Guild Wars 2

Hey guys. I’m sorry for the newbie thread but I just have to get this straight out.

Before the game was released I wanted to play both Guardian and Necro, eventually I ended up deleting my Necro before it even reached lvl 10 (something I’ve done repeatedly since launch). I want to play a necro, so bad… But I feel discouraged by the amount of complaints I find on the forums :/

Should I roll a necro once and for all?
Are necros welcome in dungeon groups?
Needed and wanted in wvw groups?
Charr or human?
Is there a particular build that is fun, engaging and good (weapon, utility and trait-wise)?

Yes roll a necro, they might be bad compared to other classes but they are a lot of fun. Necro’s are more welcome in dungeons than rangers and engineers. If you build them right they dont hinder the group. They are also very good for aoe bombing zergs in wvw. And pick human ofcourse. Theres lots of builds but for pve straight damage is the only way to go really. So that means glass cannon beserker build. You can be flexible how you build a beserker build though.

Necros are perfectly fine in all open world content, they just have some problems in PvP and dungeons. Since 90% of the games content falls in the first category, there is plenty of fun content available to a necro.

Maybe I should move to Gandara while I’m at it lol. I’ll have a stab at Necro once and for all!

iFocus.3781:

Are necros welcome in dungeon groups?

As welcome as any other non-warrior profession.

iFocus.3781:

Needed and wanted in wvw groups?

Yes.

iFocus.3781:

Charr or human?

If this is about style then it doesn’t matter. If it’s about racial skills then humans are probably the least appealing, especially for a necro.

iFocus.3781:

Is there a particular build that is fun, engaging and good (weapon, utility and trait-wise)?

Unless you don’t know this already, first you should make up your mind about weapon preferences and if you want to go conditions or power… or both.
Then look for a build.

spoj.9672:

Theres lots of builds but for pve straight damage is the only way to go really.

Cmon… you know this isn’t true.

I should clarify. For being serious about dungeons straight damage is the only way to go.

spoj.9672:

I should clarify. For being serious about dungeons straight damage is the only way to go.

Well said.

At topic: If you like the style, roll necromancer. If not, don’t. Easy.

iFocus.3781:

But I feel discouraged by the amount of complaints I find on the forums :/

That’s the first trait that is required in a Necro: Ignore The Whiners. You have to take the trait at level 0.

From my own experience and from what I read, the Necro is the most fun profession in the game. Also, apparently, the hardest class for ANet to figure out how to balance. If all you care about is dominating PvP or WvW, a more boring (but OP) class may be for you. Otherwise, it’s Necro all the way.

And it appears that ANet is finally beginning to get a handle on Necros. It appears that they had some firm ideas in the design phase, but ran into severe balance problems in pre-release testing and made some draconian changes without going back to see how that had affected their original vision. Some recent actions and comments by the devs give me some hope that they’re finally coming to grips with this and they’re trying to move forward while not turning us into Dark Paladins.

If you are planning on doing a good amount of WvW I would highly suggest rolling Norn. The racial elites are pretty much the only escape option we can get. If its just more casual play with some wvw thrown in every once in awhile then go for whatever race is most appealing to you.

I started my necro planning on it being my main at launch. at about level 20 or less I shelved it for another, the engineer of all things. Tho back then I had no idea I was going from bad to worse.
Luckily the engineer is at least fun to play, where the necro is not. And as long as a class is fun to play, you dont notice that the other classes are better, until you group. And I almost never group.
from then on my necro only leveled as a crafter and the few times I tried to play it again, quickly realizing why I left the necro to start with.
It took about 10 months or more, but my necro is finally level 80. I only use him to craft, get ori nodes and some times run a dungeon for the tokens if Iv already done all the paths with my other characters. Iv tried a few different built types, none of them where all that fun or effective.

Oh, and never pick human.

Should I roll a necro once and for all?
I really enjoy playing mine.

Are necros welcome in dungeon groups?
No. You will be asked, where’s your alt. War/Mes/Guard/Ele usally the wanted class’s.

Needed and wanted in wvw groups?
Sort of, Epidemic for spreading conditions. Wells also loved in groups.
1/3rd downed life of any other class, no group heals/group buffs/no regular stability-protection etc means your going to get CC’ed and ‘trained’ (Run over by a train). So the dev’s say.

Charr or human?
Asura, no stability means your going to get kicked around like a footy, be footy size!

Is there a particular build that is fun, engaging and good (weapon, utility and trait-wise)?
I enjoy staff for utility, dagger for I CUT YOU. Life Siphon for stealing life as I dam. (Dev’s say it’s “totally useless”, but it feels good)
Sig of Undeath is pretty required, as solo you will need the life force gen, and in groups being able to res 3 people at once often is our only skill that gets us group love.
I also like many stick to power/pre using half bezerk half knight gears.

sPvP is a bit diff, I enjoy condition builds, cond&power hybrids. I even, brake out the minions and throw on some tanky power/tuf/vit gears. (Just ALWAYS stay on flat ground, even jumping a rock can brake there brains N you got to have them die & re summon before they work again)

iFocus.3781:

Should I roll a necro once and for all?

Yes, you should try any class you’re interested in, you might end up loving it.

iFocus.3781:

Are necros welcome in dungeon groups?

I’ve run every path of every dungeon on my necro. While I don’t think PUGs are particularly happy to see a necro join, I generally play decently and it’s not a problem. My guild group definitely welcomes me on my necro, even though I also have a guard (which I rarely bring). I’m more effective on my necro than on my guardian, because I’m much better at playing a necro than playing a guardian.

iFocus.3781:

Needed and wanted in wvw groups?

I hear necros are great in WvW groups (I haven’t played WvW for a while, and mostly fail solo roamed when I did).

iFocus.3781:

Charr or human?

For PvE, none of the cultural abilities are very valuable. For WvW, different people like different racial skills; some people like asura for pain inverter (confusion for condition necros); I like norn for snow leopard to make up for necro’s utter lack of in-combat mobility.

iFocus.3781:

Is there a particular build that is fun, engaging and good (weapon, utility and trait-wise)?

Figure out what weapon you want to use. I really like dagger main hand, and if you trait for it, death shroud can be pretty fun.

iFocus.3781:

Hey guys. I’m sorry for the newbie thread but I just have to get this straight out.

Before the game was released I wanted to play both Guardian and Necro, eventually I ended up deleting my Necro before it even reached lvl 10 (something I’ve done repeatedly since launch). I want to play a necro, so bad… But I feel discouraged by the amount of complaints I find on the forums :/

Should I roll a necro once and for all?
Are necros welcome in dungeon groups?
Needed and wanted in wvw groups?
Charr or human?
Is there a particular build that is fun, engaging and good (weapon, utility and trait-wise)?

Ignore the complaints on the forum. At the most, read them, take them with a grain of salt, then roll a necro anyway.

Answers in order:

Yes.

Depends. Groups only concerned with speed clearing dungeons may not want necros, as they don’t exactly have the highest DPS. Outside of that, necros do just fine in dungeons.

Necros shine in WvWvW. If anyone tells you otherwise, they don’t know WvWvW.

Charr (no contest).

Is there a particular flavor of ice cream that is the best? No, it’s a matter of personal taste. Likewise, “fun, engaging, and good” builds for necros are a matter of personal preference. Before you can answer the question of which necro build is right for you, you must answer the question of how do you like to play? Ranged or melee? Minions, conditions, blood, power, or hybrid? Once you identify your playstyle, then you can answer the question of which build is best for you.

I’d strongly encourage you to stick with your necro beyond level 10. We just get better and better as we level up. There are a lot of interactions, subtleties, and synergies between our skills and traits that aren’t obvious and/or available at level 10. You really need to be patient with necros when leveling. Give it time and it can be very fun and rewarding, in my opinion. We’re also poised to get even better with some promised bug fixes and potential trait reworking coming with the next patch or two.

yes
yes
yes very viable in WvW
human
powermancer >> conditionmancer (its a game fault…)

Necros are great in wvw, one of the top classes imo. Thats really the limit of my knowledge however, though seem to do fine in spvp too.

Every class forum has complainers, Then there are people that make the class work, those are the people to listen to.

Kilger.5490:

Necros are great in wvw, one of the top classes imo. Thats really the limit of my knowledge however, though seem to do fine in spvp too.

Every class forum has complainers, Then there are people that make the class work, those are the people to listen to.

Necro’s in spvp are weak atm. Even the players that make them work will admit this. They have weaknesses which can be exploited by lower skilled players quite easily aslong as said player knows about the weakness and how to deal with it.

Lots of great comments, here. Necromancer has always been my main. the play is remarkably varied compared to some other professions and the AoE is very handy in PvE as well as WvW. You will learn to tolerate the shortcomings of the class in exchange for its variety of funtional builds.