Guild Wars 2

I’m very very new to necro, been playing around with a power necro build similar to the ‘traditional power necro’ build on metabattle, with a few things different. Anyways, the class is a ton of fun but I find myself struggling against LB rangers hammering 2. Normally it’s not an issue, however, they seem to ALWAYS find me with my pants down via 0 life force or DS being on cooldown when they start rapid fire. This is one of the only classes I have trouble against, because they out range me and I have a hard time getting away from them. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Not a whole lot of options, really. Longbow Ranger is a strong counter to any Necro build because of a lack of ways to close that long of a distance. If you have no life force, the best option is dropping Reaper’s Mark, but that is a much longer cooldown. Spectral Grasp can work well, though. Rangers rarely expect it.

Signet of spite is great against them. Even you not being a condition build spite make them slow, blind and weak. You can gap close and have like 10~20 sec of free hit on them.

I haven’t tried spectral grasp at all until now, but this utility is freaking amazing. Why do more necros not use this? I think this is the answer to my problem. I’ll have to give signet of spite a try, hadn’t considered it because like you said I’m not a condi build so that active seemed kinda ‘meh’.

The reason why only few necros use it isn’t because it’s a bad skill, it’s because we haven’t defensive skills and that make us forced to use our only 2/3 breakstun and teleport skills, to survive just a little longer. 90% of necros play with well of suffering to del damage and spectral walk and flesh wurm to teleport away from a combat, to survive a little longer.
With a true defensive skill (immunity like ele’s mist or engi elixir or prolungate block like the warrior shield) we’ll be able to use also other kind of skills, but in spvp we have only 3 skills to break stun and protect us: flesh wurm (cast it away from combat and use it like a safe point to teleport away), spectral walk and spectral armor.
A necro can also obtain protection by spectral wall but only a terrormancer can use it and frequently they don’t and from a grandmaster trait on wells use. But they don’t work as a breakstun, and we haven’t a single stability skill, then we need that kitten break stun to survive.

We all hoped on GS to obtain a defensive skill but devs don’t like the idea that a necro can have a defensive skill, because we have a “second health bar” (that is the source of all our problems…)

chaosdurza.3291:

I haven’t tried spectral grasp at all until now, but this utility is freaking amazing. Why do more necros not use this? I think this is the answer to my problem. I’ll have to give signet of spite a try, hadn’t considered it because like you said I’m not a condi build so that active seemed kinda ‘meh’.

Signet of Spite, especially against non top notch players add that element of panic. By itself, it’s rather a cover for your other conditions and defensive cooldown / Epidemic wombo combo and don’t do much damage.

But it’s quite a number of different conditions suddenly. Many will panic, burn several utilities or go defensive. Weakness on that is probably most useful, coupled with range of signet, it works well against pew pew rangers because it cuts their damage, slows them down, blinds and applies that “oh kitten” factor, so you have a while to breath.

As for Spectral Grasp – it’s a nice utility. But has connection problems. Will get obscured by any minimal rock, terrain difference. It’s a slow projectile that has troubles hitting moving people over 600 range because they can sidestep that at maximal range. And it’s quite visible, with a time for reaction. In a meta where most of stuff has to be either very quick or instant to do damage, doesn’t quite hit the mark.

That’s said, it’s good utility, you just have to get used to it’s flaws.

Spectral grasp is buggy. You cant be sure that the skill would work,and even if it does,the projectile is obvious(like throwing a basketball on your face) easy to dodge ot sidestepped even. overall this skill is not reliable and that is why necros prefer not to use it,if anet gonna give it a bit of love you gonna see it more and more. i am switching for grasp and wall on different situation in wvw though.

It’s unacceptable how hard countered necromancer is against any good ranged character. We should have some sort of counter move in our toolkit. Something, anything, doesn’t even have to bee good, just has to exist.

nekretaal.6485:

It’s unacceptable how hard countered necromancer is against any good ranged character. We should have some sort of counter move in our toolkit. Something, anything, doesn’t even have to bee good, just has to exist.

With well targeting becoming baseline, we can now have a free spot for chilling darkness. Cast well of darkness over a pew pew ranger and they will have to waste something or become content with being a sitting duck.

having had extensive experience fighting good LB rangers, my best advise is:

1) save your dodge for 2 things
1st) his LB knockback (you need to see and know the animation – but note that the reaction window is very small. If you have lag/delay it will be very hard to dodge in time).
2nd) his rapid fire

another thing is, good rangers they use their LB 3 to invis first and you are engaged in a guessing game.
Is he going to use his knockback? should you do a random dodge?

From my experience, yes no choice, use the random dodge if he goes invis and has not used his knockback yet.

Id like to add said ranger usually have pets that either fear or root, which could be dodge worthy as ur suspect to rapid fire followup or kd

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Not a whole lot of options, really. Longbow Ranger is a strong counter to any Necro build because of a lack of ways to close that long of a distance. If you have no life force, the best option is dropping Reaper’s Mark, but that is a much longer cooldown. Spectral Grasp can work well, though. Rangers rarely expect it.

Condition Terror Necro can handle power ranger quite reliably, providing the death shroud is half fall. The auto fear proc, and instant fear proc, as well as condition stacking really hurts power ranger alot. Too bad they’re not used in the tournaments because of the insane cleanse provided by the celestial trio Meta classes.

Rangers will always hardcounter you especially with our current pvp builds. It’s kind of silly to try to prepare for one class alone imo, unless you’re just like dueling. Even then game isn’t meant to be balanced for 1v1s.

As someone whos played both classes a lot, the best thing about fighting a LB ranger is they want you at range. They can be very easily LOS’d to draw them in. They will do a volley but its not to bad and their pet is good lifeforce fodder if they send that at you, plus you can proc all kinds of regen off it if its in your face, depending on set up (focus or staff). Volley is on a very long cooldown so they will have to change tactics to deal with you after thats used, since rangers dont have any other means to get you behind cover while necros have a number of things like marks, wells, etc that can be cast while only peeking out a sec.

Its also beneficial if you can single out the pet and take it down quickly as their condition removal is often dependant on that pet. They will switch but once that ones gone they are all yours. This isnt wasted time if you can take the pet down behind cover. They have two pets but the cooldown is very long if it dies.

Also dodging rapid fire and knockdown is very useful as mentioned above. Also dark path is a brilliant move against this class, on par with spectral grasp, and every necro has it.

TLDR: Worst idea: running straight at them. Best idea: get behind cover.

That is why this class needs some kind of good reflection skill. The fear wall to me seems like a great one for this.

aspirine.6852:

That is why this class needs some kind of good reflection skill. The fear wall to me seems like a great one for this.

Reflect totally destroys a LB ranger… they are dealing with it from lots of sources already, more would make the class almost pointless. Everyone having reflect isnt the answer.

Kilger.5490:

aspirine.6852:

That is why this class needs some kind of good reflection skill. The fear wall to me seems like a great one for this.

Reflect totally destroys a LB ranger… they are dealing with it from lots of sources already, more would make the class almost pointless. Everyone having reflect isnt the answer.

Only bad one. Not many good LB Rangers out there playing the game, but you’d be surprised how well some do against that.

Rym.1469:

Kilger.5490:

aspirine.6852:

That is why this class needs some kind of good reflection skill. The fear wall to me seems like a great one for this.

Reflect totally destroys a LB ranger… they are dealing with it from lots of sources already, more would make the class almost pointless. Everyone having reflect isnt the answer.

Only bad one. Not many good LB Rangers out there playing the game, but you’d be surprised how well some do against that.

People always use this statement of “no good rangers” as excuse lol.
The same sentence can be said to all other classes that I bested as ranger.
Truth is it’s a subpar class in SPVP, and top teams know this and don’t want to use or waste time building a team around it.

If you’re new to necro you might struggle with rangers spamming 2, but after a while killing them is the easyest thing you can do

Falcon.8713:

If you’re new to necro you might struggle with rangers spamming 2, but after a while killing them is the easyest thing you can do

What he said.

Lynnie.7213:

Falcon.8713:

If you’re new to necro you might struggle with rangers spamming 2, but after a while killing them is the easyest thing you can do

What he said.

Yeah, I guess I can understand getting jumped by one when you have 0 Life-Force and are taken by surprise…..but other than that you shouldn’t have many issues with Rangers. They are hardly in any way a hard-counter. Let’s see…..

• Rapid Fire – This is often easy to predict as they’ll try to set you up for it first. Just dodge it.
• Point Blank Shot – Annoying at most. Small window to dodge, but alone this skill isn’t a big deal. Most often followed by Rapid Fire, so even if it hits you just dodge right after.
• Entangle – Easily countered by Dagger AA, Consume Condtions, dodging, Purtid Mark.
• Wolf / Hound – Kill him if you want. His skills have a long cast time, noticeable animations, and are easy to dodge.
• Distance – The basic Power Necro has access to chill, cripple, immobilize, swiftness, a gap closer, and 2 fears. Not to mention wells and marks can be cast at range, and we have Life Blast as well.

So not really sure where exactly people are having these issues with Rangers, especially to the extent where people are considering them a “hard-counter.”

Couple things with Rangers:

- Learn their favorite spots. Every map has them, and more times than not you can count on a Ranger going there. Get the drop on them. You’ll be doing your team a favor also, as they will DPS the hell out of your team while on point.
- Spectral Grasp, as others mentioned. Don’t use it right away or it will be dodged. Bait their dodges, and make sure you’re facing them when you use it.
- Retaliation. This requires timing. If there are at least two Rangers on the enemy team, it’s worth taking the Retaliation on entering Death Shroud trait. Pop it before they burst you and they’ll be wishing they never targeted you.
- Condition transfer. If they happen to land a burst on you with a ton of bleeds and other conditions, put it right back on them.
- Cripple, Chill, Immobilize. Anything that slows them down is a death sentence. If they pop out their greatsword, start kiting them.

They’re not too difficult to deal with if you have some life force and your cooldowns are available. Appropriate timing and flashing in and out of DS are important.

The tips are more for fighting rangers that know how to handle necros, noob bearbow rangers arent much difficulty for anyone.

Per the original post, put yourself in the rangers shoes. If they are sitting back surveying a skirmish, of course as soon as they see someone on the ropes with barely any health, thats the person they will load onto with rapid fire which is why you die to it often.

The trick is to know this will be coming even if you arent (especially) fighting the ranger and either los or cc them, or go for them first. Rangers make good priority targets as do necros which is why they choose you to shoot at, and why you need to plan accordingly.