Guild Wars 2

I was just about set to start up a new character as a necromancer but I decided to do the smart thing for once (unlike before I started a thief) and get an introduction to how they work.

Now I’m almost completely disabused of the idea because this entire section of the forum appears to be nothing but bug reports and the devs calling bugs “new features.”

Is it worth bothering to try out a necro even?

Yes!!

There are some issues and quirks with necro, but for me there is just no other profession that offers the interesting kind of playstyle that necro does.

The bugs don’t make it unplayable; its just that we want to see them addressed.

Even playing one of the most bugged specs, the Minion Master, it’s incredibly fun. I tried it in PvP for a while and still enjoyed it, although I found a build i like considerably more in PvP, and not because of minion bugs.

Consider it a quest to master Death Shroud
I started a necro just an hour ago, so far so good, top 1 or 2 in spvp
Did a 1vs1 with a mesmer, took like 5min but i won

I would say go for it. I started at release with a necro and it’s still my main. Love it for PvE, and PvP. We have a lot of bugs, but there are still solid builds out there. I recommend looking up a conditionmancer build, good for both PvE and PvP.

If minions are more of your thing, then go ahead and try it, I think some pretty major bug fixes and some restructuring are on their way soon.

Necro is a super fun profession to play. Like gnome said we do have some bugs and yes you will be frustrated at times with certain things and ways the class works. If you try it out, I highly suggest sticking with it until at least level 30 while leveling up. quality of life for a necro gets much better then when you can get the flesh golem.

Have fun!!
Madame Moorshade Teknomancer

Think of it this way: if you play a necromancer, you get to know your skills very intimately, unlike a lot of spammable professions (Thieves and warriors). Balance issues are temporary, knowledge on your profession is more permanent.

Elmentcius Koronel.6234:

Think of it this way: if you play a necromancer, you get to know your skills very intimately, unlike a lot of spammable professions (Thieves and warriors). Balance issues are temporary, knowledge on your profession is more permanent.

That is very well said!

You should definitely give Necro a whirl. When you are able to do well with the way it is now, you will be great when the balancing happens. I can’t see myself playing (and staying) with any other profession just because Necro fits me.

If your like me and only really play PvE and started a necro to be a minion master, then the answer is no.

My original character was a necro and he was shelfted a long time ago. His only purpose now is to be an alt-crafter.
One day there will be a game that does minion masters right, One day.

Death Shroud is bland and boring, but other than that Necromancer is decent.

stayBlind.7849:

Death Shroud is bland and boring, but other than that Necromancer is decent.

Death Shroud is a free +120% health pool who cares if its boring its free survivability!

Necromancers are still workable and very fun. Make no mistake that they do have bugs and general weirdness about traits, utilities, and weapon skills, but keep in mind:

A) Just about every other profession has these.
B) It’s so much easier to fixate on the bad than it is to praise the good, and the former will happen ten times over the latter.

If you’re willing the take the good with the bad and remember that in due time things will be fixed and/or figured out (I mean come on the game’s only been out just over two months) then the Necromancer is a solid, challenging experience which equates to fun. Least it was for me anyway.

There’s something almost sadistically grin-worthy about loading up a target with conditions, hitting Epidemic, going into Death Shroud and popping Life Transfer and watching you screen explode in numbers. The grins, guys, they just won’t stop!

stayBlind.7849:

Death Shroud is bland and boring, but other than that Necromancer is decent.

It’s not boring when you crit on every auto-attack ;)

Also grab the traits from spite and soul reaping that apply might and vulnerability on each LB. can result in some nice stacks by the time you come out of DS. I recently noticed that i manage to get vulnerability up to 20 via that and focus 4. Had i been going axe rather than dagger i could potentially have gotten it to max (25) on my own for a while.

No idea why everyone is telling you to roll the weakest class in the game.

Make a Mes they are alot more fun and very strong.

i firmly believe in playing what seems interesting and excites you. not just what seems powerful. you lose nothing by trying something new long as you have fun. worse case scenario you farmed low level materials you can use for crafting with another character and got to see a new starting experience. best of luck!

I don’t really like the Death Shroud mechanic myself. I get how it works, and yes, it is a nice boost to survivability, but I wish it could be expanded to offer additional benefits for Necromancers who prefer using their normal skills. One good suggestion I saw a while back was linking the Death Shroud to the number of minions you can summon. Each minion can be summoned once by default, but you can summon additional minions of each type by reserving a portion of your DS. For example, you can summon one Blood Fiend under normal circumstances, but you could summon a second Blood Fiend at the cost of reserving 25% of your DS bar. You could repeat this 4 times to end up with FIVE Blood Fiends following you around, but at the cost of completely reserving out your DS and thus not being able to enter DS at all.

Different minion types could take more or less % of the DS bar to summon additional copies, depending on how useful/OP having additional copies of a minion along would make them.