Guild Wars 2

Hello people, right now I am level 15 and I am enjoying my necro. Currently have
Scepter/Dagger and Staff, but I’d like to ask for some tips, what weapon set should I use for leveling necro, and things like that.

Let me know what’s the best weapon set.

Have a nice day,
Nine.

I will give you my three step process to learning about the Necromancer

1) CHIPSSS Encyclopedia of Necro skills

2) Nemesis Tutorials

3) SOACGaming Podcast - sittingonacouch.com for audio only

Each of these are fantastic ways to get immersed into the spirit of the Necromancer and what they bring to the table.

Ignore the hate. The Necromancer does have a learning curve, but the more you play it the more you will enjoy it or find that maybe it’s not for you.

Good luck and if you have any specific questions as you level, don’t be afraid to come back here!

As for leveling weapons, until 40 just pick up the highest damage one and build around it. Until 40 work on using Death Shroud effectively. Once you get to lvl 40 you start to get gear and abilities that allow you to specialize!

Someone today told me that I made an AMATEUR mistake, picking the Necromancer, and I felt like eermm..
On the other side, I’ve read everywhere “build around it” can you explain me what that phrase mean?
Also, your favorite leveling weapon set?

Best built for large groups is :
scepter -condition dmg it take a bit to kill but if u use a condition built its prety fast with large groups if u swap with staff and scepter combo and stay at range u can do alot
staff-good combo with scepter and best for groups and range
Best example i can give is I took a camp from orr with a rly big group of undead used staff and scepter slowed bled and poisend them then went into elite plague swarm ,end result killled 10 12 undead lvl 80 at once (still got downed but with the conditions on them it was down up down up )

dagger-mostly for close combat vs 1 target good fast dmg but its mostly your choice and it all depends on your built :minions condition etc
Most importantly its how u have the most fun

Nine.8914:

Someone today told me that I made an AMATEUR mistake, picking the Necromancer, and I felt like eermm..

yea sadly ive heard that comment before alot of times and felt the same when i heard it

Nine.8914:

Someone today told me that I made an AMATEUR mistake, picking the Necromancer, and I felt like eermm..
On the other side, I’ve read everywhere “build around it” can you explain me what that phrase mean?
Also, your favorite leveling weapon set?

Staff and Dagger but I like power builds, and at lower levels those are the highest damage weapons. Once you get to 40 Scepter starts to shine, and axe really doesn’t take off until 60 when you can utilize minions.

It’s amatuer in that it takes time to learn the class. It’s not loved, because a lot of people don’t understand and can’t play the class well. Elementalist are considered OP in wvwvw and some tournaments. Thieves and Mesmer’s are easier at higher levels.

Warriors, Guardians, and Rangers are snooze fest leveling. The Necromancer is a lot of fun, and very rewarding if you enjoy that playstyle. As a new player you are fine. If you had come from a more explosive class than I would say you might have some work getting used to the slower playstyle. Check out the links I gave, they will help out if you have questions, and SOAC Gaming is here if you start to feel down about the class :P.

Bas.7406:

Warriors, Guardians, and Rangers are snooze fest leveling. The Necromancer is a lot of fun, and very rewarding if you enjoy that playstyle. As a new player you are fine. If you had come from a more explosive class than I would say you might have some work getting used to the slower playstyle. Check out the links I gave, they will help out if you have questions, and SOAC Gaming is here if you start to feel down about the class :P.

warriors are kinda boring at low lvl a guildie of myne started and played hunter his comment was “its borring as hell u just swing a sword”

alex.7364:

warriors are kinda boring at low lvl a guildie of myne started and played hunter his comment was “its borring as hell u just swing a sword”

Guardian’s are the worst. With Warriors, at least you can use different variations of the weapons thy can use.

Guardian GS/Hammer while leveling is gather a group hit 5/3/2 weapon swap 2/1/4 use virtue 4 or 2 depending on health and repeat. It’s monotonous and brutally boring.

Warrior in dungeons to me is the most boring game play out there. It’s all GS spam.

Bas.7406:

Nine.8914:

Someone today told me that I made an AMATEUR mistake, picking the Necromancer, and I felt like eermm..
On the other side, I’ve read everywhere “build around it” can you explain me what that phrase mean?
Also, your favorite leveling weapon set?

Staff and Dagger but I like power builds, and at lower levels those are the highest damage weapons. Once you get to 40 Scepter starts to shine, and axe really doesn’t take off until 60 when you can utilize minions.

It’s amatuer in that it takes time to learn the class. It’s not loved, because a lot of people don’t understand and can’t play the class well. Elementalist are considered OP in wvwvw and some tournaments. Thieves and Mesmer’s are easier at higher levels.

Warriors, Guardians, and Rangers are snooze fest leveling. The Necromancer is a lot of fun, and very rewarding if you enjoy that playstyle. As a new player you are fine. If you had come from a more explosive class than I would say you might have some work getting used to the slower playstyle. Check out the links I gave, they will help out if you have questions, and SOAC Gaming is here if you start to feel down about the class :P.

Staff and Dagger? Isn’t staff 2 handed?
Dagger main hand? If yes, what should be in off hand

Nine.8914:

Staff and Dagger? Isn’t staff 2 handed?
Dagger main hand? If yes, what should be in off hand

You will soon be able to carry two different weapon sets. No matter what always carry a staff secondary. It’s too valuable and awesome.

Dagger/Warhorn for quick map travel. If you spec into heal on hit Warhorn 5 is mmmmm.

Dagger/Dagger if you are finding yourself dying to conditions (shouldn’t really in pve)

Dagger/Focus is really nice because you get regen on Focus 4 and vuln stacking.

What a lot of necros do while leveling is carry Dagger/Warhorn and then just focus on their secondary than swap when in a fight from Warhorn to focus offhand and use the vuln stack and regen.

I am currently spending Traits on second line, I believe it’s something about condition.
I’ve heard about power and condition necros, what would you suggest?
And also I can switch between two weapon sets (`)

Nine.8914:

I am currently spending Traits on second line, I believe it’s something about condition.
I’ve heard about power and condition necros, what would you suggest?
And also I can switch between two weapon sets (`)

At your level it does not matter. Just pickup the best weapon available and test out all the cool traits. Once you get to 40 and 60 you can specialize!

For leveling my second necromancer I’ve been running with:
Weapons: dagger/focus and staff
Utilities: Signet of the Locust, Well of Suffering, Bone Minions
Gear: +power where possible
Traits: Soul Reaping and Death Magic

It does a lot of damage and has a lot of AoEs, which are good for getting through hearts quickly.

I personally don’t enjoy condition builds that much though (you don’t get to have as much fun in death shroud, and at lower levels I don’t find killing things with bleeds to be that efficient)

So Dagger/Focus and Staff are typical power weapon set. I guess I would roll that for now.

simple put go power low lvl and continue with it + dagger if u like or scepter + conditions witch is a bit better at higger lvl + ds

I’ll switch to scepter/dagger on 60 lvl. Till then, going to play Dagger/focus.

Necro can have many playstyles, I leveled quite fast following these steps:

Early level (1 stat only gear): staff + epidemic with all +condition damage gear, basically go with bleed mark and then epidemic to tag as many mobs you can.

Mid levels (2 stats on gear): Here I got more condition damage, my 2nd weapon set was scepter/dagger, I could reach the bleed cap in all mobs (but the epidemic target) fairly easily.

Late levels (3 stats): Now is when I had most fun with my necro, I swaped to a hybrid build, very similar to the one on Nemesis tutorial. Using rampager gear (+power, +crit, +condition.) I could deal great single target damage with axe/focus (focus for the vulnerabilty debuff) and still keep a decent aoe with scepter/dagger bleeds (and epidemic). The best part is that I finally found my Death Shroud useful for more than the extra HP, I could actually AoE burst with life drain (plus dots), or stack might with plague blast before going rampage with the axe.

Imho, necros are made to be played hybrid, so you get full benefit from death shroud spells, extra damage on your basic attacks and be able to destroy objects. I really don’t like full condition damage anymore, except some WvW situations I run with a chill duration/condition/debuff build.

D/D is proving more and more entertaining, I’ve been focusing on keeping weakness up which really allows melee to shine as you are taking a lot of reduced damage. Traiting for scython as well so I get more bang for my buck. I’ve got a staff off hand if I need a breather before diving back in.

After playing Dagger main hand, everything else takes way to long to kill with. its a lot of fun.

Well of Suffering really makes things drop quick if you find yourself surrounded.

im sure ill get drowned out on this as im the only one who uses it buuuuuuut, dagger/warhorn and axe/focus has taken me all the way!!! dagger has sick dmg, warhorn has stun and speed increase which is handy…even popping it in combat to hit aoe cripples works well. axe is good when stepping back and healing up. swing away for vulns and attack 2 does decent damage. also comes with aoe cripple and retal. focus gives the axe some healing, vuln stack and a chill/boon removal. long story short: nothing will escape you while you stomp it or strafe around it.

staff is good if you plan on putting points into it and scepters and off-hand daggers i leave at home. dont like the aoe skills too much and poison is a condition that half the classes are already applying so whatevs. of course disregard if your a condition person. i prefer power and MM builds though. wicked good.

Nine.8914:

Someone today told me that I made an AMATEUR mistake, picking the Necromancer, and I felt like eermm..
On the other side, I’ve read everywhere “build around it” can you explain me what that phrase mean?
Also, your favorite leveling weapon set?

blerrrg don’t listen to them. i love necro, and my main is an engineer. if i listened to people i’d have rerolled warrior ages ago. the thing i can do in dungeons are great, google the abomination build to see a fun tank-style dungeon role, also works well in WvW with practise.

as for weapons, i love dagger + focus and staff. dagger for general stuff and dungeons, staff for zerg events and support.

while levelling i’d suggest having the signet that increases speed by 25% and the flesh golem. neither are much use in dungeons or WvW but you can swap them out as needed.

Nine.8914:

Someone today told me that I made an AMATEUR mistake, picking the Necromancer, and I felt like eermm..

eermm… that guy is clueless.
How can picking any class be a mistake?

On the other side, I’ve read everywhere “build around it” can you explain me what that phrase mean?

around what?

So Dagger/Focus and Staff are typical power weapon set. I guess I would roll that for now.

The only weapon that is typical for anything is the scepter: condition builds.
But pair the staff with any other weapon and you can’t tell by that alone which way the build is going.

Nine.8914:

Someone today told me that I made an AMATEUR mistake, picking the Necromancer, and I felt like eermm..
On the other side, I’ve read everywhere “build around it” can you explain me what that phrase mean?
Also, your favorite leveling weapon set?

It’s not so much what class you pick but how well you can perform with it in different scenarios. I find that necro works much better in team scenarios than in 1v1 (although still quite powerful there). I play my necro as a back-side, condition-bombing bunker for my team (small ops wvw). Other classes (like mesmer) are a bit more versatile with their builds and can really excel in 1v1 scenarios. My guess is the person who said that was referring more to 1v1 scenarios since necros can be hard to master for 1v1.

Go with what i did on release, Staff, Scepter/Dagger with minion utilites to around 50~60, crafting powerlevel to 75 and then give orr a new meaning of death; with wells (farming too). Took a total of 29 hours to level up (but that was counting some starting zergs on champions and the old rez and ore xp so it would take around 40~50 now). Necros are probably the easiest class to level up since minions can solo pretty much everything in the first half of the game by chain spawning them and spamming scepter or staff 1 depending on enemy.

For fun id go with Axe in pve (not only do minions do more damage with vuln but also seeing mobs hit themself on you after a 5 pull like a bull trying to ram down a steel pillar is quite kitten and unlike dagger you dont have to be melee, not to mention that till 40 the difference in damage is minior) and staff with 10 in DM in WvWvW (dem tags).

The way to level necromancer after level 40 / availability of 20 point traits is to 1) wear MF gear and eat MF food; 2) spec minions; 3) as a weapon use staff with MF enchants to keep regen up on your minions and AOE the packs of mobs you will be pulling.

Pre level 30, just have fun and do whatever you want; there is no best thing.

Edit: As mentioned above, Signet of the Locust is a must. Drop one of your minions for it; personally I’d use Blood Fiend / SoL / Shadow Fiend / Bone Minions / Flesh Golem.

Necro4Life!
The Necro was the easiest of all leveleing characters. I went full minions with axe/dagger & staff. Was a very easy ride. I built a minion master tank with as much toughness as I could muster. With the AI as it is on mobs, I found having butt loads of toughness caused mobs to focus on me instead of my pets allowing them to stay alive very, very well. As I tank without any issues what so ever, my minions kill everything quite nicely & quickly. I’d use mostly staff to aid my pets in killing, swap to axe/dagger if I felt extra damage was needed in case I ran into a vet. I like all necro weapons, see what feels best for your play style. After reaching lvl80 I finally decided to change my build to a condition tank build and found Orr to be my playground. Such easy farming to roam around hitting nodes as well as running the events there. I will be trying out a power build soon as I get bored with conditons.

As far as bad comments towards us necro professions go, hah I only heard something once from a simple minded warrior during a maw run, “Norn Necro Sucks” as he stood in front of my char. Anyway, even due to his mindless spew I rez’d him 4 times during that event even with his fancy dusk greatsword, whatever it was didnt do him any good & neither did his skills. How on earth could a necro suck when I farm outside Penitent & watch big strong warriors take longer to kill a single target than I & I take less to no dmg? How come I spend most of the big events there rezing warriors? Sure I go down now & then, its inevitable but necro’as are far from sucking

Best of luck, I hope you enjoy your Necromancer as much as I do.
Necro4Life!

I level up my 2nd necro in about 40hrs and did it mostly through completing hearts, I did about 8lvls in dungeons (iff that) and max’d out tailoring and weaponsmithing giving me about 20 levels.
was soo much fun leveling a necro again. had my liche form at lvl 48 :-) boom.

wookie.8934:

Nine.8914:

Someone today told me that I made an AMATEUR mistake, picking the Necromancer, and I felt like eermm..
On the other side, I’ve read everywhere “build around it” can you explain me what that phrase mean?
Also, your favorite leveling weapon set?

It’s not so much what class you pick but how well you can perform with it in different scenarios. I find that necro works much better in team scenarios than in 1v1 (although still quite powerful there). I play my necro as a back-side, condition-bombing bunker for my team (small ops wvw). Other classes (like mesmer) are a bit more versatile with their builds and can really excel in 1v1 scenarios. My guess is the person who said that was referring more to 1v1 scenarios since necros can be hard to master for 1v1.

that the main drawback your great in team fights /WvW if you stay out of sight but we lack eny good 1vs1 combat so in team fights 8/10 we win while in 1 vs 1 depending on the oponent its a 50/50 chance

I find 1v1 is fine on necro. its 1v2+ that we struggle.

I use scepter dagger in one swap which allows me to build lots of condition damage (bleed/poison) and cripple while striking in big aoe’s. This is my base weapon and I run with it like 80%. In my other kit I use axe focus. This is my kiting/single target burst build. The stacks of vulnerability from the focus and the axe autoattack really add up allowing the “2” in the axe to burst for high damage. The “5” is a slow and debuff to skills allowing you to kite easier and it has the regen to survive being locked down in a fight. My stats are power/vitality/condition damage with a little bit in condition duration to extend the bleeds. For pve easyness I use well of suffering, blood is power, and signet of the locust as my utilities, consume conditions as my heal, and plague form as my elite. Just my humble opinion though. I have solo’d a champion that was four lvl’s above me…

Bull Zooker.1672:

I find 1v1 is fine on necro. its 1v2+ that we struggle.

we struggle in 1v2’s because we have to actively fight to regen LF to stay alive. so we can’t stomp.. we get interrupted too much. the only way to finish 1v2’s is to straight kill the the first guy, then stomp kill the second.

yea I know where/why we struggle, its just trying to find a build to combat these short comings and help us with bad odds.

Bull Zooker.1672:

yea I know where/why we struggle, its just trying to find a build to combat these short comings and help us with bad odds.

its not so much a build that will solve those issues, but smart playing that will fix it.

all i can tell you is look to work in some chills, cripples, maybe just work on pumping some toughness, and working on burst tactics to down the first guy quickly.

I know how to play necro but thanks for the advice. I am not the only necro on these forums that struggles 1vX fighting, I do believe its the majority of players that have these problems (and not so much on other classes). I am of course talking about WvW and pvp. no amount of pve mobs can take down my condi necro.

For leveling, nothing beats aoe. So I’d suggest staff + well build + golem.

I agree with afya, though I would take plague over golem. personal preference I guess as both are good.