Guild Wars 2

I’ve got an 80 warrior and ranger, and I want to get away from the simplicity and try a caster of some sort. I’m debating between the Mesmer and the Necromancer.

While I didn’t so much mind having pets on my ranger, I’d rather not be so pet-reliant so I was wondering if there are viable builds out there that don’t use pets/minions?

I’ve got a mesmer now and she’s cool but the weapon skills aren’t really exciting for me. It seems fun, but I just can’t get into it. I’m hoping necromancer may be the right fit.

Necromancer can be a really flexible class. We aren’t dependent on pets, they are just more tools. I, myself, don’t use any of the minions. I know there are others here, as well, that don’t run minions. You will have to look past the bugs, but Necro really is a great class. It is my favorite profession, and I have 2 other level 80’s as well, but I just enjoy my Necro the most.

To be pet-reliant we would first have to be able to rely on our pets.

Short answer is no. There are at least two valid specs that I know of (probably alot more) that use no pets. That would be conditionmancer that focuses on dots and the like, and well spec for incredible aoe (crazy good in WvW).

However, I would just go mesmer If I were you. If you find the mes weapon skills lacking you will be outraged at the necro version. Do keep in mind however no clothy is going to have the brute force weapon skills of a warrior.

Necromancer pets are purely utility. Damage output of a “minion master” spec is below both conditionmancer and powermancer.

Mesmers are more of a “pet class” than necromancers are because 50% of their damage comes from their phantasms.

I don’t play with any pets on my necromancer in pvp.

Thank you for the responses.

I like the sound of conditions and for huge aoes. I can guess what wells are. How are these builds effective vs DEs or other areas where you are destroying supplies or a non-mob target? They aren’t effected by conditions, will a well detonate under this target? How much of a hindrance/annoyance is this?

By the weapon skills being boring, they just don’t seem too flashy, they’re quite slow, and they don’t feel like they’re hitting too hard. I’m hoping the necromancer weapons can bring some excitement.

Wells activate where once you cast them, unless you have the targetable wells perk. The Well of Suffering is the one that you would probably want for DE’s as it does good damage to anything in it.. As for AoE’s, the staff has 4, which you can make larger with a perk. The staff uses marks, that activate when touched by an enemy. That being said, they won’t activate on environmental destructibles unless it is in a mark and it explodes from an enemy touching it (when I say “touching it” I don’t mean they have to move into it for it to activate, you can place it under them and they will activate). The m/oh weapons usually depends on the build you are going for. If you like the conditions, the scepter/dagger combo is really great for conditions. That combo also has 2 AoE’s, 2 & 5.

The staff has a nice effect of making a scythe out of itself when attacking something, laying the marks is quite fast, it has great versatility and utility, and I find that it hits pretty good and helps spread those conditions. The scepter can make arms come out of the ground with its #2 attack AoE, I find that pretty neat. The dagger is pretty fast and hits hard with it on main hand. Other than that, you may want to try them for yourself, or even look at the wiki . That link will send you to the Necromancer skills page.

Narmix.4862:

Necromancer pets are purely utility. Damage output of a “minion master” spec is below both conditionmancer and powermancer.

Mesmers are more of a “pet class” than necromancers are because 50% of their damage comes from their phantasms.

I don’t play with any pets on my necromancer in pvp.

just out of curiosity, could you show a common conditionmancer build and a powermancer build?

im assuming they would work in the spite and curses lines?

PvE Condition Necromancer: 30/30/0/10/0. Focus on precision and condition damage. Use a Scepter/Dagger combo. Pick whatever Spite traits you want; you’re only in the tree for the +30% condition duration anyway. For the Curses line, you want Hemophilia, Master of Corruption, and Lingering Curse. In the Blood line, you want Dagger Mastery.

Your elite can be to taste, but you need to take Epidemic, and it’s strongly recommended that you take Blood is Power.

Once you have enough +condition duration that you don’t need the 30% from Spite, you can consider swapping more points into blood to get some better selfhealing.