Guild Wars 2

Before release, I looked forward to playing necromancer with so much anticipation. I was not too sure what to expect, but I kept an open mind.

I leveled my necro to 80, my only 80, through solo pve, story, and crafting. I had not a freaking clue to how bad this class was. I started to search on forums and post and saw I was not the only one who felt this way. I tried so many different builds it’s ridiculous. Support, condition, and power are all so weak in comparison to other classes. I have read hours and hours, tried strategy upon strategy. I can barely hold my own in any sort of pvp environment. Pve is even a pain. There is a skill point located in a maze in orr guarded by a veteran mob. I can manage to survive quite awhile with no issue; however, it takes awhile to clear the maze path to get to the skill point. By the time I kill all the mobs and fish heads on my way to the skill point, everything respawns and I am unable to spawn the skill point monster. I follow a warrior in the maze after several failed attempts and watch him “lol-100blades-lol” his way no problem.

Great! I understand our class is not a burst class. Can we have a freaking build that lets us kill stuff in a reasonable amount of time? that way when we are killing a group of monsters we just don’t keep dealing with respawn after respawn? It is a nightmare in orr and in any pvp environment. I feel worthless in a dungeon as I go in with a tank support build and guardian with a 2h is just tanking while I am there to debuff mobs and make dark combos.

I don’t know what great knowledge is there to be discovered about ds. It’s a second life bar with a set of skills. Dancing in and out of ds to maintain assorted buffs? Is that the big secret? Is it supposed to help us survive more? Ya know, for when you’re getting focused and it only buys you 2 more seconds at best in pvp? Cause I have really tried to do all sorts of things with ds and by far it does not provided me with some sort of mystical op-ness that Jon Peters seems to think there is.

I feel tired from this game already and it’s all thanks to this class. I don’t want to invest the time again to get two professions above 300 and to get another class to 80. I invested quite a bit into my necro just to be easily outdone in any category by any other class.

It seriously frustrates me to see and know what other classes can do. I watch my partner play guardian now. It baffles me how much easier to play and what kind of power another class can bring. This whole necro thing is really disappointing.

We need faster and more reliable capabilities. We need more mobility. WHat is the freaking point of having conditions if we can be out ran, if our gap closer can be easily dodged and our conditions easily removed.

I leveled an engineer for comparison and now I want to quit after seeing such a drastic difference. At level 40, the tool sets I have access, along with f1-f4 keys, make me feel like death shroud is one of the most failed concepts out of all the classes in this game. The only thing that death shroud could ever bring to the table that another class might not have is the second life bar. That is even questionable considering how fast the bar can drain under fire. We get a second life bar, great! We also lose access to all our other skills while in ds. Engineers can swap weapon sets and use f1-f4 keys without being forced to use only four skills.

I was really hoping to play this class, but it looks like I won’t be able to enjoy myself at all. I guess there is a reason you don’t see too many necromancers running around orr or in pvp.

Thanks for the opportunity to vent my frustrations.

He said that just to buy time.

I agree that the class is terrible shape but before we get buffed our list of bugs needs to be fixed.

I also switched to engineer yesterday and it’s stupid. The cool down on everything is less than my wells and he takes things down without much trouble. Heck more than half his spells can be used underwater. Best part is i’m using most of my weapon attacks instead of spamming the 1 button in order to save my other attacks to survive in those hard moment.

The only time i ever saw a class having a hard in orr was a mesmer and he was doing less damage than me. I don’t know how thats possible but it was.

Death shroud is pointless outside of being annoying and trying to get those few extra hits in before being downed. It hits like a wet noodle too unless you spec into it but who the f is? If so does it even work well? So far i haven’t seen this so called op status.

I really enjoy the class and idea of it but come on, this is pathetic.

Aside from the many buggy skills, and the many broken traits, and the nonfunctioning minion AI, and the lack of burst DPS, and the dearth of end-game condition gear, and the 1s fear while other classes have 2 or 3s fear, and while we’re on that point, the fact that many other classes do our job better, and the bad lifetap mechanics, and the lack of viable alternative builds, I don’t know what you’re talking about, necromancers are fine.

In the right hands, a necromancer can be quite a little nuisance in pvp, with our mosquito-like hemmorages gnawing at our foes, our tedious second-life bar that a thief or warrior must burn through before rampaging onward, and how long we take to die spamming the Plague Form blind over and over again. You just have to put up with feeling somtimes that you’re like the fat kid at Guild Wars 2 High, wondering why he’s always last picked for the tournament team.

But we do have DS.

… and also that shadow scythe staff animation looks prettykittensweet, amirite?

Nah i feel more like a small dog with guts. But when ever there is glory to be had the ground suddenly becomes wet.

It may have been raining with my awesomeness, but somehow i don’t think that was what happened.

^ You made me chuckle, good stuff.
In the right hands, a Necromancer can be a little nuisance in PvP yep. But put the same hands on a Mesmer..now you’re actually getting somewhere!

The Kin has a Necro with near full exotics. (Lacking jewelry) but honestly, it’s fairly abysmal. over 2k power with 41% crit chance and 37 crit damage (not the best but it works.) The Kin has retrained traits again and again and again and again. First was a full minion build that used staves. Conditions were fun, but honestly they don’t seem to really do much.

After that, The Kin tried a dual dagger siphon build. This is impossible. 25 HP at lvl 80 is ridiculously low and with the 50% siphon, woo, you get 28 hp instead. The siphon on the dagger skill is just horrible. While it’s a bit better, it’s far too weak when you have an HP pool of 19k+ and you barely drain 1500 hp (That’s if you don’t get interrupted.).

Even with the 50% minion hp, the minions still die fast. The golem is actually fine. At level 80 with the minion damage and hp traits, it can actually solo mobs that aren’t veteran. The other minions just..Die.

Axes seemed good at first..But keeping the vulnerability stacks on anything long enough to do much is only good for a one trick pony. (Axe + focus. Use the #4 along with well of suffering and watch the vulns build up). Of course, pvp wise this is easily cleared by anyone who can cancel conditions. All the bugs and such in our trait trees is maddening and, honestly, as some have said, our skills simply do not synergize well.

By all rights, axes SHOULD look like a good weapon. Vulnerability, good damage…But something just feels off about them.

You can always do well ifyou do well.

most people in other forum and site and real life friends say this is not necromancer. and this necromancer is weak and hard than other classes. he must summon as many things as mesmer. mesmer can spawn illusions almost every 5 seconds. once google “necromancer” on google. necromancer is a summoner not stealing life vampire. and most people like skeletons and evils and raising dead than something like death shroud or plague. they say it is funny that necromancer has various skills. but mesmer is one good type summoner. even mesmer weapon skills are summoning skills. utility skills are summoning skills with instant interrupt skills. necromancer is lame and weak because of those life steal and death shroud and plauge, rich form. most gamers think necromancer is a summoner. he must summon bunch of weak things or one strong thing. it is obvious that summoning things is funnier and more easy to be balanced than one man life stealing sandbag.

Gah, I typed a long reply and got eaten by Firefox, so here’s a summary.

1. PvE solo
Try to AoE 3-5 mobs at the same time instead of killing them one by one. Many of our best skills are AoE based and we have a variety of ways to kite, so play to our strengths.

Condition build: staff & S/D, use Carrion gear for easy access but you want to end up with Condition Dmg,/Presicion/Toughness gear. Can handle ~3 regular mobs without breaking a sweat, can solo vets + adds (thanks to Epidemic) easily, and can solo champions that don’t have frequent ranged attacks regardless whether or not they summon adds.

Power build: staff & A/H (axe is not really important, but nice to have for retaliation), use Berserker gear + ruby mithril accessories for easy access. Eventually you want ruby orichalcum accessories. Can handle 5+ regular mobs easily, can kill fast, can pop into DS to see huge numbers (5k+ life blasts, 2k staff autoattacks, 4k putrid marks…etc.). Can handle vets easily, but soloing champions can be an issue.

Minion build: similar to Power build, but with minions. Can run through all of Orr harvesting every node, never stopping to kill anything, and never die. Can take on 5+ regular mobs while eating a sandwitch (marks, explode bone minions, afk). Can solo vets easily, although some champions can be difficult because minion AI is terrible and they will not dodge attacks.

2. PvP
For pug sPvP you can do fine with either Condition or Power build. Condition build will last longer, and you’ll have an easier time in 1 vs 1 regardless of opponents. The only downside is most professions can run away from you faster than you can chase them. You can also suvive for much longer than just about any other build when focused. Plague is really, really annoying for your enemies. Power build will blow people up…as long as you don’t get CC’d.

For organized sPvP figure it out with your team. Most likely Condition build, since you won’t explode in 5 seconds if focused.

For WvWvW, Power+Wells build. Too many condition removals in a zerg for Condition build to shine…although occationally you do get to Epidemic that 25 stacks of bleed onto 20 people. There’s nothing like flanking an unsuspecting zerg and droping ~10k AoE damage right on top of them. I’ve been in fights where 3 flankers did so much AoE damage that ~10 defenders were able to overcome 20+ attackers who had seige weapons built.

3. DS
If you speced into it, DS is your primary source of damage in a Power build. Just focus on 1) generating LF 2) stay in DS as long as possible to burst 3) avoid notice, because you cannot survive focused fire.

If you did not spec into it, think of DS as a shield that replenishes itself slowly. Pop in every time you expect large amounts of incoming damage, use the #3 and possibly #4 ability depending on situation, and then pop out immediately. This is especially important for Condition builds because you aren’t applying conditions while in DS.

You had mentioned that maze – a Condition or Minion necro can run from one end to the other, and then straight back out without killing anything. Between heals, snares, dodges, and DS the regular mobs and melee focused vet can’t do enough damage to kill you. I’ve ran through it, twice. It’s harder for Power necros because they are more fragile, but then you can just kill your way through very quickly.

Hopefully these tips will help you enjoy the necro more, and that Anet will come up with some tweaks soon.