Guild Wars 2

Necromancer has been my favorite class since I started playing, but it’s so discouraging playing in WvW. Necros should be the king of conditions yet we get outshined by so many other classes using condi builds. And our power builds don’t even make up for it cause we easily have the worst builds/weapons. We also have some of the worst mobility in the game so pretty much any other class can catch up to us if we even try to run. Then if using conditions you run into a warrior or ele who become invincible long enough for them to burst you down. I’m just hoping that the greatsword will actually be good and give us some movement, but still thinking about dropping the game till then.

Nah necro is not the worst but most balanced , its just power creep of other classes for the past 2 years made necro looks bad.

Bubblez.4612:

Necros should be the king of conditions

No, I’m pretty sure Necromancers whole schtick since D&D is supposed to be summoning spooky skeletons and doing lich stuff.

I do however think they should revert a lot of the shaves they piled on Necro during the Dhuumbfire era since Dhuumfire is effectively removed from play since the functionality change of the trait. Mostly I miss the way Putrid Mark used to work.

Aktium.9506:

Bubblez.4612:

Necros should be the king of conditions

No, I’m pretty sure Necromancers whole schtick since D&D is supposed to be summoning spooky skeletons and doing lich stuff.

I do however think they should revert a lot of the shaves they piled on Necro during the Dhuumbfire era since Dhuumfire is effectively removed from play since the functionality change of the trait. Mostly I miss the way Putrid Mark used to work.

Agreed. I’ve been saying this lately, too.

Yeah I guess you are right Forsaker, just so tired of going out and dying in situations I know I shouldn’t be dying in. They really just need to do something about power necros cause my zerk gear is dead weight atm

Power necros are a part of the current meta and very much needed in any group or large scale WvW combat. That alone makes them not the worst class ingame, because there are other classes that get shunned more in WvW.

Now if you’re talking solo roaming or spvp, that’s something different entirely. And the problem with condi builds have to do with the way the game is designed. It’s kind of a game-wide problem, condi necros just have it worse due to the lack of mobility. Condis are too easily spread, and they’re therefore too easily cleansed. Tip the scale one way, you would have nothing but condi builds. Tip the scale the other way, you have what it is right now.

One thing I’ve learned from GW2 is that classes are their own design, they don’t go by traditional rules or what so & so class “should” be. When I first started I played ele, and I initially thought it was going to be played like wizards & mages from other MMO’s. Not the case, eles in GW2 are very unique and plays nothing like any wizards or mages from other games. The same goes for necros really. Conditions as a whole are quite weak in this game, it isn’t just a necro problem though, it’s the design path they’ve chosen. Necros can definitely use some boosts, but they aren’t the worst class unless you play PvE.

Forsaker.9213:

Nah necro is not the worst but most balanced , its just power creep of other classes for the past 2 years made necro looks bad.

Actually there has been countless nerfs since release. The power creep is an illusion that is caused by constant rapid innovation by players in a game where the balance has not been shaken up in any major way (stale and slow balance shifts). Things keep getting nerfed but players find new ways to improve and get the most out of each class. However necro was terrible to begin with and no matter how deep you dive into it you wont get much out of it. Which is why it seems the gap has increased.

The gap has increased due to advanced knowledge and tactics. But from a balance and power perspective the gap has actually decreased.

Worst in game eh? Fine with me. My only character is a Necromancer, AND I only do PvE. I guess I’m a masochist eh?

The last several weeks I have watched pvp matches and there wasn’t one necro that stood out among the other players in weeks. I can place several rogues, rangers, engineers and warriors that dominate. I do not count wvw since all that is a ball of spam.

I do like playing necro but wish we have some more defensive utilities and more playable builds.

confirmed.

Really? Hadn’t noticed.
I love my necro. The only thing I don’t like about him is the lack of map completion. Having to run around all the time is a pain on any class.

I guess I would have to disagree Necro is worst in game. in many ways it is not the best and in some ways it ranks pretty low but there are aspects where Necro is pretty good, maybe near the top.

In WvW, for example, Necromancer has the extremely valuable and wholly unglamorous job of zerg-busting. That is what the N in GWEN is for. The G is for trying to hold it together. G and N let W and E dps the snot out of people.

Necromancer is a decent trash mob farmer, too. It is not as hands-off as Ranger but Necro tags nicely; a great boon for crafters like me.

Power necro is fantastic in spvp, as well as wvw zvz. Condi necro is good in spvp and literally has the best 1v1 build in wvw. It’s fine for small group roaming too. Yeah we suck at standing in corners….. oh well.

fracture.9754:

necrofail.7439:

Power necro is fantastic in spvp, as well as wvw zvz. Condi necro is good in spvp and literally has the best 1v1 build in wvw. It’s fine for small group roaming too. Yeah we suck at standing in corners….. oh well.

The condescending remark shows ignorance and misinformation. “Standing in corners” is very rarely used in speed clearing groups.

Still bad in pve and I would argue alot of what others have said about necro shows ignorance.

:>

fracture.9754:

necrofail.7439:

fracture.9754:

necrofail.7439:

Power necro is fantastic in spvp, as well as wvw zvz. Condi necro is good in spvp and literally has the best 1v1 build in wvw. It’s fine for small group roaming too. Yeah we suck at standing in corners….. oh well.

The condescending remark shows ignorance and misinformation. “Standing in corners” is very rarely used in speed clearing groups.

Still bad in pve and I would argue alot of what others have said about necro shows ignorance.

Well surely you understand not all of us enjoy zerging in blobs, or?

spoj.9672:

:>

o/

I don’t zerg or blob, so yes I understand. I pretty much only pvp now. During the first 2 years of play I did pve, world events, guild events, fractals, dungeons, WvW roaming, Guild wvw, GvG. But I came to this game from UO seeking pvp so I have settled back into PvP where I started. As much as I understand there are certain intricacies in pve the unpredictability and volatility of pvp makes it the most fun and I would argue more challenging. To each their own though.

Anchoku.8142:

I guess I would have to disagree Necro is worst in game. in many ways it is not the best and in some ways it ranks pretty low but there are aspects where Necro is pretty good, maybe near the top.

In WvW, for example, Necromancer has the extremely valuable and wholly unglamorous job of zerg-busting. That is what the N in GWEN is for. The G is for trying to hold it together. G and N let W and E dps the snot out of people.

Actually, you have the roles a bit backwards. GWEN meta is really all setting things up for the Necros to beat the snot out of people through lockdown, peels, and heals. The real DPS in a GWEN zerg is the Zerker Necros, though the other three professions do contribute a significant amount.

Necros are in a good place right now. We are wanted in wvw and can hold our own in pve (like that matters :P).

There has been some creep with condition handling across the classes via sigils and buffs but its been beneficial overall to the game. We are still kings of pumping out conditions while barely even trying, and CC is the greatest heal ever still.

We could use a leap or some mobility with GS, since other classes are honing in us in other ways though. Good for the goose and all that.

I can never accept the comment “necros are in a good place right now”. Its total bull. Necros are fine in WvW. But lets not forget that you have sPvP where necro is only good outside of premade team games. And the largest gametype PvE where its a steaming pile of uselessness..

Kilger.5490:

and can hold our own in pve.

Yeah. We hold our own so good that we’re at the literal bottom for DPS. Even then DPS isn’t even what matters the most in PvE. The ability to offer something that boosts the group’s damage or whatever the group may need to do things faster is what really matters and we’re the worst at that as well due to our selfish design. I wouldn’t call that “holding our own”. It’s just a case of none of the PvE content in GW2 being hard enough that you can’t afford having a Necro in your party dragging you down.

i’d argue that ranger is probably worst class in-game

i’d say that necromancer and mesmers are pretty on-par with each other in terms of balance…

spoj.9672:

I can never accept the comment “necros are in a good place right now”. Its total bull. Necros are fine in WvW. But lets not forget that you have sPvP where necro is only good outside of premade team games. And the largest gametype PvE where its a steaming pile of uselessness..

We really aren’t that bad in pvp, alot of teams are using power necro.

Problem with power necros in pvp is that we are too good, so we get focused on in any organized guild vs guild. And unfortunately the lack of mobility & escapes is killing us here. Too good being the same reason why we’re in the current GWEN meta, except in WvW zergs & blobs it’s harder to get singled out.

Necros are full of irony, which I find it funny.

There is a reason you dont see many necros in PvP tournaments. And why the winning team never has a necro. ;>

Its not because they are too good so they get focused. Its because they are too easy to focus and lock down and not good enough to do anything about it themselves.

spoj.9672:

Its not because they are too good so they get focused. Its because they are too easy to focus and lock down and not good enough to do anything about it themselves.

This is a design goal that “…works as intended.”

spoj.9672:

Its not because they are too good so they get focused. Its because they are too easy to focus and lock down and not good enough to do anything about it themselves.

That’s a classic glass half-empty thinking. Yes it’s true necros get focused on because they lack mobility and escapes. Nobody disagrees with this point, I think we all know that’s one of the biggest issues with necros in PvP. But we all know what power necros are capable of if left unchecked.

It’s one of the reasons even in ZvZ I look for necros to down, because I know what they can do to my zerg if left unchecked. The current meta calls for at least 5-6 necros in a zerg/group fight or there’s little chance you’ll win an open field battle.

Unfortunately in smaller scale organized PvP, you have more chance to prioritize your targets (you have to pretty much). You don’t want to leave necros alone, and yes they are an easy target to focus down due to lack of escapes, so they make prime targets.

Yeah wonder how long they will let this go on for. Just to try to grab some attention I’m going to add keywords that Anet uses to respond to “gem store, money”. now we play the waiting game.

I so don’t agree that necros are in a good place, relative to the other classes in GW2. I feel in all honesty, we have NOT improved at the same rate as the other classes, nor are we able to compete with the power creep in this game, as the other classes can. I feel we go down faster now than ever before, and if we build to compensate for the power creep we are rendered useless. The CC in this game is over the top as well, and we have so few ways to deal with it. In addition, the shear amount of condi clears can really render us utterly ineffective. I hate seeing the hard work I have to do to get some condis on an enemy where one click he erases my damage, which is further exacerbated by the fact that most ccondi builds can reapply condis at a faster rate. So many bad decisions during development were made with this class regarding mobility and defense due to some deluded idea that the necros will be the attrition class or lockdown class. Sorry, we got FiTG and it seems that people appear to think as if our troubles are over. haha. which builds can take this and do well? one terror build?

Oh who cares.

spoj.9672:

There is a reason you dont see many necros in PvP tournaments. And why the winning team never has a necro. ;>

Its not because they are too good so they get focused. Its because they are too easy to focus and lock down and not good enough to do anything about it themselves.

Thats why necromancer needs huge buff. It’s easy to cc and burst it. The damage skill have long casting time, so total useless as you are always focused and interrupted in high tiers.
so life blast,life transfer total useless skills if you dont have better team than enemy. okay you are left with dagger auto attack which is bad as you are not meant for fight close range and you have low sustain so here we are another weakness. There are better proffs for it.
Rangers attack you from 2000 yards you trying to survive while getting tons loads of immobilize, cc. thief and dps guardian ganking your face melee range, engineer ping pong you.
Thats power necro at high levels. We have that better downstate which dont worth much till stealth stomp in the game. quickness stealth stomp power. also whats the point for it if i cant use my downstate skills?

fracture.9754:

necrofail.7439:

Power necro is fantastic in spvp, as well as wvw zvz. Condi necro is good in spvp and literally has the best 1v1 build in wvw. It’s fine for small group roaming too. Yeah we suck at standing in corners….. oh well.

The condescending remark shows ignorance and misinformation. “Standing in corners” is very rarely used in speed clearing groups.

fracture.9754:

necrofail.7439:

Still bad in pve and I would argue alot of what others have said about necro shows ignorance.

Well surely you understand not all of us enjoy zerging in blobs, or?

fracture.9754:

I guess it’s fine for EOTM trolling and zerging in WvW.

@fracture: are you trying to prove some kind of point, white-knighting PvE while turning around and demonstrating ignorance and misinformation on the game mode you don’t seem to personally prefer? I feel like you are, but I don’t feel like it’s working.

Necros are also really good in GvG and Roaming scenarios in WvW, in case you were wondering. I can’t really think of a WvW thing they don’t do well. Maybe running supply, since they aren’t as good as Warriors/Thieves. Ooo, maybe escaping Zergs, if there isn’t a cliff nearby, and if you don’t have Flesh Wurm as well as Spectral Walk, and if you decide not to just WP away and go somewhere else when you aren’t already in combat.

I am not sure Necromancer is all that bad, especially in WvW zerging.

One reason Necro is easy to focus in zergs is because the traits and utilities selected for zerg support leave players exposed (even more than normal) in 1v1.

If you want to feel unhappy, run Mesmer in WvW zerg.

The problem is the proff is useless crap when focused. every proffs can fight/kite/get away kitten good while being focused and some of them can handle 1v2 kitten good. only necro bad at this stuffs. so the necro prof just fails in teamplay vs other proffs. your only chance to do very good is when your teammates can own enemy already or you are not focused, but it never happen against skilled players.

gavyne.6847:

spoj.9672:

Its not because they are too good so they get focused. Its because they are too easy to focus and lock down and not good enough to do anything about it themselves.

That’s a classic glass half-empty thinking. Yes it’s true necros get focused on because they lack mobility and escapes. Nobody disagrees with this point, I think we all know that’s one of the biggest issues with necros in PvP. But we all know what power necros are capable of if left unchecked.

It’s one of the reasons even in ZvZ I look for necros to down, because I know what they can do to my zerg if left unchecked. The current meta calls for at least 5-6 necros in a zerg/group fight or there’s little chance you’ll win an open field battle.

Unfortunately in smaller scale organized PvP, you have more chance to prioritize your targets (you have to pretty much). You don’t want to leave necros alone, and yes they are an easy target to focus down due to lack of escapes, so they make prime targets.

For the bolded part. The same can be said for any class. If a class is left unchecked it can do some serious damage.

In the case of ZvZ, elementalist does more than a necro. But elementalist is squishier. If left alone the zerg melting potential is far superior to what a necro does. I dont have much recent experience in WvW zergs. What i remember is its ridiculously easy to farm lootbags on a necro because of how durable they are at dealing with unavoidable damage. Im pretty sure thats more of a reason to focus necros in a large scale fight. Because lets be honest. The eles are more dangerous but they melt in seconds.

Its not like eles lack zerg control skills or anything. The only thing they dont have is WoC. But i would take some extra frozen grounds, static fields and unsteady grounds over WoC any day. Especially now that stability can be stripped with CC. Its a GWEN meta not because necros are really good. Its because they have the second best ranged AOE. But if i was to handpick every class in my zerg i would have no problem excluding necros in favour of more eles. GWE meta. :>

Most eles in wvw aren’t running zerker, so while necros are. Zerker eles melt in half a second in wvw, necros can be zerker and not melt.

As far as what someone said about necros being dangerous that’s why the get focused….. while I appreciate that you are defending the pvp necro that simply is not the case. Necros are focused simply because they are easy to focus, has nothing to do with how dangerous they are. It is true you can stop the potential snowball effect with lifeforce but that is going to happen even if you kill the necro.

I have a power necro for zergs, a mesmer for roaming and a thief for everything else.

Necro’s are not the worse class in the game, but they have been pigeon-holed by way of the nerfs we were given after the dumbfire debacle. I am not saying the necro is garbage, but everything we can do other classes do better; save well bombing and (debatable) tagging.

spoj.9672:

But if i was to handpick every class in my zerg i would have no problem excluding necros in favour of more eles. GWE meta. :>

That would be a mistake honestly. Eles aoe damage takes a long time to wind up, they don’t have the pop that power necros do when you need the well bombs. They are best at playing support, which is what they’re needed for in GWEN meta. Their cc and water are very much essential to any ZvZ. Where as necros are needed for their WoC and aoe spike damage. Don’t get me wrong, ele is my 2nd fav class, they add a good amount of damage out there. But their role is playing support first, damage second.

You really aren’t supposed to compare eles to necros as they serve different roles, and both are very much needed in WvW large scale combat. But really, given similar size zergs, the side that doesn’t utilize a good amount of power necros will have a very hard time busting the melee train.

Not worse you can make your acceptable. If mesmer glamour blind and confusion burst were still a thing you would replace well necro with it. The duel class would be more useful than us in zergs … In PvP you need to go premade, an inferior build on any class could go premade and win, or be lucky with MMR and get decent teammates. PvE doesn’t support necro especially the corruption and condition transfer aspect.

They gutted mesmer to leave us a role in WvW so we can be in "a good place ". We would counter current meta if it wasn’t for low condition damage generation, fair tradeoffs and dumb changes, we are always semi-bunker looks at med guard. So yeah necro are not in a "end of my life delete this kitten game "place.

Fully traited staff and wells is the way I zerg in WvW – red circles as fast as I can make them. It helps hold my blob and disrupt the other blob.
WoB, WoP, WoD, WoC, or CPC.

Arguably yes necros are the worst. Worst in PVE by far since launch, good for wvw zergs but one of the worst roamers (not because they can’t win fights, but because they are slow and can’t disengage easily), always been mediocre in pvp (maybe not the worst but close to the worst).

I would imagine Rangers are the bottom of the barrel, and mesmers can make an argument too.

The real issue is that certain classes excel everywhere or most places , and others are lacking in multiple areas. There doesn’t seem to be an effort to check that disparity.

Yea that’s the bigger issue for me as well, I don’t really care who is bottom. You could make an argument for rangers necros and mesmers, but what’s dumb is how 3 classes can be so lackluster over wide areas of the game while eles, warriors, and guards are meta at everything. Even thieves, and engies are only subpar in a one area (wvw zergs), while the 3 amigos (necro, mes, ranger) are subpar in more than half the game.

Rangers and mesmers are good in PvE. I dont know much about ranger in sPvP or WvW. But mesmers at least have a place in all 3 gametypes.

The biggest gametype is PvE. All classes should be able to atleast contribute to the group on a basic level. Necro can hardly even do that. One of the defining features of GW2 combat is the combo field and finisher system. It promotes team play. But then you have a class which goes against that completely. It doesnt make sense in the slightest. Especially when the class is already considered very selfish by design.

Totally agree that all classes should be made viable and valuable in PvE. I don’t do PvE, but it is their money maker and there’s a large population that enjoys PvE aspect of the game. No class should be bad in PvE period. It’s one thing for a particular spec to be lackluster in PvE, it’s quite another in necro’s case where all specs are pretty much bad all around.

Ranger in WvW is basically a single target class, in other words a crappier elementalist or necro and a worse roamer than a mesmer.

Mesmer is weak in WvW and not used in cash prize tournaments in spvp. The last tournament in the finals had necro representation, but not mesmer. So there’s that. In PvE it’s the portal and reflects keeping them out of the trash bin where necros and rangers reside (because let’s be honest, outside normal dungeon speed runs, rangers are dead weight in fractals, excelling at nothing and being a hassle to play for little reward).

Necro is the opposite. All the things that make him good in pvp/wvw are what is holding them back in PvE, because the amount of whine the spvp and wvw crowd will put out if necros are buffed knows no end.

Look at minions. Not only were they already bad, but Anet had to nerf a trait that buffed their damage and the death nova trait. Why? Spvp hotjoin and 1v1 QQ, that’s why.

Hotjoin spvp and 1v1 balancing has been a scourge upon this game’s balancing philosophy.

The game has not seen any meaningful PvE balance changes, it’s always done with spvp/WvW in mind. Guardians are virtually the backbone of groups in all formats, but since they don’t garner the 1v1/hotjoin spvp QQ because they earn their place in a group through support instead of killing power, they’ve never been the targets of heavy nerfs despite being so absurdly pervasive in all formats.

Arent mesmers still used for portals and long range pressure in sPvP? And i wouldnt exactly say mesmer is weak in WvW. You have veil and portal. You might not want stacks of mesmers but they are still a valuable class in all gametypes. And thats all thanks to unique utility.

Not really, portal in spvp is the only thing you’d want one for, engineers already do long range pressure better and so does a shortbow thief (the class that displaces the mesmer from the meta). And even with portal and GS+Staff or GS/sw+torch build mesmers have been discontinued in its champions such as Supcutie. Thief just does everything they can do better.

In WvW you stack less mesmers than you do necromancers. Maybe 2 mesmers for veils and portals, each a 70+ sec cd, so you’re useful for laying down 2 lengthy cooldowns and that’s as far as it goes, illusions die before they even deal damage or can shatter. Imagine the only way to play necro for dealing damage was as a minionmancer, that’s how mesmer functions in WvW/sPvP with things like marks/grenades/ele aoe/melee cleave all over the place.

Necromancer is in a better state than mesmer in the PvP formats, but don’t take my word for it just take a trip to any WvW/sPvP related subforum or look at the top performers’ team makeups.

The necro problem is primarily in PvE. And I’ll repeat it’s held back for the very reason of classes being balanced around spvp/WvW with PvE balancing having very little weight.

Again, another example, ranger spirits. No reason to nerf them at all in PvE (especially the elite and sun spirit and their durations, which weren’t even used), but still global nerfs came in that didn’t split the functionality between formats. Ranger pets were nerfed too globally without them needing nerfs in PvE.

Until their balance philosophy finally changes to actually splitting skill balance ala GW1, expect more of the same. The upside for the necro is they’re not saddled with a class mechanic centering around fragile, dumb AI. So they’re easier to fix by just changing a couple skill facts with finishers and buffing target cleave counts for weapons and tweaking cd’s on skills.

For mesmers on the other hand, shatters as a class mechanic will never work so long as the phantasm/clone system exists. There’s simply no way to balance mind wrack vs. phantasms without an overhaul of the mechanics. There’s no way to make Cry of Frustration remotely useful without an overhaul on Confusion for PvE. Distortion will still see rare usage as will diversion, how many mesmers want to sacrifice the damage of 2-3 phantasms, all of which have 16+ sec cd’s worth of ramp up.

Necromancer should count its blessing for HoTs that minions were made an optional feature of the class.

If we want to argue unique utility classes, let’s revisit vanilla shamans/paladins in World of Warcraft and how many people actually enjoyed the idea of being brought only for utility. Look at the mesmer forums for how many people are happy just being veil/portal bots and then impotent for the rest of the encounter.

Got to remember with the new borderlands map coming im suspecting mesmer to be pretty amazing for that. People will be in small groups. So portal travel up vertical cliffs and so on could be pretty common place.

Anyway ive always felt that WvW balance should be mostly just ignored in its current state. There are so many aspects of it so theres a place for every class. You cant really balance zerg vs zerg. And roaming is very similar to sPvP. That means balance should be based on PvE and sPvP. Unfortunately as you said its too focused on sPvP. But even there necro has serious problems which it cant deal with by clever builds. It has to rely on teammates and other classes. Which is really disappointing.

And the problems necro suffers from in sPvP are also issues in PvE. The lack of sustain and active defence is important in both gametypes. Especially when you consider active defence can also include things like area projectile defence. And the lack of disengage is an issue that can be associated with mobility. i dont expect that to be changed in a way that benefits PvE though.

I also want to mention the issue of profitability in WvW. It’s rather……aggravating when the nearby guardian/warrior/ele and even necro at the end of a WvW session have nearly triple the amount of bags you do as a mesmer because of tagging and actual aoe capacity, in addition to wxp gains. The same applies for open world farms.

As far as necro they’ll just have to realize that whole “we don’t want them having boons because they’re masters of conditions” bullkitten is never gonna work. Stability will defend you against multiple sources attempting to CC you, from whatever distance. A condition like blind will not do as much. Same goes for vigor and protection vs. weakness (which it’s outrageous how they nerfed weakening shroud’s weakness duration as if necromancers were being unholy tanks in pvp).

Boons are the most powerful form of performance enhancement and protection in addition to active defenses like dodge, and denying the necromancer access to them will cripple the class. Foot in The Grave should have been baseline. Maybe not the stability, but the stunbreak feature of death shroud should have been baseline. Dark Path should be restored to its blink from beta.

Make life drain from dagger cleave 3 targets and return health based on them, and make it a noncasted channel (basically like shackles from death shroud). Lower the cd of signet of the locust substantially. Increase Signet of Vampirism’s heal substantially so that when you are getting trained you actually become more resilient than a warrior with healing signet (the hps while getting hit should be far higher). Make life drains more accessible (rather than gutting all your damage to go into a terrible blood magic line just to be able to survive) and work while in death shroud.

Change the casting times on necro skills, especially the heals the casting time on so many necromancer skills are outrageous.

I was thinking of a utility skill for the necro akin to that of the lupicus bubble in pve. Grab that bubble, make it an aoe area that inflicts weakness on mobs and makes it pull back mobs trying to escape, and make it absorb projectiles (instead of reflection in case people whine it’s too strong).

Spectral Grasp should work like Binding Blades to be honest, I don’t understand why it’s just a single target skill. Make fear in PvE terrify targets in place, working like a stun so it doesn’t displace mobs.

fracture.9754:

necrofail.7439:

Power necro is fantastic in spvp, as well as wvw zvz. Condi necro is good in spvp and literally has the best 1v1 build in wvw. It’s fine for small group roaming too. Yeah we suck at standing in corners….. oh well.

The condescending remark shows ignorance and misinformation. “Standing in corners” is very rarely used in speed clearing groups.

Then why is there usually 0-1 Necro in decent PvP?, and why is the necro team 95% of the time on the losing team? is it because necros are sooooooooooooo good? do tell.

For laughs, I started keeping track of heals I miss in dungeons and fractals from being in DS. The missed health astounded me. The more I use DS, the lower the odds of getting any sort of heal at all.

Now, DS prevents me from taking damage but the only way to participate in heals is to have team members call them out before using them so I have a chance to grab the heal. Unfortunately, I participate only in PUGs.
——————————— So here is where I go off on a tangent —-———————
In an older MMO, scripts were allowed for skills such that countdown alerts and skill names were echoed in the chat log. Things like a note that a skill was approaching the end of a cool down, or a script to launch a skill had started and the skill would go off after a set delay. The chat log echo could be personal notes not visible to the team, or notes for team members to coordinate bursts. In many cases, the burst was configurable based upon the order in which the skills were used to give varying effects and damage.

This type of planning is only available on voice in GW2. In the old MMO, the scripts were written by players using a framework set up by the game designers but that is not entirely necessary for GW2. The game is fully capable of reporting in chat log when skills are off cool down and when skills are used. There are also the visual effects players can see.

Chat logs, though, are mostly outdated. I guess I would like to see the following work performed by Arenanet:
1. Expand the chat log capability so the player can assign skills to kittenoed in chat to team members. Something like <player>, <skill>, “player comment” would at least help players connect with skills and their visual effects on screen. To prevent the chat log from clogging up, perhaps only combo fields and finishers should be able to be toggled this way. Certainly, auto-attack has no value being echoed in the chat log.
2. Integrate voice chat and audio tighter within the game. Joining a group should automatically join the voice channel. The same could be done with team or alliance channels and commanders may have voice override capability.
3. Further develop combo’s (skill combinations) to encourage more coordinated group and team play. An intricate combination should have a nice burst for a reward. Combo’s can be used to train players in PvE for PvP and WvW. The combo is not used very effectively in PvE right now because the content can be cleared with players spamming skills uncoordinatedly, knowing some of the rudiments of positioning and event stages. Make event success more dependent upon creating combinations successfully.