Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, with all of the angry/discontent discussion going around about class balance and uselessness, I figured it would be a nice fix to have a fun chat in the meantime, so tell me: What do you love about the Necromancer as a class? As a being? Does anything in particular pull you into to wanting to be one of the spell-slinging masters of dark arts?

In light of discussion, please try as hard as possible to refrain from pulling balance necessities into this thread; just happy talk about why we all play this class of ours.

Playing necromancer is immensely satisfying. What I love the most about is is boon corruption. To me, every mesmer lockdown spike I do feels trivial compared to the satisfaction of corrupting 25 stacks of might or stability or what have you.

And after being skeptical for a while, I’m starting to really look forward to reaper, mainly for really strong downcleave!

I love the passive signets

Personally, I love that feeling of sizzling peoples’ boons into something more useful :3 I also love how the Necro kit can be rather malleable and can be used flexibly as needed; As an example, Doom makes for a great surprise interrupt for important enemy cooldowns, but you can also use it to leverage your own cooldowns, or for burst damage as a Terrormancer.

For me, it’s all about the minions. Necro can pull it through better than any other class. In GW1, this was extremely satisfying and worked pretty well with the game mechanics there. In GW2 I find it a bit different, but still very much fun. Especially when I try and build my character like a fortress: in the centre of a mad, raging, fleasheating mob there stands the Master. Like a mountain. In order to fight the mountain, you need to survive the storm first. Now how cool is that?

I love how hyper effective toughness and vitality is for us and how we can get 50% crit without any precision.

One of my favorite things to do is to drop wells and then DS and have my wells start crit-ing.

I run a gimmicky vampiric brawler build, and I am having loads of fun in the Silverwastes and WvWvW with it (haven’t done it in sPvP because Zealot armor isn’t a thing there).

Honestly, I don’t really care if I’m not always 100% top tier competitive. I just want to have fun.

I really appreciate wanting to have a more positive discussion (because, yeah, this forum) but feel the need to point out that a thread that focuses only on positives is no more healthy than one that has only negatives.

But back on topic, I’m still leveling (in the 50s). But my necro consistently can take on fights I never could have as a guardian or ranger (my other characters at this level or above) at this level. I can wreck entire groups of +4 or +5 enemies with relative ease. It’s just awesome how tanky necro is for a cloth-wearer.

One of my absolute favorite things with my power-tank/well-bomber build is that I can take an enemy camp in WvW on my own. And by that, I mean I can fight everyone at the same time and come out in good health. It’s absolutely fantastic to almost look on NPCs with disdain at their power (also, being able to take on champ enemies solo is fun as hell)

I love how necros still try to sugar coat our problems.

spoj.9672:

I love how necros still try to sugar coat our problems.

Thats because necros are masochists…

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Masochism yeah…

spoj.9672:

I love how necros still try to sugar coat our problems.

But, spoj, what do you un-sarcastically love about necro, seeing as you play the class? It’s okay to feel positive about necro once in a while

Necros are fun to play. That’s why we are all still sticking with them. (Except for the creepy Emo/goth kids that are more scary than their characters. They might have other reasons

I got into necros from GW1 because I like the duality of life and death in a character. Necro/Ranger then Necro/Monk. I like Role playing so story is actually important to me. I don’t think my necro is the dark prince of evil most others might. I play mostly PvE and WvW so I’m not looking to be a competitive player (My guilds were competitive in GW1 – HoH winners Holla!! ).

That being said I’ve been playing since the game started and when I free roam WvW and am taken out by quicker players who I get the drop on or someone who ports in and messes me up before I see them I have to agree with the balance issues. It’s better after the J23 patch but I can only imagine how bad it is in PvP. We are only wanted for WvW zergs and not much else. Other jobs we’re tolerated and filler at best.

That being said. I have fun with what I like to do.

I love characters that use the dark magic, darken, scary and necros delivery me all in one package. Plus we are pretty awesome ofc! xD

Vydahr.4285:

One of my absolute favorite things with my power-tank/well-bomber build is that I can take an enemy camp in WvW on my own. And by that, I mean I can fight everyone at the same time and come out in good health. It’s absolutely fantastic to almost look on NPCs with disdain at their power (also, being able to take on champ enemies solo is fun as hell)

Can you post the build? I’d like to see it.

I just started playing the necromancer in PvP and i am using the Nosc cele build and I gotta say, I am having a lot more fun with this class than I anticipated. It is actually making me want to do conquest.

I like it, I will never play at a high level so most of the complaints about the class has no effect on my enjoyment. It is just a fun class.

Misguided.5139:

Vydahr.4285:

One of my absolute favorite things with my power-tank/well-bomber build is that I can take an enemy camp in WvW on my own. And by that, I mean I can fight everyone at the same time and come out in good health. It’s absolutely fantastic to almost look on NPCs with disdain at their power (also, being able to take on champ enemies solo is fun as hell)

Can you post the build? I’d like to see it.

Here you go: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAoYWjk0QLNWTD+0A7NOsGKZAEyl8MBigMguCxwkC-TZRBwAbOEAlLDs4EAYd/BAPBAA

I’ve also had success with it in PvP as well, though that takes a bit more maneuvering and practice to get just right lol Let me know what you thinkg

Vydahr.4285:

Misguided.5139:

Vydahr.4285:

One of my absolute favorite things with my power-tank/well-bomber build is that I can take an enemy camp in WvW on my own. And by that, I mean I can fight everyone at the same time and come out in good health. It’s absolutely fantastic to almost look on NPCs with disdain at their power (also, being able to take on champ enemies solo is fun as hell)

Can you post the build? I’d like to see it.

Here you go: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAoYWjk0QLNWTD+0A7NOsGKZAEyl8MBigMguCxwkC-TZRBwAbOEAlLDs4EAYd/BAPBAA

I’ve also had success with it in PvP as well, though that takes a bit more maneuvering and practice to get just right lol Let me know what you thinkg

Here’s mine, and it’s been pretty effective in SW and WvW. Haven’t tried it in PvP, though Knight’s would probably work.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQRBIbhG2JNiQRNYPNgpNAHO4IXogBQDsCzhoESCaZsGNLA-TVSCABScQAg4JA4qSQAOBAFp8zAzfkq+DK6HwZ/BA-w

I find the skills pretty mostly, and I love the concept of Death Shroud, Reaper Shroud looks even more amazing. I know it isn’t going to replace my Guardian or Mesmer, but I find it a fun toy profession.

~ What I said on another thread discussing why we continue to play Necromancer:

“Horror and death metal fanatic, highly empathetic and philosophical, fascinated with emotion, capable of being terribly selfish and completely selfless… Necromancer suits who I am as a human being basically, lol.

I like to suffer the pain of my parties burden by lifting their conditions (Plague Signet), growing stronger for each that I draw. I like wanting to be hit instead of wanting to get away (Spectrals). I like putting the corpses of my enemies to better use (Life Force). I like the image of cutting my palm for power and subjecting my target to the pain I’m feeling (Blood Is Power). I like waiting for my target to feel like they have a failsafe only to turn it against them (Corrupt Boon). I like blood… I like to hurt and to be hurt… You get the idea. I’m a freak!. "

Best way I could put it. I’m a bit cold on the surface but a loyal and loving person beneath. I see Necromancer as somewhat similar. Maybe a bit scary to approach but selfless in the sense that it draws pain from it’s allies to relieve them. I relate to the Necromancer and I have the most fun with it, which is what’s most important!

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Best way I could put it. I’m a bit cold on the surface but a loyal and loving person beneath. I see Necromancer as somewhat similar. Maybe a bit scary to approach but selfless in the sense that it draws pain from it’s allies to relieve them. I relate to the Necromancer and I have the most fun with it, which is what’s most important!

Not to mention being able to draw all the aggro and keeping mobs off your squishier allies. And being able to live through such an assault is lovely

I play WvW only so my perspective is for WvW group/zerg gameplay. I love my necro because they can lay aoe bombs like no tomorrow. Due to our lack of mobility and escapes, I have to constantly watch my positioning. I have to cycle through my weapon skills, deathshroud, lich/plague, etc.. accordingly. I have to judge how much lifeforce I have and whether to go into shroud, or execute plan B. One mistake usually means I’ll not recover and likely die. I like this high risk, high reward gameplay style.

We have no one button invis, one button leap out of range, one button invuln abilities. So everything you do matters, and being out of position will kill you almost every time. It’s a high concentration, active gameplay style. Kind of like elementalists (my 2nd fav) except we have no mobility but we’re tankier in exchange.

So I really do like my necro, it’s not a class for everybody. I’m happy to see that we’ve gained sustain (via Blood Magic) and tankiness (via Death Magic) due to the traits revamp. It has really helped us out in WvW, and made us even more valuable to the GWEN meta than ever before.

With all that said, there are things that are out of sync, and some synergy isn’t quite there. The class can use improvements, even in WvW, and especially so for other gameplay modes.

I play Necromancer primarily because I played it for 7 years as my main in GW1 and loved the concept of a hexxer and control-based caster. I also loved the extensive minion mastery in GW1 because it was a lot of fun and incredibly effective.

Of course, a lot has changed in the move to GW2. Minions are hilariously low intelligence and you’re limited to one per slot, Spiteful Spirit has gone from being incredible DPS to being an unused GM trait, hexes don’t exist, Necromancers are bad at applying conditions when supposedly that’s their thing, and a number of other issues.

At least a lot of the same feel carried over between games, though, which is what lent the Necromancer to staying as my main. I just wish it were better is all.

Swiftness for all from warhorn pls…

Misguided.5139:

I really appreciate wanting to have a more positive discussion (because, yeah, this forum) but feel the need to point out that a thread that focuses only on positives is no more healthy than one that has only negatives.

This isn’t necessarily true; With negative topic matter comes a negative attitude. By having a thread where we can all just talk about why we enjoy our class for what it does, we can cut out a lot of the negative tension and discussion that follows a negatively-charged thread topic.

First things first… not restricting yourself by having one´s head stuck up your own kitten (aka exclusively looking at one side of an argument) usually helps to get a better perspective on things. In this case, the game as a whole, the place each class has in it and the different interactions between them. This isn´t a “healthy discussion” as long as we try to turn a blind eye on the bad stuff there is, don´t take a look at what other classes have and don´t put the things discussed into context (e.g. different game-modes).

That being said, I´ve been struggling to keep a “neutral” view on all things concerning Necromancer for a while now, but not without reason I think.

I find it really hard not to focus on at least the fundamental issues our class has, given the circumstances. We´ve had to deal with these issues ever since the launch of this game (mobility, active defenses, meaningful team support etc., you know the drill) and in my book all attempts of solving some of these issues have proven to be futile.

Basically the only thing that keeps me from relegating my Necro back to camping ore nodes and storing trash cluttering up my bank is that it was my very first character and thus has a lot of good memories attached to it. Exploring the world for the first time, fighting through dungeons in green gear and with horrible builds, dabbling around in PvP/WvW when nobody had a clue etc. etc..
Also, I still like the dark magician-flair very much and can appreciate the class on a very basic game-play level. It´s a rather straightforward class and I consider that a good thing.

Sadly, that´s all the love I have left for my Necromancer currently.

I love my necro.
From a lore point of view it’s a very rich profession to play. I generally find warriors and plain casters to be a bit more dull.
The idea of playing a dark magician that grows stronger with each death, drains life force, and turns your fortune into misery is just great.

Also since I played a necromancer in GW1 it kinda stuck with me. I found the necromancer in GW1 to be really well developed. And I really do miss a lot of aspects, some of which simply can’t be put in this game (hexes) and others which I still hope will come or change. I probably miss minionmancer the most, as the GW2 is but a shimmer of the GW1 minionmancer.

On top of that, I also think that necromancer in GW2 has some of the more fun / interesting and visually most appealing abilities.
Marks and Wells are awesome concept wise; Lich Form and Plague look pretty sweet and Death Shroud is IMO the best looking ability in the game (until reapers come).

That all said. From a gameplay point of view Necromancer needs a lot of work.
- Minions (and pets in general) have horrible AI, this really needs some work. There are a lot of professions that actually suffer from this and it cuts down an entire slice of your profession’s abilities.
- Necromancer being a very selfish profession makes sense in concept, but doesn’t really fit the gameplay. Necro’s are hurt by this concept and for a good game to come to be gameplay>lore. It’s time necro’s got some love in the teamplay department (and there are plenty of ways to make this work without going outside of the necromancer lore).
- Necromancer is one of the least mobile professions (we can stack swiftness on ourselves ok, but we have no solid blinks/teleports/leaps/etc), which is OK in concept. What is not OK however, is that we neither have the damage or survivability to make up for that. If you’re not good at running, you at least need the power to hold your ground and/or slap people senseless.

Necro’s really are only good at the GWEN-meta in WvW. That is one relative small aspect in a pretty big game. WvW Roaming / Dungeons / sPvP; necro’s fall behind in all those and it’s really not changed all that much in the past years.

(Posting only the positive things is just being naive. We have to face the negatives of this profession. However it doesn’t hurt to mention some of the good things as well.)

To address the concerns of those saying we need to keep in mind the negative side of an argument, I counter with this: For the most part, the rest of the forum is the negative side of the argument. There’s very little positivity about the class in the forum, so, realistically, a single thread where all we do is gush over what we love and what keeps us playing as necros is perfectly healthy. It’s a space to breathe out from the oftentimes depressing air of the rest of our dark little forum. As necros… We need a thread like this. A thread that keeps us from totally giving up, because, godkitten , some of the stuff that’s said around about necros is soul-crushing.

Let’s keep the love going a little bit longer, shall we?

I love how tanky it is. In PVP not so much, but in PVE it always surprises me how much of a beating I can actually take.

Out of every class in gw2, SoS is still my favorite I WIN button.

I like how I can feel like a mastermind as I control a small swarm of minions to overwhelm my enemies, and really control the pace of a fight. I also like the way I can make my necro look thematically how I like to imagine he fuels his magic.

While I do miss the sheer power my necromancer held in GW1 by minion number and strength, I do enjoy how much more flexible my minion master can be in GW2 while still having a utility bar dedicated to minions. Even if I get moa morph’d and lose all my minions, or accidentally step in a puddle and have my flesh golem collapse, I can still bring some stuff to the table.