Guild Wars 2

Fear doesnt exactly hard counter things. And blinds as the Necro can give only really counter melee. So while thieves get stealth and blackpowder, we get DS and that one well everyone uses? I guess you could consider boon corruption a counter? Am I missing anything?

Edit: A better explanation is do we have ways to avoid damage beyond blind, DS and Dodge? Fixed title to be clearer.

No. Blinds really aren’t that big of an issue to me, normally, though they aren’t fun.

Bhawb.7408:

No. Blinds really aren’t that big of an issue to me, normally, though they aren’t fun.

I think he’s asking if necro can hard counter another class with something other than blind.

What well that everybody uses?
Condi necro gets countered by blinds to an extent. Power does not.

robertul.3679:

What well that everybody uses?
Condi necro gets countered by blinds to an extent. Power does not.

OP is asking how necros prevent OTHER classes from doing damage. So yes, pretty much just well of darkness and plague form blinds. Warhorn 4 acts as an interrupt and you can try to use fear to interrupt skills, but OP already disregarded fear.

sadly, despite supposedly being the condition class, we don’t have many “hard” conditions except a daze on WH4 and our fears

I think blind is the only reliable way, tbh. Weakness also good, you still take dmg but 50%.

Chill is pretty potent since it slows skill recharge and has the greatest reduction to enemy movespeed.

You can say that we have some “aggressive” “counters” if you describe it like that. We have couple skills that, when used in right time, will put counterpressure and hopefully make the attacker retreat.

Corrupt Boon might serve as one example, Well of Suffering at feet to counterpressure melee attackers. Fears. Signet of Spite. Condition transfers.

As for more direct sources of negation, we have couple (3 not counting combos, 2 on very long cooldowns) blinds, Weakness (if you land it), and soft CC which is easily negated in the meta.

And Death Shroud, ultimate solution and second death bar.

To answer the OP, the necromancer is designed based on the idea that he “want” to be hit. That’s why there are barely any skill that counter damage on the necromancer.

Now, does it work? , I’d say it work in some niche build and it may work a bit better when the siphon will work in DS. ATM, by using a combination of skill you may achieve a temporary high resilience to damage. After the changes, will most likely have to achieve a balanced game around a wise use of DS and life force that will allow him to regen it’s life through siphon will in DS and gain LF while out of DS. This will just be an enhancement of Necromancer effective health but if we are lucky it will work for 90% of the content (the 10% remaining are here for one shot KO mechanism and desperate situation)

A specific skill cannot be considered a hard counter. A whole proffesion is.

I think we dont hard counter anything, though we give thieves and mesmers a run for their money. Our ability to hit multiple targets at once, hit stealth targets, and endure quite a kot of damage means they should die to our aoe alone. Of course they can disengage, and come back to kill us with our main tricks on cd.

half the time i think we’re hard counters to ourselves. if you chase anything in wvw, and don’t kill it, it either ran or you died.

Aenesthesia.1697:

A specific skill cannot be considered a hard counter. A whole proffesion is.

I think we dont hard counter anything, though we give thieves and mesmers a run for their money. Our ability to hit multiple targets at once, hit stealth targets, and endure quite a kot of damage means they should die to our aoe alone. Of course they can disengage, and come back to kill us with our main tricks on cd.

This is true. Although one could argue that Black Powder is a hard counter to melee. We also have things that pulse blind. And we have marks that announce the presence of stealthed targets.

I think I am looking for things that make you immune to damage of a certain type for a duration.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Edit: A better explanation is do we have ways to avoid damage beyond blind, DS and Dodge? Fixed title to be clearer.

We have blind, Dodge, DS, Unholy sanctuary (you still take the damage, hopefully once they change how DS healing works this will be more viable), dodge, one interrupt, and fear.

We have access to a few skills that give protection, but th is is not a hard counter. You take reduced damage, not avoid the damage. Same arguments go with chill and weakness.

Lich form has a knockback. Plague form has blinds. The flesh golem has a knock down.

There is no access to daze, immune, agis, etc.

I’m not really a fan of blind lately. I’ve been using large amounts of Weakness application combined with Protection and I’m pretty hard to take down. Using both at the same time can be a waste unless you’re being focused, but if they cleanse the Weakness pop your Protection until you can reapply the Weakness.

Thieves don’t like me.

Chill can also work wonders for reducing the damage an enemy dishes out.
(will also be much better when reaper comes)

It + cripple can also work wonders against melee specs.

WhiteCrow.5310:

I’m not really a fan of blind lately. I’ve been using large amounts of Weakness application combined with Protection and I’m pretty hard to take down. Using both at the same time can be a waste unless you’re being focused, but if they cleanse the Weakness pop your Protection until you can reapply the Weakness.

Thieves don’t like me.

I want to see your build. I’ve been thinking of doing the same thing.