and recast of duration needs to be lowered . what?

So overall, I don’t agree!

i do think that the life siphon needs to be reworked a bit, playing a minion master build the life siphon is ok, but only because of all the minions, without minions it is barely noticable, kittens are barely enough to counter 1burn stack in some situations. Just wish they would rework it to have a stronger life steal on e.g. every crit, vs enemies with x amount of hp, more siphon power per dagger held etc idk, just my 2cents

Necros are hands down best at:

1. reviving – transfusion + last rites. We’re made for this.
2. boon corruption
3. condi manipulation.
4. inflicting fears

Necros are also very good at:
1. power tanking – get insane toughness or vit, while keeping zerk level power damage.

2. support healing – with blood magic you pump heals as you go through your dps rotation. No “heal mode” that makes your dps drop to 0 as long as you’re in it (like celestial avatar or elementalist’s water attunement)

3. condi dps (well reapers at least).

They’re not #1 in these fields, but can hold their own.

What necros do suffer from indeed is:

1. atrociously bad death shroud. Compared to reaper, after pressing F1 core necro is screwed, hard.
2. no “invunlerability” defenses (blocks, evades, blurs etc).
3. disgustingly slow casts on certain skills
4. misconceptions about the class.

What many…nvm, what everyone fails to notice is that stories of necro being an easy class are royal bs. Necro may be easy to pick up, but he’s hard to build and he’s hard to master. While not filled with gimmics like clones, time manipulation or gazillion kits, necro’s skillset is closest to a swiss knife setup with each skill being a tool for certain situation, but none of them for all. When a necro makes a build he must make some tough calls and his general playstyle (save fear spammers) is about countering what your enemy is doing and planning your defenses well. As with any counter-class this requires keeping your cool and knowledge of enemy, therefore often resulting in “necro sucks” experience unless you’re willing to take the dive.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

s.

What many…nvm, what everyone fails to notice is that stories of necro being an easy class are royal bs. Necro may be easy to pick up, but he’s hard to build and he’s hard to master. While not filled with gimmics like clones, time manipulation or gazillion kits, necro’s skillset is closest to a swiss knife setup with each skill being a tool for certain situation, but none of them for all. When a necro makes a build he must make some tough calls and his general playstyle (save fear spammers) is about countering what your enemy is doing and planning your defenses well. As with any counter-class this requires keeping your cool and knowledge of enemy, therefore often resulting in “necro sucks” experience unless you’re willing to take the dive.

Because it is difficult to hit with marks while wearing dire/trailblazer with deathly chill slotted.

I’ve heard many people say necros are often the last class left standing. Well that’s because they’re always the last class to get to the fight. If you don’t leech swiftness off another class, by the time you get to the fight it’s already half over.

I’d just be simply happy with fear by default doing damage without having to trait for it, and also given some sort of teleport to either keep up with your group or get away.

Justine.6351:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

s.

What many…nvm, what everyone fails to notice is that stories of necro being an easy class are royal bs. Necro may be easy to pick up, but he’s hard to build and he’s hard to master. While not filled with gimmics like clones, time manipulation or gazillion kits, necro’s skillset is closest to a swiss knife setup with each skill being a tool for certain situation, but none of them for all. When a necro makes a build he must make some tough calls and his general playstyle (save fear spammers) is about countering what your enemy is doing and planning your defenses well. As with any counter-class this requires keeping your cool and knowledge of enemy, therefore often resulting in “necro sucks” experience unless you’re willing to take the dive.

Because it is difficult to hit with marks while wearing dire/trailblazer with deathly chill slotted.

If you’re dying to that then that speaks a lot more about you then necros.

Thieves will dodge, eles cleanse it off in 0.2s from getting condies. Guards might get victimized, until they decide to pop one of their hundred heals and yet another stunbreak. Rest has enough hp to simply not die from something like that.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Justine.6351:

ZeftheWicked.3076:

s.

What many…nvm, what everyone fails to notice is that stories of necro being an easy class are royal bs. Necro may be easy to pick up, but he’s hard to build and he’s hard to master. While not filled with gimmics like clones, time manipulation or gazillion kits, necro’s skillset is closest to a swiss knife setup with each skill being a tool for certain situation, but none of them for all. When a necro makes a build he must make some tough calls and his general playstyle (save fear spammers) is about countering what your enemy is doing and planning your defenses well. As with any counter-class this requires keeping your cool and knowledge of enemy, therefore often resulting in “necro sucks” experience unless you’re willing to take the dive.

Because it is difficult to hit with marks while wearing dire/trailblazer with deathly chill slotted.

If you’re dying to that then that speaks a lot more about you then necros.

Thieves will dodge, eles cleanse it off in 0.2s from getting condies. Guards might get victimized, until they decide to pop one of their hundred heals and yet another stunbreak. Rest has enough hp to simply not die from something like that.

Lolwhat?

People cleansing /= trailblazer staff reaper hard to play

Bring your staff reaper to spvp ranked, see how far you go.
I said clearly – necro has easy entry (hp, ds, minions, staff too if someone loves it). But getting good on necro vs opponents who know their stuff, that’s another story.

Justine.6351:

Lolwhat?

People cleansing /= trailblazer staff reaper hard to play

Staff necro has a dps output that is somewhere between staff guardian and shortbow thief. Nobody dies to a staff necro. Staff is a pure utility weapon with no killing power.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

Bring your staff reaper to spvp ranked, see how far you go.
I said clearly – necro has easy entry (hp, ds, minions, staff too if someone loves it). But getting good on necro vs opponents who know their stuff, that’s another story.

Er, staff is quite often taken to SPvP on necro. It is great utility.

In sPvP, cleaving is actually the best attribute of a necro, and not to underestimate.

I used to use staff all the time on pvp necro, I’ve found myself going away from it the last year or so. Axe and dagger just seem much better options unless you take souk marks.

NeXeD.3042:

Axe and dagger just seem much better options unless you take souk marks.

Marjory Delaqua approved!

NeXeD.3042:

I used to use staff all the time on pvp necro, I’ve found myself going away from it the last year or so. Axe and dagger just seem much better options unless you take souk marks.

Exactly. The moment they butchered deathly chill in spvp staff become “utility” with no kill potential. After you burn through marks you go shroud, use utilities or just /dance before you can swap to 2nd weapon for real action.

And it’s not like marks are that good anyway. Without soul marks they’re garbage (guards block’em, everyone around guards tends to have aegis, guess from who?). They don’t make good traps as they’re visible from space. One evade is all you need to neutralize 4/5 necro’s staff skills if they pile them up close enough. There are way better methods of applying posion, bleeds, chills and fears then crippling yourself with this “utility” weapon.

ZeftheWicked.3076:

NeXeD.3042:

I used to use staff all the time on pvp necro, I’ve found myself going away from it the last year or so. Axe and dagger just seem much better options unless you take souk marks.

Exactly. The moment they butchered deathly chill in spvp staff become “utility” with no kill potential. After you burn through marks you go shroud, use utilities or just /dance before you can swap to 2nd weapon for real action.

And it’s not like marks are that good anyway. Without soul marks they’re garbage (guards block’em, everyone around guards tends to have aegis, guess from who?). They don’t make good traps as they’re visible from space. One evade is all you need to neutralize 4/5 necro’s staff skills if they pile them up close enough. There are way better methods of applying posion, bleeds, chills and fears then crippling yourself with this “utility” weapon.

That’s not why you use staff. You use staff because a ranged AoE fear is one of the best playmakers available to necro. You use staff because Putrid mark is the most reliable condi transfer available to us. You use staff because chilblains is excellent for kiting.

But Soul Marks do exist and the only other real contender for that line is SR adpet 3 if you have spite GM 3. I actually think marks are great for burning someones dodge. By the time you’re actually fighting on point they can’t really dodge it anyways since it’ll go off instantly.

That’s actually a good point, didn’t think of it that way, thanks for input guys.