Guild Wars 2

Hi guys

I’m gonna start doing PvP and WvW soon, and I wondered if there is anything that I should know…

I’m playing Necromancer, and I plan on starting with a Dhummfire/Terror build.

Is that the way to go for solo or small group roaming? I know our weakest point is lack of mobility.
Is there any way to counter that?

Any tips/advice for experienced roaming players?

I’ll try and do my best to be really good at it, but because I’m new to WvW roaming, I’m sure there are key things I don’t know regarding the playstyle.

Appreciate your help in advance
Thanks and a happy new year to you all

Team synergy will help overcome that. If you encounter someone and they are about to run, switch to DS and use dark path before they get more than say.. 6-900 away from you. After that they are gone depending on the class. Takes time and practice to develop tricks and ways to keep them in. Best of luck roaming.

I personally feel Necros shine brighter in small groups than solo, but I roam solo all the time with a Terror (but no Master of Terror) build. You can hold your own against basically anything if you play your cards right, and if you actually gear up some Toughness (I only have a bit at the moment, but I’m going to be swapping up builds to try something else soon), then you can hold out quite well without dedicating all of your utils to Spectral survivability.

Unless you have Flesh Wurm pre-set and get a full distance return on Spectral Walk, you aren’t escaping on horizontal areas. That’s just something you’ll have to come to terms with. Your best bet is to be cautious and keep your eye on the horizon, then pre-emptively skate out if there’s a group running in. Or if you’re me, just challenge the group and see if you can distract some of them and spread them out in a more disorganized fashion. It depends on how much you hate dying.

Vertical escapes are your best bet. If you don’t have Spectral Walk, you can still use Death Shroud to absorb a lot more fall damage than other people can, even though it transfers over to your health when it’s depleted. If someone knocks you off a medium cliff, you can pop DS mid-air and absorb it, then run away. Of course, if you DO use Spectral Walk, then you can fall from Valhalla and survive, which can be nice.

As borrok said, it’s going to just generally take practice for you to come up with your own nuances. Just have fun with it and play around.

Oh, and you can cast Grasping Dead, Enfeebling Blood, and all of the Marks behind the direction you’re facing. That means with some practice, you can kite using your fastest direction, forward, and drop things behind you instead of trying to strafe-kite, which doesn’t work nearly as well. Manipulating the camera and setting auto-runs and stuff can be tricky at first, but you get the hang of it after a bit.

best necro escape: jump into water.

(sadly not applicable in most areas)

lazycalm.5186:

Hi guys

I’m gonna start doing PvP and WvW soon, and I wondered if there is anything that I should know…

I’m playing Necromancer, and I plan on starting with a Dhummfire/Terror build.

Is that the way to go for solo or small group roaming? I know our weakest point is lack of mobility.
Is there any way to counter that?

Any tips/advice for experienced roaming players?

I’ll try and do my best to be really good at it, but because I’m new to WvW roaming, I’m sure there are key things I don’t know regarding the playstyle.

Appreciate your help in advance
Thanks and a happy new year to you all

- Go your planned Dhuumfire/Terror build. I would personally go for Rabid Gear.
- Make sure sure you have Blood is Power, Signet of Spite and Epidemic equiped on your bar before heading into a camp.
- Aggro every NPC then use Signet of Spite, then Blood is Power, MoB, Tainted Shackles and Epidemic before melee guards get to you or use their second CC skill.
- Apply as many area bleeds as possible and watch all the NPCs is said camp burn down in 20-30 seconds.
- Equip Signet of Locusts, run to next target, unequip again before entering combat.
- If you notice an enemy or enemies, equip skills before entering combat that will deal best with them or give you a chance to run (I never do :p) if you have time.
- More or less repeat what you did to the camp against everything else in WvW and you should be able to burn away most players the same way. If not you really need to be on your game and avoid hammer smashes etc., because you’re going to have little to no stun breaks, boons or mobility with Rabid Dhuumfire build.

Honestly I haven’t seen a class burn down a camp like said build can without even committing to the fight. The only issue is fully upgraded camps if you try to take on all NPCs at once.
:)

Your biggest problem will be mobility – as the only profession without a forward-moving leap/teleport/etc. [and with no invisibility] you can’t really escape well. So you may want to get in a party with someone who has an AoE speed boost.

As GrandmaFunk said, water is your friend – there you can have Deadly Feast which lets you dart forward (or toward your foe, so be careful). I REALLY miss the lakes that occupied where the ruins are now in the BLs.

99% of the movies that you will see will contain the line “focus the necro first”.

rogerwilko.6895:

99% of the movies that you will see will contain the line “focus the necro first”.

Which you should always start a fight knowing. Countering that idea and causing groups to waste time trying to focus you down is key sometimes. If you don’t at least dodge the first set of incoming leaps your doing it wrong. Harder to stave off enemies as a Rabid roamer compared to a Well Build that has access to pulse blinds etc., but there’s times when you just burn/bleed out 3-4 attackers to the point that they have to either regroup or redouble their efforts which can lead to their wipe in desperation. Or you down 1-3, they revive and finish you off… or you all go down at once and they kill you in down state… * cough *

Retreating is usually never an option (except your best friend… WP before fighting an unwinnable fight). Sure running away from your enemies dropping Marks behind you can sometimes kill them with DPS condimancers, but your best best is to stand and fight (if in combat), use CC, stay out of melee, dodge fatal CC attacks and try to recover. When someone decides to run and uses leaps a lot you’re not going to catch them unless you burn em out first or you pull off some Necro Judo with Chillblains, Grasping Dead, TS and Dark Path (gets easier over time). Chain CC Hammer attacks are your worst enemy unless you’re running Wells.

Mobility is only really an issue while fighting. Again Signet of the Locust is good enough to get to where your going. I outpace guardians and others using speed boost when they don’t keep swiftness up 24/7 and im only about 400 range back of those who do when crossing a map. You will never keep up to chain leapers.

In the end Rabid Necs and condi Necro roaming in general, at least solo, isn’t about finding a group of 1-4 enemies just to run away from them when the going gets tough. Your job in WvW is to run up to a camp and burn/bleed it down before the swords are up for more than 5 seconds or so, giving the enemy about 20 seconds to react to swords before camp gets capped. Like I said before, you can kill entire camps in about 20-30 seconds, Sentries sometimes go down in less than 10 seconds.

You usually win 1v1 as a Rabid Roamer and can win 2v1 very well too.

Balekai.6083:

- If you notice an enemy or enemies, equip skills before entering combat that will deal best with them or give you a chance to run (I never do :p) if you have time.

Balekai mentioned a lot of good info, but I think this is something to always keep in the back of your head. It can be intimidating/irritating/etc. to micro-manage your utilities based on what’s happening, but it can really help out. I haven’t typically been running Plague Signet recently, but if I see an Engi or Necro, I almost always swap it in for something else I don’t think I’ll need as badly, like Spectral Grasp. It can be the difference maker in a small-scale engagement.

You’ll learn what you feel is best as you play around with utilities, but I’d recommend getting used to where things are laid out at in the utility grid so you can swap quickly. Super useful.

I currently have an 80 Warrior, Guardian, Mesmer and Necromancer. Necromancer is my least played class (although I’m starting it up again). Though, I can safely say that in solo WvW as a condition build, they are fantastic. Honestly, they are amazing.