Guild Wars 2

I mainly wvwvw so wondering if it is worth while making a Necro? Reading the forums it seems they are severely under par compared to other classes such as Mesmers and Ellies :-(

In my opinion

EVERY class has its advantages in ALL situation, learn your class well and your an asset on the battlefield, I would happily draw my bow beside a Necro to support the team.

Mesmers , eles and thiefs are what you see most in the wvwvw but ..recently I deleted a character to start a necro and I’m convinced that necro’s can wreck a big party if they group together to do mass conditions and dots while others do the face to face combat is the little things that count in that big mess of combat situation ..lol ..im still low level but I have fun on EB so far ..and i survive more than my other characters ..cant wait for upper levels …and no .. i dont use pets …pure aoe’s/single target debuffings/pulling (love that) …Elementalist my other character is good ..good damage but ..to many button jumping to do damage I do like the healing spells on them ..wish they where better …

No don’t bother with necros in wvw.

^
Don’t listen to it

My opinion is if two people of equal skill meet then yes the necro class is at a disadvantage. But in wvw its all about team work in which this class excels good at.

I do rather well with a power build as a necro, running solo, in small groups, and the zerg. People think I’m an easy target, but I’m a tough cookie.

can you post your build Eviator ?

Epidemic and staff marks make Necro pretty viable in WvW. Lack of mobility makes you an easy target to get ganged up on though if you overextend.

roamzero.9486:

Epidemic and staff marks make Necro pretty viable in WvW. Lack of mobility makes you an easy target to get ganged up on though if you overextend.

On the other hand, if you plan for it, we have some pretty sweet escape possibilities. Flesh Wurm’s teleport can catch people by surprise. Spectral Walk can create good jukes, and both spectral walk and death shroud turn cliffs into an escape route that only another necro (who is ready for it) can follow you through.

Necros in WvW can be effective while playing defensive but if you’re running out after a group to capture holds and battle in open fields, the necro definitely has it the worse… you seldom see necros in such groups in wvw nowdays in fact.

it all depends on how you play.
i found as a conditionmancer with 1.6k condition damage unbuffed and 2k condition damage with buffs is hard to get badges. conditionmancer is GREAT for defense however, defending your group, camps, castles, and towers awesome!

i’ve been playing as a power/crit mancer lately.
30/0/10/0/30
PVT armor zerker accessories.
20k vit 2.1k toughness
3k power
32% crit chance and 62% crit damage
i switch my weapons between axe/focus dagger/focus always have staff.
i’ve seen 5k damage with axe #2 on a frequent occasion.
utilities are signet of locust and well of suffering.
my third i swap out between as a “situational” utility. mostly its been spectral walk or spectral armor.
i’ve earned about 150 badges over a span of 15 hour play time in wvw
just my two cents.

In WvW you will need to go Power Build to have a chance at loot bags (Badges).
Condition Builds have a harder time getting loot due to dots not doing enough damage before your group kills the target. If you don’t care about badges then do whatever you like and have fun.

Hats off for you Dylninja …I need to try that axe/focus thing ..I seen axe dagger or horn but not focus ..we need more builds … for offence wvwvw ..

rglaredo.9467:

Hats off for you Dylninja …I need to try that axe/focus thing ..I seen axe dagger or horn but not focus ..we need more builds … for offence wvwvw ..

Thank you. I just do not like the horn at all same goes for the scepter, perhaps why my conditonmancer lacked in badges but i dont think so.
i understand both, just not a fan.
Horn just seems useless in my power/crit build i have signet of locust and spec walk and i have no problem keeping up.
and axe/focus just seems to fit well together, afterall they are BOTH in the spite trait line. spinal shivers, purely awesome for catch up alongside unholy feast, chill from staff and DS dark path, and our fears i hardly ever lose a target for me or my group.
today i just started with the dagger/focus in wvw and im enjoying the hell out of it so far. Im considering DROPPING my staff for a axe/focus and dagger/focus setup just to see how it goes. matter of fact i’ll try it out tonight.
However, i could see horn being a good tool with my dagger as i dark pact, set well of suffering and spam #1. Could get even more DPS if i popped Deathly Swarm a sec or two after dark pact along with cripple effect.

EDIT:
i have the same success with axe/focus as i do with dagger/focus in the badge department.
I did not like dropping the staff tho for a dagger/focus and axe/focus.
I recommend that you use either with the staff

I play loads of WvW on my necro, condition specced 20/30/20/0/0 with the key traits being greater marks and staff mastery. With those two plus liberal use of Epidemic you can clear the enemy off the walls when attacking keeps and equally push them away from the gate when defending. You might not get as many badges (~180 for 1k kills) but I actually feel I’m contributing. Not so great in open field zerging of course but certainly on my server I see less of that as we’re low ranked.

I’ve had a lot of fun with my Necromancer and it’s probably my favourite of the bunch that I’ve played. It’s a different feel from my others — my Guardian and my Mesmer, but I really enjoy it.

Though I do miss the way Mesmers can yank hordes of people off of walls and we’re stuck with just one yank at a time.

I’m leveling a condition necro in WvW (70 now, almost there) and I don’t feel useless. I’m not terribly good in 1v1 situations but when I am applying pressure through conditions at range almost constantly; or when I run through a fleeing group in plague form with cripples I am most certainly contributing.

It’s true that you don’t get a fair amount of lootbags, but condition necro certainly has a place in WvW; just remember you are a support/pressure type character.

I don’ t understand the loot bag issue. I never seem to have issues getting loot bags, and I seem to get as many as I do on my zerker mesmer. I have earned well over 3k badges just WvW’ing for fun. I run a condition build with Epi.

I rarely run in a massive zerg, because it irritates me and my computer can hardly handle the FPS drop, but I guess in that scenario where people who step into the line of fire get gibbed in 2 seconds, it would be hard as a condition build to get badges.

Although mobility is an awful problem if you get caught in a bad situation. Worm port is not an option against people that know how to interrupt long casts. Juking with spectral is fine, but obvious to anyone who is used to necros. Worm cast time should be cut in half, as should all the other minion summons.

My sweet spot group size is somewhere around 10-15 people vs. however many they can bring to the fight. That is enough people to prevent you from getting singled out (like if you were in a 5 man roaming group), and not too many people to cause horrible lag. Epi gets less and less effective the larger the enemy group gets.

EDIT: And as far as 1v1 fights (not in spvp) are concerned, aside from some very specific builds designed to negate multiple conditions, a condition necro focused on duration increases can handle just about any class. WvW has the luxury of the amazing rare veggie, which makes so many condition and fear builds shine. Coupling full duration fears with terror and reapers protection give you tons of control in a 1v1.

Rennoko.5731:

Although mobility is an awful problem if you get caught in a bad situation. Worm port is not an option against people that know how to interrupt long casts. Juking with spectral is fine, but obvious to anyone who is used to necros. Worm cast time should be cut in half, as should all the other minion summons.

Wurm port is not meant to be done in combat. To be more specific, you set up the wurm in a safe or out of the way location long ago, then use the teleport in combat. You may not get directly to the wurm in that case, but you now have a 1200 range teleport toward a pre-set location that is instant cast, a stun break, and gives you 10% life force.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Rennoko.5731:

Although mobility is an awful problem if you get caught in a bad situation. Worm port is not an option against people that know how to interrupt long casts. Juking with spectral is fine, but obvious to anyone who is used to necros. Worm cast time should be cut in half, as should all the other minion summons.

Wurm port is not meant to be done in combat. To be more specific, you set up the wurm in a safe or out of the way location long ago, then use the teleport in combat. You may not get directly to the wurm in that case, but you now have a 1200 range teleport toward a pre-set location that is instant cast, a stun break, and gives you 10% life force.

Which is horribly tedius in a mobile back and forth battle. The worm could be dead, you could get obstructed in your linear port, etc. I love the worm for stationary fights, but if you are moving around in WvW it doesn’t work for me personally, compared to the other two mobility options.

Hard to say if necro is “worth it” for you, as it depends so much on play style. My necro is my latest 80, still ungeared, but I am finding it is fun/usefull in so many situations. Working on a condition type build and I run staff/scepter-dagger. I have found so far I am have been pretty versatile. I always run in guild group and we do anything from roaming to working with the zerg
when facing large groups, epidemic is just fun. Spreading dots, weakness, snares, they all benifit my group. Friend in trouble from a thief, fear, snare, vulnerability etc. and that thief is running away. Players on wall, few dots, epidemic, and they scatter. Plug a tunnel to slow down enemy zerg.
what I dont have is the glass cannon dead in 2 seconds that you get with thieves and warriors, but thats ok. My survivability has been pretty decent so far. I get decent badge drops partly from all the dot damage, and mostly because I am in a guild group.

There’s a lot of stuff you can pull with a necro that you can’t do with another class.

Spectral walk can be a lot of fun and along with the Death shroud teleporting ability, can be used to escape “zergs” or to defend a tower gate or wall without having to use the portal. Since at the moment you can tank any fall damage while in Death Shroud, it can be used as another escape mechanic. If your opponent is foolish enough they might just jump after you.

I win most 1v1’s because my opponents spend the duration of the fight being chilled, feared, dazed and immobilized while I slowly pick them apart. Necro can be especially good for group fights by targeting an enemy, controlling them and having the other people of the group focus them down.

Are you talking about large zergs or solo/small group? For solo or small group then yes play a necro. But for zergs I would say other classes would benefit the fight better. My only 80 is a necro and I love him, but listen to my argument. I tried out an epidemic build for a couple days out there and I enjoyed it, but against T1 guilds, stacks of bleeds drop so fast it’s dumb. Most of the time I see 2-3s of bleeds. And since such few people run with condition specs out there, it’s hard to even load up bleeds to begin with. It is fun spreading conditions when attacking a tower though (you dont need los).

A necro can still be very useful out in a zerg. Every class should understand movement, positioning, and pressure. you want to stop their movement and apply pressure. eles, warriors, and guardians do this better than a necro. Right now I’m trying a high dps necro and pretty much doing bombing runs with spectral walk to get out of there. Dropping wells and marks with blind well for the chill proc. I may go back to conditions, we’ll see.

The fun thing about a necro is you are so hard to kill and in really any build you use you will dominate most 1v1’s.

Id say definetly NO, a Necro is imo one of the best classes and most unknown in WvW right now. My main is a Mesmer but i also play a Guardian, the only class i fear in WvW is a necro.

Well i guess my Guardian doesnt fear the necro because you will kill me, i just dont bother fighting them 1v1 and if i run into one in a battle i target someone else, like a squishy glass build because i dont have the dps to take down the 50k or so HP i will have to chew through to actually down you, but at the same time i know you will have a hard time taking me down because conditions fall off me quickly and i can usually regen the health anyway, usually its just a stalemate that leads to one of us getting help eventually from passer bys.

On my mesmer i dont attack necros either, i run from them or avoid them in battles, mesmers lack condition removal unless we know you are coming, our condition removal is from a trait in a line i dont use and a couple utility skills but there are much better utility skills that i need for survival against burst builds like warriors, thiefs and other mesmers which far out number necros/condi builds right now, also necros have such a huge health pool and usually have a high amount of toughness coupled with condi builds so a burst that will usually kill most classes takes 3x to down a necro by then i have melted from the conditions. i have also noticed that most necros are extremely skilled, i run into bad thiefs, mesmers, warriors, rangers, guardians all the time but rarely do i see a poorly played necro.

infact the reason im here is to try to figure out how to fight you guys.

jadjay.8701:

infact the reason im here is to try to figure out how to fight you guys.

I never have issues fighting necro on my mesmer, though I tend to do fairly well against GS mesmers and somewhat less well against shatter mesmers when I am on my necro. It comes from playing necro so much and understanding the limitations. Also, running null field works wonders.

Against a necro while playing mesmer it is like any other fight, use the terrain to your advantage and don’t allow him a free chance to load up dots on you. sword/X:staff works best. But again, I run a shatter build on my mesmer, which gives you the best chance against a necro in my opinion. Shatter 4 and sword 2 when you see them enter DS form to avoid the fear, or when you see them mark spamming.

My first toon was a thief, played it to 80, started in WvW and decided to roll a necro. This sort of goes back to GW 1 as it was a toon well suited to my play style.

Second toon, necro to 80, no pets – they suck, amazing aoe-crap single target. Settled on staff for main and dual dagger for switch (good single target). Worked great, didn’t have much fun in WvW at this point. Was still learning and zerg surfing.

Third toon, mesmer to 80, yay for portals, actually killing people in 1v1 and surviving engagements. Missed playing the necro for aoe fights (but mostly PvE).

Guardian to 52, Engineer to 40…both in WvW, must have gotten like 50 levels just from capping quaggans and defending garrison. Tired of running into bunker eles and guardians…brb.

Have not switched off of my necro since. Full power/condition stacking, running staff and wells, and corrupt boons is your friend. I go out of my way now to find the one person who is going to wade into us with their 6+ boons (most of which have multiple stacks) to push their front line through ours, hit corrupt (sometimes epidemic after, although I don’t really like it, not as useful, so I don’t play with it often), and watch them melt. You aren’t a killing machine, you don’t hit as hard as a lot of other classes/builds, but you absolutely are invaluable in large group combat. It’s even more satisfying when the boon stacker has a tome up. Nothing breaks a zerg like a downed commander.

Another one, well of power. Great skill that can help out when things get sticky. A lot of it is timing, but with 3100 power, all of those aoe’s, both staff and utility, hit really hard.

Another thing that helps is total health. I have 0 trait pts into vitality and generally have 24.5k health in both weapon sets. 30/30/10/0/0

Rennoko.5731:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Rennoko.5731:

Although mobility is an awful problem if you get caught in a bad situation. Worm port is not an option against people that know how to interrupt long casts. Juking with spectral is fine, but obvious to anyone who is used to necros. Worm cast time should be cut in half, as should all the other minion summons.

Wurm port is not meant to be done in combat. To be more specific, you set up the wurm in a safe or out of the way location long ago, then use the teleport in combat. You may not get directly to the wurm in that case, but you now have a 1200 range teleport toward a pre-set location that is instant cast, a stun break, and gives you 10% life force.

Which is horribly tedius in a mobile back and forth battle. The worm could be dead, you could get obstructed in your linear port, etc. I love the worm for stationary fights, but if you are moving around in WvW it doesn’t work for me personally, compared to the other two mobility options.

Again, perhaps I didn’t make myself clear. The Wurm’s teleport is best used as an escape route, not in-combat mobility. Honestly, I thought that part was well known.

Yes, your teleport could be obstructed by a cliff. However, if you’re at the top of the cliff, just drop down and hit death shroud. You will live. If you’re at the bottom of the cliff and need an escape, you were probably planning on being down there, so setting the wurm properly beforehand is key to a successful escape.

Necros actually fall right behind thieves and ele’s at escaping ability, but theirs requires much more thought.

Necro is ok in WvW. They have very good mobility. Also, as another player mentioned, they are underplayed in WvW which means not everyone knows how to deal with them or counter them properly.

I’ve only been in 3 times on my necro, but I’ve racked up over 400 kills. Condition Necro using scepter/dagger w/ targeted wells and upgraded staff (traited for larger marks & unstoppable).

Only level 70 right now, but all my current gear is rare. Pretty useful in denial of access of confined areas and ramps.

Its going to be my main wvw’er eventually.

You forgot mesmer in your mobility list. And theres functions well in combat. Blink + staff 2 + sword 3. Requires some positioning, but works quite well for gap closing if a mob or critter is nearby. Which would rank us at the very best 4th, out of 8 in escape.

And also having to waste an entire utility slot for a situational non-combat escape route sounds pretty lackluster to me, which was my point. Especially considering it takes the place of spectral or locust, which are both very useful in combat. I can’t see myself ever running worm and spectral/locust at the same time, so I have negative feelings about that skill.

A shorter cast time would make it combat worthy, thus a nice replacement for locust or spectral. It would still be far worse than blink because it would be unsuable pre-dropped while stunned, but still useful for a quick port while in motion.

A lot of people in WvW are pretty clueless about necro abilities. It’s hilarious to horn#5 → plague form and skip through a zerg while people unload their cooldowns on you.

If you’re alone, you can never have too many escapes, situational or not. The fact we have two great jukes (a third if Dark Path is used well) that can both make us travel a long distance is not one to be overlooked for escapes. Mesmer leaps top out at 600 range and Blink is only 900. We have a 1200 preset and an unlimited range preset, both on stunbreakers.

If you’re in a zerg, you would only equip the flesh wurm when assaulting towers/keeps. They are very nice to put on top of a wall where they serve either as a distraction or free damage on defenders.

yes its very good but you have to play it smart to get the most out of it.
the necro is a very versatile class but you have to spec for the situations you are hoping to get into

i run in a medium sized guild grp usually around 20+ as such ive built my class around that i run with knights gear and run a well spec i use plague as my elite as it pretty much doubles your hp. traits are 0,10,20,30,10 if you like im a vamp build.

the necro is incredibly tough to kill if specced right DS is like a 2nd health bar and plague pretty much doubles your HP

i can basically run into a zerg drop a shed load of aoe be it dmg condition removal etc and still have the ability to get out of there if things turn bad dont get me wrong alot of this is down to the guild i run with they are incredibly organised i use my abilities more as a aid to the dps classes than dealing actual damage myself which is why i am build with survivability in mind.

with any class your build and armor depends on how you are going to roll

id say yes it is worth it, but honestly just play the class if u enjoy it. every class is viable in this game in all aspects whether ppl tell you they are or not(lot of ignorant ppl or ppl not willing to try new/diff things just cuz the general population THINKS something is bad). i run a pwr prec build on my necro as some above me have posted with 23k hp 2.5k armor 2.8k pwr 46% crit chance 63% crit dmg and use dag/warhorn+staff. I do extremely well in both zerg and small squads contrary to popular info by most i actually use my dagger/warhorn about 70% of the time(even in zerg vs zerg fights) and to give u an idea of how much i die doing this i can wvw for 7+ hours before dieing enough to fully break a piece of armor, if i play safer then i nearly never die. and yes i get kills in a day of wvw (5-8 hours) i can easily get 80-120 badges and i do very well in 1v1s. 1.2k hours played on necro, love the class although it needs some tweaks

Play 0/30/20/20/0 scepter/dagger and staff, have epidemic as one of your utilities and you will mass condition whole zergs

Necro is middle of the road in WvW. Not one of the must have classes ( Mesmer, Ele, Guardian ), but with the area control, condition spread, some neat tricks and general tankiness even in offensive minded specs you can be quite useful.

Necro is great fun if played well in wvw. Mine runs quite a lot of vit and toughness, mainly use staff and x/x, and have 3 wells and flesh golem equipped, obviously greater marks and staff traits and targetable wells. I can literally throw down marks in front of an incoming zerg, throw the wells down on me then switch out to spectral, eat, fear, drop out, heal up on a target with piles of conditions and walk off still breathing.
The well that converts conditions to boons and boons to conditions stuff is just awesome in ruining co ordinated boon runners.

As I’m throwing mainly conditions around I don’t get many badges but after collecting so many on my other toons that’s not my aim any more- supporting the server and achieving objectives is. Avoiding dieing isn’t the main aim, but it takes a LOT of damage to take me down and my heal is awesome.

Great thing about necro if you are running around on your own- most thiefs are sensible enough to avoid you, and the ones that don’t soon learn the error of their ways – 5 marks and switch to off set, cripple them and lifesteal, wait for them to tent and then throw the wells on that spot, when they come out of stealth they are either downed or dead. sometimes you might even have to spectral:-). And watching the damage a flesh golem charge does to a thief is just worth it. Try it, makes me laugh every time.

DrXer.2918:

A lot of people in WvW are pretty clueless about necro abilities. It’s hilarious to horn#5 -> plague form and skip through a zerg while people unload their cooldowns on you.

I think this has more to do with zergs being clueless in general. Most people don’t know you can immob a target that has stability, so plauge jumping in the middle of the zerg with your 4000 toughness is suppppper effective.

Admittedly I will occasionally run into an intelligent group of people who will time their immobs towards the end of the plauge form, and then its sad.

Yeah, I ran into a group that perma rooted me the other night. Wish I’d had my wurm setup to get out of that.