Guild Wars 2

So I usually play my Engineer, but when I started the game I wanted to play and enjoy the Necromancer soooo bad. I looked at the class online, read the description and was “holy shiznit, that’s the class for me!!”

I’m not new to MMO’s, played MUD’s back in the day, a bit of Uo/EQ then jumped into DAoC, then WoW (like everyone else) and a lot of others in between. I’ve a fairly broad background.

In GW2 necro feels like that 3rd cousin who lives in the hills and has intimate moments with whatever farm animal he happens to have locked up beside his outhouse.

Here’s my nitpicks :

Pets :

What in the living HELL were they thinking? The bone minions suck…remind me of homely gerbils, then there’s the wtfcrap “healer” pet that goes down faster than a heroin hooker for $5 and a needle.The elite pet looks like it has kittens for hands and a head…I guess it IS named Flesh Reaver. The scorpion one is decent looking (again, looks like a hunter pet) and the shade one is nice.

In the end it doesn’t matter what they look like (yes it does) but their AI is horrendous. And absolutely NO player control of it. They should have the pet bar, and all pets linked to it so there can be a modicum of control instead of them standing there watching a house burn. I don’t know how many PvP battles I’ve been in and there they are, standing there like they’re out window shopping for shoes.

Pathing? Wow…all pets in this game are bad. It’s a give and take situation…either they follow you down the hill, or decide to run around the walls on a sight-seeing tour de force while I’m having my anus stomped by some Norn warrior. I really love when the pets run ahead of me and aggro mobs. What in the hell is that?

Why can’t we have a pet bar, pets that attack when we do, and follow a bit behind us WHERE we go, not where we might go? And why does the blood fiend not heal when he’s killed?

Abilities :

Some are good, some are bad, but all are meh. They trait lines feel garbled a bit. Seems like the pets, shroud form, etc are scattered between several lines. I understand we can go into each, but for pity sake, clean them up a bit. Absolutely nothing in the trait lines (imo) gives any real “OMG gotta get it omgomgomg” like some other classes traits. They feel…tepid. I know other classes have lines that are affected in the same way but the Necro seems to have been kicked in the junk sideways and laughed at as they pushed the class into the game.

Spite has pet, shroud, signets, then for other goodies for pets/shroud you have to dip into other lines. The weapons seem to be fine, but clean up the lines a tad. Make them more definitive.

Well..that about ends my rant. I’ve tried playing the necro for several weeks, but the issues are just too glaring. Pets that look like the leftovers handicapped dog molesters, horrid AI that makes the NPC’s in Super Mario look like they have a Cray supercomputer behind them, and more. Did ArenaNet look at the game in the last month or 2 of development, look at what no other class had and take a hot steamer on a homeless man to make this class?

Nightpath.7415:

Pets that look like the leftovers handicapped dog molesters

Lol, yeah everything you have mentioned needs to be looked at.

Necros are far from unplayable – they have a few cool things and are decent running with a zerg or coordinated group where you can stand back and lay down conditions.

There are a number of bugs and issues and re-adjustments that need to be made before they are on a level playing field with the rest of the professions. They make up the bottom 3, along with Ranger and Engineer.

Epidemic is bloody awesome.

The heal that feasts on conditions is probably the best heal in the game – forget the name of it because i haven’t played my Necro in so long (I have an 80 Mesmer now and the difference in WvW is ridiculous).

Fun rant, solid points. +1

Necros need a fixin’ , that’s for sure.

On paper they’re so kitten, then you play them….when I gaze at their pets I wonder what I did to humanity to have to see such travesties.

Nightpath.7415:

Pathing? Wow…all pets in this game are bad. It’s a give and take situation…either they follow you down the hill, or decide to run around the walls on a sight-seeing tour de force while I’m having my anus stomped by some Norn warrior. I really love when the pets run ahead of me and aggro mobs. What in the hell is that?

I almost feel like it’s inappropriate to complain about pathing in MMOs at this point. Seriously, who here has ever played a pet class in any MMO ever that didn’t have glaring pathing issues that never get fixed no matter how long the game has been running? It’s to where I just assume that this particular mechanic is literally impossible to program effectively. I don’t know why; I’m not a programmer; that’s just how it is.

But I kinda liked your rant. I haven’t played my Necro enough to say I agree or disagree but at least your creative use of metaphors made it entertaining as opposed to the usual 12 year old whining style rants.

I’d be happy if they just consistently attacked. I run with the Flesh Golem most of the time and he is decent when he works, good knockdown and solid damage per hit, problem is he just stands around utterly confused about half the time. And that can make all the difference in the world when you are in a close 1v1 and need that extra direct damage which is hard to get in a condition build.

There’s a guy that used to live around my place, used to peek in people’s windows, steal change from cars, stand outside restaurants and stare at people eating.

That is exactly how Necro pets work at the moment.

+1 for the rant

-1 for not realising this post typifies every other post

+1 because I am awesome

-1 because you don’t give an explanation to validate your opinion

Facts need to be validated, not opinions.

Having said that, necros need a bit of a overhaul but so far I’m enjoying mine…I just gave up anything minion-related. Really.

I do not quite understand your metaphor with homeless people. Do you hate them so much?

I hate everyone equally.

I tried to play my necro again today. When I jumped onto my character I was liek “omg maybe I’ll have some fun today!” then I had some pie. The pie was fun. Necro? May as well as ate gravel then had a poo.

I tried minion spec…it was awesome to have my own party, but they were way to out of it. One of my kittenats was attacking, the other idiots were standing there waiting for the Boxing Day sales. I decided to nuke the bugger…and the one standing around eating cheese went up in flames.

So I died.

Then ran back out, got attacked by a thief and was “omg, new pants time” and omg my pets attacked him…I pranced about with my staff doing staff things on the ground (sparkly pretty) and killed a thief! Then an engineer got me…my pets had enough of that fighting BS, laughed at me and went to grab a beer.

This class DEMANDS a pet control bar with all pets linked to it. Screw AI…in GW2 I called it Artificial Idiocy…pet bar would go a LONG way to help Necros out. So would better pet pathing…sigh.

Poor necros…right there with Engineer with the most horrible pets in town (turrets are a bit better, but then again Engineers have Turrets Syndrome, a different problem).

My gf has a necro and it works just fine. Has almost infinite health a 99% survival rate, can tank, support and does a lot of damage. We played in every dungeon and spent a lot of time in wvw.

Also, pets/minions are not a class mechanic for Necromancers, it’s just one of the possible utility sets they can use. As a Guardian focuses on buffs, a necro should focus on health (increasing your armor) and death shroud (I suggest a minion and some minion traits however).

You’re probably playing wrong or using a bad build. To me necro is just fine.

That’s the build my gf is using at the moment: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQEQNBmQDbESrWvYTajhPRI94Z/qZQKcvuoU4O2B;TEAzKA
It focuses on armor and death shroud, while still having a minion+reanimator+mark of horror. has reasonable healing power and amount of conditions. Works great in wvw and pve.

It’s kinda impressive thanks to the area of the marks, expecially in wvw attacking and defending a castle.

Kidel.2057:

My gf has a necro and it works just fine. Has almost infinite health a 99% survival rate, can tank, support and does a lot of damage. We played in every dungeon and spent a lot of time in wvw.

Also, pets/minions are not a class mechanic for Necromancers, it’s just one of the possible utility sets they can use. As a Guardian focuses on buffs, a necro should focus on health (increasing your armor) and death shroud (I suggest a minion and some minion traits however).

You’re probably playing wrong or using a bad build. To me necro is just fine.

That’s the build my gf is using at the moment: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQEQNBmQDbESrWvYTajhPRI94Z/qZQKcvuoU4O2B;TEAzKA
It focuses on armor and death shroud, while still having a minion+reanimator+mark of horror. has reasonable healing power and amount of conditions. Works great in wvw and pve.

It’s kinda impressive thanks to the area of the marks, expecially in wvw attacking and defending a castle.

Personal experience of success with a class doesn’t change the fact that there are baseline bugs with it.

Yes, Necro can perform well. But it could perform a lot better, a lot easier, if all the things wrong with it were fixed.

Kidel.2057:

Yada, yada, I don’t actually play Necro but clearly know better than everyone who does. You’re all bad, have a broken link.

Mate, please…

I agree that the class is solid for the most part. Most other classes aren’t as OP as many people claim. But minion AI is a MAJOR issue, and posts to that nature deserve to be filling half the front page. It’s ridiculously bad, and ANET needs to know that it matters enough to us that it’s worth working on, and working on NOW.

Minions suck, they look horrible and act worse. Ranger petsies arent much better…act like r kitten playing Simon Says. “I’ll kitten right here, thenkittenright there” Duuurrrrrr

Whoa there Nelly…did you say necro pets aren’t a class mechanic? LOLOLOL you must cry yourself to sleep every night when you think the sun dies, only to be the happiest guy alive when it’s alive again the next morning!

Necros get a poopload of pets, they all have different things to do, one of their elites is a pet, and it’s not a class mechanic? DANG!! That must be the same as saying tires aren’t needed to make a car viable! WOOT I can save $700 come next spring on All Seasons!!!!!!

Here’s what the GW2 Profession page says :

Practitioners of the dark arts, necromancers summon the dead, wield the power of lost souls, and literally suck the life force from the enemy. Necromancers feed on life force, which they can use to bring allies back from the brink or cheat death itself.

I found this IN THE SAEM PLACE HOLYWOW!

_Special Skills

Here are two sinister skills that are particular to necromancers:
Minions
Necromancers summon undead minions to attack foes and do their bidding. Whenever they wish, necromancers can sacrifice their minions for a powerful spell effect. For instance, necromancers can use the skill Summon Blood Fiend to create a minion that heals them while they attack, then use the skill Taste of Death to destroy the minion and receive a large amount of health_

I am certainly glad that pets aren’t part of the class mechanics for Necros, you should let ANet know so they can clear up their class description page. While you’re furiously typing that email, don’t forget to let them know that Engineers turrets aren’t needed, ranger pets pffffttt, mesmer ghosts?lulz

Bichpwner.4012:

Kidel.2057:

Yada, yada, I don’t actually play Necro but clearly know better than everyone who does. You’re all bad, have a broken link.

Mate, please…

I agree that the class is solid for the most part. Most other classes aren’t as OP as many people claim. But minion AI is a MAJOR issue, and posts to that nature deserve to be filling half the front page. It’s ridiculously bad, and ANET needs to know that it matters enough to us that it’s worth working on, and working on NOW.

Who told you I never played necro. I have a necro character and I made and tested my gf’s build. I used her character a couple of times and she gave me feedback. Also I’ve played with her and necro is not weak at all.

Necro Minions suck? true, as ANY OTHER ALLY (except ranger’s, but only because you can control it), but, that’s the issue, no time limit as most of the other classes and you can have SEVEN of them.
I’ve never heard of a Guardian (as myself) complaining about spiritual weapon AI or time limit. Why? Because that’s not the class main mechanic, it’s just an utility (and, you know what? SW AI seems even worse, some of them are completely useless because they fail too many times, but nobody complains about it).

Necro minions are the same. You should focus on conditions and death shroud, or be a full minion master with awesome Armor stat and 7 minions at once (6 from skills and 1 from trait), again SEVEN MINIONS (name another class that can reach the same number).
You can’t control them as a ranger does? well, ranger has 1, you have 7.

If there is something wrong in this game it’s maybe, MAYBE, the general ally AI, but for every class, not only necro.

Nightpath.7415:

Cut

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012

Class balance philosophies

Necro

The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher. While they don’t have some of the escape or damage reduction capabilities that other classes boast, they do have a lot of ways to win attrition fights. They have access to poison on multiple weapons, they are able to combine condition damage with raw damage, and they have multiple disables to interrupt enemy skills. Necomancers also have multiple movement disabling abilities, while allows them to chase down enemies who are low on health.

I can’t find the word “minions”. Sorry.

Also, look there: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Summoned_ally
Minions are not a class mechanic as ranger’s pet. They’re a generic summoned ally, like banners, elementals, illusions and ranger’s spirits. And they’re still better then all of them, with their superior number, skills and no time limit.

Wiki is not the official site. Patch notes? Pfft they rarely include much of anything for this game.

I’ll stick with the original class description, you keep grasping at straws to show everyone else your point of view.

Nightpath.7415:

Wiki is not the official site. Patch notes? Pfft they rarely include much of anything for this game.

still what they say about summoned allies is correct. it should make you realise that necro minions are just like guardian SW, but a little bit better.

Nightpath.7415:

I’ll stick with the original class description

you can do whatever you want, yet what I posted is the official class philosophy. you can deny it, but it’s still there and it doesn’t involve minions.
stick with some casual class description, i don’t care.

Nightpath.7415:

you keep grasping at straws to show everyone else your point of view.

I just proved you’re wrong and you’re simply denying it. I’m not grasping, that’s in the official patch notes, lol.
Oh, and it’s also on your class mechanic UI just next to your weaponskills. in case you didn’t notice you don’t have any pet command like ranger, but you have this awesome thing: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Death_Shroud
And in another thread ppl are complaining because necro doesn’t have invulnerability for wvw, and that’s hilarious, since necromancer’s unique mechanic IS invulnerability.

You keep telling yourself that necro pets aren’t a class mechanic while the rest of the necro mm players who summon 5000 pets out to do their bidness think otherwise.

Move along, dont need n00bs like you with your disdainful huffninnery quoting wiki sites and patch notes that don’t discuss other classes mechanics either, just portions of what they can do. Guess by your standards Warriors Adrenaline isnt a class mechanic, guardian virtues? Pffff aint nuthin but a g-thang, engineer turrets whut?

NONE of those are mentioned (and more) either newbsauce, only certain parts of each class get mentioned, it wasn’t a thorough goings over of each class and their dynamics…good luck next time.

Nightpath.7415:

You keep telling yourself that necro pets aren’t a class mechanic while the rest of the necro mm players who summon 5000 pets out to do their bidness think otherwise.

And some guardians go around with 3 spiritual weapons, yet those are just utility skills and not class mechanic (wich, i hope you know, is virtues).

Move along, dont need n00bs like you with your disdainful huffninnery quoting wiki sites and patch notes that don’t discuss other classes mechanics either, just portions of what they can do. Guess by your standards Warriors Adrenaline isnt a class mechanic, guardian virtues? Pffff aint nuthin but a g-thang, engineer turrets whut?

no, adrenaline IS class mechanic, as well as virtues. I don’t know if you’re blind or something. Just look above your weaponskills, that’s the profession mechanic menu. the one you activate with F1(, F2, F3).
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Category:Profession_mechanics

As I’m sure you can see, you don’t summon a minion with F1 on necro, but you activate death shroud. That’s your class mechanic.
Never heard of a guardian complaining about how much spirit weapons get stuck, expecially bow, or about their time limit (30 seconds). Those are just utility skills you can use or not. But if you don’t focus a little bit on boons on your guardian, then you’ll always be a weaker warrior with some passive fire damage.

I’m going to reply about the patch notes in the last part of this post.

You’re not a ranger. If you want the pet as profession mechanic you choose the wrong job.

NONE of those are mentioned (and more) either newbsauce, only certain parts of each class get mentioned, it wasn’t a thorough goings over of each class and their dynamics…good luck next time.

Don’t alter the meaning of that post just for your purpose. They hinted at every profession mechanic pretty clearly. You’re just upset they didn’t mention necro minions at all.

That’s class philosophy, not class description, it’s what they WANT that class to be, so deal with it. Again? what they WANT. And that’s official, thay don’t care about minions (and for me they shouldn’t. They’ll never be reliable in pvp or wvw or dungeons).

And I’m pretty sure they mentioned boons for guardian (virtues are boons, lol), direct damage for warrior (uhm.. .that’s what adrenaline does, direct damage and damage boost via traits), PETS FOR RANGER (omg, lol, did you miss that?), kits for engineer, illusions for mesmer and attunements for ele, but they didn’t mention “indirect damage with summoned allies” or “hordes of summoned allies” or “minions” for necro. Instead they mentioned death shroud, health and conditions.
I’ll quote them at the end of this post.

Minions may be useful, but just as other classes summoned allies (and maybe necro’s minions are even better), yet if you focus on them you’ll always be weak. Thay’re child play. They work only on low level PvE.

Find yourself a decent build and stop complaining. You’re weak and you blame ANet for that, while there are TONS of necros I play with and they are almost immortal.
^ This means the class is fine. You’re going against the class philosophy, trying to play it as a ranger.

ps: there are sone pretty good minion master builds however. they just don’t work in pvp and wvw because, lol, it seems that players are smart enough to aim at the summoner and not at the minions, but I don’t think ANet can avoid that.
If you don’t like you’re free to go. I’m sure a lot of ppl will be happy, including me. Nobody likes crybabies.
Also because they’re probably going to NERF the necromancer:

AOE balance. We feel that in PvP some AOE builds are too strong for the opportunity cost, and we’ll be bringing those in line in the next few patches.

Quotes:

Warrior
just go through them with raw force

Guardian
The Guardian is a heavy armor class who relies on boons to make up for their low levels of innate health.

Ranger
The ranger class combines its own innate abilities with the skills of their pets.

Engineer
They can use different kits based on the situation, but this extreme versatility comes at a cost in damage on their main hand weapons.

Thief
Thieves are the masters of mobility, stealth and high single target damage.

Mesmer
Mesmers rely on illusions in order to accomplish their goals.

Ele
The skill ceiling for the Ele is exceptional, as the ability to leverage all four attunements at the right time is crucial for understanding the elemetnalist.

Necro
The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher.

joshisanonymous.5270:

I almost feel like it’s inappropriate to complain about pathing in MMOs at this point. Seriously, who here has ever played a pet class in any MMO ever that didn’t have glaring pathing issues that never get fixed no matter how long the game has been running? It’s to where I just assume that this particular mechanic is literally impossible to program effectively. I don’t know why; I’m not a programmer; that’s just how it is.

You’re not wrong. Let’s make clear that, at the moment, the AI of mobs and allies is not even average in this game, but it’s to say that it’s impossibile for a minion (or an AI in general) to follow what you have in your mind (I mean, dungeon skips, change of strategies, etc) unless they give you direct control over that. But that’s ranger mechanic, they can’t give it to other classes too, you’ll never have direct control over your minions unless they remove death shroud and give ranger something else. The purpose of a necro minion is TO BE EXPENDABLE. Some traits are activated only when a minion dies, meaning they HAVE TO DIE, in order to spread condition, or to give you life force. And you can summon them back however.

You don’t have control over that like a ranger, but you can summon 7 at once, and summon them again after they die. And if not killed they last until you logout, they’re not timed like EVERY other summoned ally.

Boons are boons. Virtues create boons through their use. Virtues are not boons. Nothing funny about that. LOL I MADE A FUNNY. Oh wait, I didn’t. Because it’s not funny.

Keep arguing and writing long winded essays, but you should put a TL;DR at the end. And quit quoting Wiki articles, they are about as offical as my GAF factor for your long winded diatribes on necro pets.

And I’m free to go? You danced into my thread Q_Q’ing more than enough to have us have to build a 2nd Noah’s Ark, backing it up with awesome wiki articles, incomplete patch notes with small quotes (omg rhymes w00t) and trying to be kewl like me.

Debate this : If it’s a class spell or ability or part of said class that affects game/playstyle it’s a class mechanic.

Now be gone with you. Shoo. You’re making yourself look even more like a ninny trying to make everyone see your point that we already all don’t care about.

Edit : theres some decent Dell boxing week sales on, go check it out yo. pay cash, save on interest.

Nightpath/Kidel you’re both kind-of right. Minions are not the class mechanic (that is DS) though they make up a major part of the class and are part of general necromancer lore. Personally i am using flesh golem, shadow fiend and bone fiend and having a lot of fun; if they just goof around i find activating their skill gets them working. I don’t pvp/wvw so i can’t comment on those aspects but for general pve they are fine (oh, and flesh wurm is nice to have around on dragon fights).

I think the single thing which bugs me most abt the class is its generally low weapon damage; some may think having minions/wells alleviates this, but why should our utilities pick up the slack from our weapons?