Guild Wars 2

Hey guys.

I’ve long admired Necromancers as one of the most interesting sorts of spellcasters, but was extremely disappointed in how their mechanics were implemented in GW2 (no actual manipulation of the dead. =/), so I’ve never played one.

Still, I think it’d be really one to write for one in one of my stories, and so here I am with a few questions (mostly geared towards MM and Condition Necros) in hopes that the Necro community could help me out. I’ve previously written short stories for Guardian vs Mesmer and Elementalist vs Mesmer and now I’m setting sights on a Necro versus Ranger engagement.

• How would you rate Necro Minions in order of most valuable to least valuable and why?

• What is each minion’s role? Are Bone Minions relevant?

• What is a MM Necro’s general fighting style (I doubt it’s simply: “summon minions, roll face.”). What weapons do they use and what are their defenses?

• How vulnerable is a MM Necro with no minions?

• What conditions to Necromancer have most easiest access to?

• What is the general mindset versus a Ranger?

• Assuming equal skill, and meta builds, who is more likely to win between a Necro & Ranger?

Thanks for the help guys!

I can answer two last questions

I assume we’re talking about PvP situation since it’s Xvs.X

General mindset versus a Ranger is rather straight. They’re weak to Necromancers.
They posses a lot of evasive moves, but they have to dump 30 points into one of trait trees to have any reliable condition removal. And we’re a condition profession, no matter what, even Power Necros. They’re vunerable to transfers as hell, we easily corrupt only sources of stability.

Power ones struggle since kiting in this game is broken and not many can pose a serious challange or don’t even know what kiting is. And, despite what other Rangers can say about power damage, unless Ranger dumps all his utility bar and traits for that burst (which isn’t that great anyway) the damage is average. New 6/0/2/6/0 like to think they’re viable, but they stand no chance against skilled Necro.

Condition/Carrion ones it’s slightly different. Most Necromancers run transfers and are in general pretty resilient to conditions. Our healing is unaffected by Poison condition which is very common to have for Rangers, so that’s first advantage (assuming we’re running CC). Honestly, personal skill of the Ranger is a key in here.
If he avoids bursts, can time his conditions, don’t get hit by transfers, that’s to his advantage.
Sadly, if I know I’ll be fighting Ranger, equipping Epidemic is mostly enough to slaughter them. Their main handicap is the pet and when they may avoid your AoE conditions, pets don’t. So you can simply stack condis on pet, epidemic them and finish the Ranger with fears.

In general, meta, skills, Necromancer should always win.

As for the story it should end:

“The unparalled archer Timmy pulled his sword out of the sheath and was preparing for the final showdown.
He looked for his loyal pet and at first, couldn’t find it.
At last, he saw it, his wolf, happily running towards him with gazillion conditions stacked on him, just waited to be spreaded out.
Timmy put his palm to the face and cried, moaning:
“kitten you, Moon Moon, kitten you!”

THE END

I haven’t read through all of it, but those short stories are really cool. I’m definitely looking forward to the necro-ranger version.

I can only help you with the non-minion related questions though, except one small hint: if you are a MM you probably don’t use condi gear because these two build types don’t really synergize that well.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• What conditions to Necromancer have most easiest access to?

Depends how you approach the question.
Most frequently applied: definitely bleeding.
Access to a condition compared to other classes: fear and chilled.
However, when you play a condi build you make your damage work against other players by making cleansing as hard as possible. That means as many different conditions as possible, not just by applying them yourself but also by corrupting boons and transfering them back to your opponent.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• What is the general mindset versus a Ranger?

• Assuming equal skill, and meta builds, who is more likely to win between a Necro & Ranger?

Generally, rangers are at a big disadvantage, they’d have to be a mad genius to give an equally skilled necro a run for his money. If the ranger is just a tiny little bit less skilled they’re likely to not win a single 1v1. Though I should say, it’s not a matter of skill in this case, but a build-win usually.
Some of these issues are partially due to the meta builds being used in spvp.
In WvW you have a better chance at finding a ranger who runs an exotic or unusual build that can throw the necro off their routine.
Come to think of it, a few weeks ago I had the occasional dance with a ranger in one of the borderlands. I’ve never seen a build like his before, some kind of power build with high stealth up time and lots of CC. I was going to ask him about it, but I couldn’t find him anymore at that point.

Hope that helped.

flow.6043:

Come to think of it, a few weeks ago I had the occasional dance with a ranger in one of the borderlands. I’ve never seen a build like his before, some kind of power build with high stealth up time and lots of CC. I was going to ask him about it, but I couldn’t find him anymore at that point.

Hope that helped.

Sounds like a Longbow build with Quick Draw. You can get 25% stealth uptime easy with Ranger, though more than that relies on a passive trait. Longbow is a better weapon than people give credit for.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

flow.6043:

Come to think of it, a few weeks ago I had the occasional dance with a ranger in one of the borderlands. I’ve never seen a build like his before, some kind of power build with high stealth up time and lots of CC. I was going to ask him about it, but I couldn’t find him anymore at that point.

Hope that helped.

Sounds like a Longbow build with Quick Draw. You can get 25% stealth uptime easy with Ranger, though more than that relies on a passive trait. Longbow is a better weapon than people give credit for.

The only stealth Rangers have access to is Hunter’s Shot, 12s cd or 9,5s cd when traited, with terrible aftercast. It gives 3 second stealth to Ranger only (not his pet so if it’s on passive, you can easily track the Ranger) on arrow connection.

The thing you’re talking about is Camouflage, some worse stepchild of Stealth. In betas Rangers had a pretty decent access to it, now it’s only seen on “Hide in Plain Sight” Master Wilderness Survival trait. It applies invisibility to you upon being hit by CC and as any camouflage, breaks this effect upon any movement on your side (fear fleeing or knockback don’t count).

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• How would you rate Necro Minions in order of most valuable to least valuable and why?

Flesh Golem (duh) – deals significantly higher DPS than any minion, perma cripple with only 20% condition/cripple duration, plus his active is super strong AoE CC, plus in some rare situations it deals stupid amounts of damage/life steals a lot

Bone Minions (traited w/ Death Nova) – 100% poison uptime, 50% weakness uptime, both of which are AoE, very large burst damage, all on super short CD and nearly impossible for the enemy to purposely dodge

Flesh Wurm – shortest CD stunbreak, highest single target hit (decent DPS as well), plus gives the strongest mobility, and can save your butt. also is ranged so never dies and has projectile finishers

Bone Fiend – guaranteed CC, plus look above for why ranged minions are really strong, and this guy has some cripple (kiting) and double projectiles

Shadow Fiend – good active for sPvP securing stomps, also really good LF generation, but with a long activation time, also melee so deals less overall damage because he’s going to be kited/die more

Bone Minions (untraited) – low passive DPS (like really low), low HP, the untraited damage is only about 3k every 20s

Blood Fiend – just passive HP regen, doesn’t scale, low active healing. just doesn’t do a whole lot except for fun

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• What is each minion’s role? Are Bone Minions relevant?

Basically answered above

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• What is a MM Necro’s general fighting style (I doubt it’s simply: “summon minions, roll face.”). What weapons do they use and what are their defenses?

Depends on the player/build. Generally its either about being really tanky and killing the enemy with long CC chains and bursting them, or having a ton of sustain and basically waiting for your enemy to die on their own. Staff, dagger MH, axe, focus, warhorn are all used. Defenses are DS, CC, generally high HP/armor, and healing (depending on build).

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• How vulnerable is a MM Necro with no minions?

Again depends on build. Right after your minions die is actually the biggest spike in defenses for current MMs due to LF gains/death nova. It only matters if your minions are consistently dead one after the other.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• What conditions to Necromancer have most easiest access to?

In general? Bleed/poison. Compared to other class? Fear/poison/maybe weakness

Ty guys! Couple more questions…

• Whats a Death Nova? Sounds boss.
• Any links to tutorial videos of MM Necros?
• Besides Signet of Spite and excluding Epidemic, what are three popular necro utilities?
• Favorite Necromancer quotes?
• Anyone willing to offer their necro for me to use in the story? A pic and short bio (personality summary, and/or any kind of noteable history)

Death Nova is 30 point death magic trait. Every time one of your minions dies or you get downed, a poison cloud erupts from the corpse, leaving a poison field and doing fairly significant damage.

Well of Suffering, Corrupt Boon, Blood is Power, although that list would change a bit depending on perspective.

To my knowledge no good MM tutorial videos are out there. Not even sure there are any decent MM videos at all really.

Chaos, did you ask ranger community about necros?If so what was their answers? And what’s your questions to rangers?

How would you rate Necro Minions in order of most valuable to least valuable and why?

Golem, flesh worm, Bone minions, Shadow fiend, Bone fiend, Jagged horror’s (lich), Blood fiend.

What is each minion’s role? Are Bone Minions relevant?
<3 my bone minions, but not for their blast.. just for their damage to zerkers when you pop them.

Golem: interrupt/Kd stomps & revive. also having it feast on the downed together with flesh worm while dancing on bodies of dead zerkers.

Bone minions: blowing them up/blast necro’s non fields if running MM.

Shadow fiend: blind, if they can keep up with the fast paced gameplay. (goes for all minions)

Bone fiend: Shoots thingies at thingies.

Jagger horror: Annoying little buggers that give the enemy papercuts.

Bone fiend: heals? don’t know, don’t use it.

What is a MM Necro’s general fighting style (I doubt it’s simply: “summon minions, roll face.”). What weapons do they use and what are their defenses?

Drag enemies into fights, lure them onto a point and then immobilize while slicing away strips of enemy with D/D the more hits you do the better considering the siphon traits.
Or endure, keep enduring, tanking tanking tanking, gathering conditions on yourself, or from allies and either send them to enemies or Consume them so the mm can endure even longer.

How vulnerable is a MM Necro with no minions?

Quite vulnerable, but it’s all about CD control and DS can be a lifesaver buying you that 1 second it takes for cooldowns to run out.

What conditions to Necromancer have most easiest access to?
Bleeds.

What is the general mindset versus a Ranger?

Hide behind rocks! fear their pet and dark path to the ranger followed up with tainted shackled for torment immobilize, then double the d/d immobilize transfer conditions and slice away. shadow fiend for the blind, bone fiend for a second (1s) immobilize. golem for KD.
On the other hand if the ranger got the drop on MM and is ranged elevated, there is little chance for the mm to get near without losing 3/4 hp. its all about gap closing Ranger vs MM. (necro’s rejoice when the ranger leaps in for the kill when we are low because even at 10% hp we can still surprise most players, we always fight to the death.)

Assuming equal skill, and meta builds, who is more likely to win between a Necro & Ranger?

Ranger, simply because of the ranged dps it can do, good positioning around a point will simply melt the MM before it can reach the ranger.. (also kiting the minions hardly happens) few people do this though and use the greatsword leap because they see the necro at low HP and can’t be patient enough to keep their pet on the MM while the necro still has his DS filled due to his minions dying/sacrifice.)

Bawb might be able to paint a better picture.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Ty guys! Couple more questions…

• Whats a Death Nova? Sounds boss.
• Any links to tutorial videos of MM Necros?
• Besides Signet of Spite and excluding Epidemic, what are three popular necro utilities?
• Favorite Necromancer quotes?
• Anyone willing to offer their necro for me to use in the story? A pic and short bio (personality summary, and/or any kind of noteable history)

Death Nova is a trait that creates a poison field (3s at last check) whenever you enter the downed state or a minion bites the dust. The poison field is similar to those left by Putrid Ground and Chillblains (and Corrosive Poison Cloud, minus the weakness). In addition, whenever an enemy is felled, the trait allows for the spawning of a Jagged Horror (one of our weaker minions, but its attacks do cause bleeding).

The along with marks, the poison fields can be useful as a form of area control/denial.

Utilities differ from necro to necro, from situation to situation. I personally like to have Spectral Grasp (for interrupt/pulling/CC/and life force generation), Spectral Armor (for stun breaks* and to armor up before entering Death Shroud), and Spectral Walk (for evasion and dual stun breaks*).

I am willing to volunteer my necro for your story. I’ll be able to send a pic later this evening (currently at work, and is approx 10am).

As for a short bio:
He is a direct-male descendant of the great Canthan necromancer Sors Immani (who reportedly vanished after the defeat of the Great Destroyer although most speculate he took up residence in Kaineng City after this), and shares the same name (aka, my Guild Wars 1 main from Factions). Born in 1299 AE during the Season of the Phoenix and grew up in nobility, whose disdain for his quick and brutal temper left him to pursue the necromantic arts. Like his great ancestor, he is a devout follower of Grenth and a Lightbringer within the Order of Whispers. He prefers to channel spectral energies and the absorbed life force of the fallen to combat his enemies face-to-face, however he will utilize minions when the time is right.

As mentioned before, he possesses a fiery temper and approaches life with a confidence and brutality unlike most of his profession, who would prefer to skulk on the edges of battle and torment their foes. He took great joy in the death of Scarlet, albeit he admitted it was a bit of a hollow victory (stating that not even allowing his minions to flay her alive would’ve satiated the thirst for vengeance piled against her, even though he “wiped her from this world like excrement from a boot” kudos if you know the reference). Often times, outsiders mistake Sors’ brutality for cruelty; this is not the truth. He holds justice within high regard, knowing that it is ultimately Grenth who judges all. Indeed, he seeks to “help” his fellow man as well as the other races of Tyria through his own bloody, draconian interpretation of the law— if the punishment is harsh enough, you’ll prevent the crime from ever taking place.

As for appearance, again I’ll send a pic later as all I can do for now is give a description:

His silhouette is unlike most other necromancers; he dons a white Greatcoat of his Monumental Heritage with green patina over its trim. Under this, his clothing bears the dark green most common to worshippers of Grenth. He keeps his dark hair cropped short, less his foes grasp at it in the heat of battle. His “Wraith Masque”—a birthmark in its own right; symbolizes his connection to the spectral realm. He prefers to wield Razorstone and a Zenith scroll, but will occasionally use the staff given to him by the Pact upon the defeat of Zhaitan to curse the ground his enemies tread.

As promised, attached is the pic.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• How would you rate Necro Minions in order of most valuable to least valuable and why?

• What is each minion’s role? Are Bone Minions relevant?

• What is a MM Necro’s general fighting style (I doubt it’s simply: “summon minions, roll face.”). What weapons do they use and what are their defenses?

• How vulnerable is a MM Necro with no minions?

• What conditions to Necromancer have most easiest access to?

• What is the general mindset versus a Ranger?

• Assuming equal skill, and meta builds, who is more likely to win between a Necro & Ranger?

Thanks for the help guys!

Ok, so I’m working my way backwards :P

Minions: I’d go with Flesh Golem (on-demand knockdown, crippling attacks, and charging into a wall hits like a freight train loaded with Mack trucks).

Next is Bone Minions— on demand dual blast finishers that leave a poison field in their wake.

Bone Fiend— on demand immobilize and 2x hitting attacks.

Shadow Fiend— on demand blind and a ton of hp (between flesh golem and blood fiend iirc)

Flesh Wurm— heavy hitter, guaranteed projectile finisher, attacks stealthed enemies (so I’ve heard) but stationary. Can sacrifice to escape (teleport) and such also poisons all nearby enemies. Long cooldown also.

Blood Fiend— siphons health, ranged, and has a ton of hp. Short(ish) cooldown and can be sacrificed for health. Coupled with Vampiric Master, this minion siphons twice per hit.

Jagged Horror— bleeding attacks and that pretty much it. Leaves poison fields when it dies due to being merged with Death Nova.

My MM fighting style is to open up with Spinal Shivers (chilling target and removing any up-front boons), followed by Flesh Golem’s Charge. As minions begin to circle around, I’ll use Reaper’s Touch to pile vuln and regen before using Ghastly Claws. I’ll swap to staff and hit Mark of Blood to help heal minions then Chillblains and Reapers Mark. Followed up with Bone Fiend Immobilize and Bone Minion detonation if things get really heated.

Generally, MM tactics is to chain CC (knockdown, fear, chill, immob) and let the minions melt the target. Since most MM’s run Vampiric Master, each time a minion swings, it’s siphoning around 70-90 hp in addition to its normal attacks. Also figure MMs get stronger with Flesh of the Master (+20 toughness per minion). I, personally, like to run Lich runes for the additional Jagged Horrors.

At max, a MM necro can have:
(8) Jagged Horrors
(2) Bone Minions
(1) Bone Fiend
(1) Shadow Fiend OR Flesh Wurm
(1) Blood Fiend
(1) Flesh Golem

So, +280 toughness and ~980 – 1260 hp being siphoned per attack cycle.

Without minions (as in all are on CD), the necromancer still has access to weapon skills (most necros usually carry a staff—bleed, regen, poison, chill, fear, condition transfer, and a blast finisher and piercing projectile) in addition to Death Shroud skills (torment, immob, fear, chill, bleed). Underwater, necromancers gain an aoe pull, bleed, and several other skills but most notable is that DS gets stronger as Plague Blast transfers conditions and has twice the fire rate as Life Blast. They retain aoe torment underwater, gain an aoe poison/blind, and an aoe damaging fear. Also, even when downed a necro has a slew of powerful emergency skills: channeled life siphon, fear, AoE poison.

Bleeding, poison, and chill are the most common conditions for necromancers with weakness, immobilize, and blind coming up right behind. Also, remember that necros can and will consume conditions for health or transfer them from themselves to their target.

My general mindset vs a ranger is to close the gap ASAP. This could be from CC or from Dark Path. Once up close staff marks soften up the target for the minions while I kite just outside of melee range with Ghastly Claws, Unholy Feast, and Spinal Shivers.

All things being equal, I give the edge to the necromancer because the downed skills may end up being a deciding factor. Bear in mind that while downed, a necro’s minions will still be up, attacking and siphoning while the necro fears, siphons, and poisons the area around himself/his target.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• Favorite Necromancer quotes?

Trahearne:

“This won’t end well!”

Oh wait… I hate that guy. Quit the personal story as soon as he showed up and stole my caladbolg >_<

Female Sylvari:

Return to dust, my friend.

Years of experience has made death a close friend, rather than something to avoid. The line has a slight… Annoyance to it. Very necromancey.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• Whats a Death Nova? Sounds boss.

I remember duelling some friends in an empty server… When an annoying nooby thief joined. He pretty much threw himself at me and died in seconds… But he used a rune that triggered a death nova on going down… Which stacked about 40s poison :/. I couldnt even outheal it… And he wouldnt quit going kamikaze on me. After killing him 10 times, i finally went down cuz of my crappy heal, so we got another server :D.

• How would you rate Necro Minions in order of most valuable to least valuable and why?
  1. Flesh Golem – Pound it, you stupid turkey!
  2. Bone Minion – AAA guns even work under water
  3. Bone Fiends – BOOM! Hahahahahaaaaa BooM!
  4. Flesh Wurm – Toss a brick! Whoop, gotta run!
  5. Blood Fiend – Suck it!
  6. Baloon Minion – Up, Up and away in my beautiful baloon… Ah, I’m blind! T_T
  7. Dead Rats – “I hope you catch a bleed from them!”

• What is each minion’s role? Are Bone Minions relevant?
  See above.

• What is a MM Necro’s general fighting style (I doubt it’s simply: “summon minions, roll face.”). What weapons do they use and what are their defenses?
  My minions are idiotic noobs I can make do one trick each, if they feel like it. They should all die in putrid explosions. Only then am I happy.

• How vulnerable is a MM Necro with no minions?
  A MM is never always vulnerable. They can respawn after CD after a PvEWipe. Don’t you know that?

• What conditions to Necromancer have most easiest access to?
  Non-damaging conditions

• What is the general mindset versus a Ranger?
  I feel hurt-sulted.

• Assuming equal skill, and meta builds, who is more likely to win between a Necro & Ranger?
  The Thief watching.

Thanks for the help guys!

NP

don’t forget to add the fear of water.

Hey guys, thanks again for all the information. This thread has been extremely helpful not just with my story but my understanding of Necros in general. If ya’ll don’t mind I have one last question ..

The lifesteal concept, I see runes/sigils for it and I know Necros have traits for it. How effective is it and does it revolve around multi-hit attacks (like Life Syphon) or heals you a percentage of damage done, favoring larger hits like Life Blast?

@Sors: MUCH appreciated man! Hopefully I shall do ya justice.

Vortok.6975:

Chaos, did you ask ranger community about necros?If so what was their answers? And what’s your questions to rangers?

I haven’t yet. I’m so clueless about rangers I don’t even know where to start. =P (Plus I have someone to refer to for the ranger facts.)

@Chaos

Regarding Life Siphons – They’re weak. Most of them are balanced around “perfect conditions” when you can constantly get a proc from 5 targets, so in less ideal situations, they simply suck balls.

Siphons don’t heal you while you’re in Death Shroud. In fact, you are not affected by any heal in that state, unless you trait heavily into Death Magic (6) for new GM trait which grants you very very average regeneration in DS.

Siphons are always of the same value. They don’t crit and they proc without ICD (at least Necro trait ones). They work on structures, though, and bypass many “Invus”, damaging for those little numbers.

Currently, there’s no real viable Siphoning oriented spec in the game, only one that comes to my mind is Siphon from minions’ hits “Vampiric Master”, viable if you have many minions under control. Stand-alone siphoning is just a try-hard relict of GW1 Blood Magic.

Our traits for lifesteal are not effective on their own, except in very large situations like a big pull of trash mobs in PvE/zerging WvW, since they scale on how many times you can deal direct damage. MM is the only build that effectively uses it because Vampiric Master (makes minions siphon HP on hit) is the more effective of siphon traits, plus they have the tankiness to stay alive a long time, and can afford to take a lot of non-trait reliant siphoning like leeching sigils.

And as I kind of mentioned it procs on every direct damage application. This means any AoE that deals direct damage can proc it 5x per second, and if you are in certain situations you can stack up the AoE and get a lot of procs.

Bhawb’s correct: siphons proc off of each “strike”, meaning skills like Axe and Dagger #2 will proc 9 times (and dagger will siphon in addition to its normal siphon).

The only “vampiric” build I’ve been able to get to function halfway decent revolves around D/W & A/F with assassin’s gear running a 2/6/0/6/0 build with II/ II-VI-VIII/ II-V-XII.

But only then I think it only works because every attack is critting and siphoning twice, as opposed to the siphons themselves (although I’m sure they help in their own right).

Oh, if only siphons scaled from power/healing power. That’d be nice.

And if SoV stole health on hit, that’d be nice too :P

Alright guys, I’m about ready to crack down on this story. I had one last question I wanted to ask that I’m a bit surprised I didn’t think of sooner.

Rotations.

Are there any popular rotations/combinations that Necros use?

To use Memser as an example, a Greatsword Mesmer often uses: Mirror blade >> MindWrack >> MindSpike and a Sword Mesmer will Illusionary Leap>> Swap>>MindWrack>>Blurred Frenzy

since we can’t evade, block, drop immunity or dodge much we soak all attacks after that. So necro doesn’t really have time to chain stuff vs players that know stuff.. iow we cast stuff and will be cc-ed before any chain finishes.. if we do have rotations it’s probably something like..

Cast staff #1 and marks, fill up DS , kite and try and aa someone till you are out of DS.. run dodge, burn cooldowns and wurm to get away.. regen.. repeat.

Thats my experience, unless you are fighting a dummy.

There are some topics about rotation around though:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-combo-s/first#post4226608

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Hey guys.

I’ve long admired Necromancers as one of the most interesting sorts of spellcasters, but was extremely disappointed in how their mechanics were implemented in GW2 (no actual manipulation of the dead. =/), so I’ve never played one.

Still, I think it’d be really one to write for one in one of my stories, and so here I am with a few questions (mostly geared towards MM and Condition Necros) in hopes that the Necro community could help me out. I’ve previously written short stories for Guardian vs Mesmer and Elementalist vs Mesmer and now I’m setting sights on a Necro versus Ranger engagement.

• How would you rate Necro Minions in order of most valuable to least valuable and why?

• What is each minion’s role? Are Bone Minions relevant?

• What is a MM Necro’s general fighting style (I doubt it’s simply: “summon minions, roll face.”). What weapons do they use and what are their defenses?

• How vulnerable is a MM Necro with no minions?

• What conditions to Necromancer have most easiest access to?

• What is the general mindset versus a Ranger?

• Assuming equal skill, and meta builds, who is more likely to win between a Necro & Ranger?

Thanks for the help guys!

1) Difficult question. Minion masters as a whole have their quirks, and the worthiness of minions depends largely on if or if not you are a MM.

2) Bone minions are kamikaze. They can deal damage, and provide two heads for the purposes of traits like vamperic master. Bone fiend is ranged with cc capabilities. Shadow fiend is a generic minion with cc on command. Flesh wurm creates a strong, but immobile ally, but is generally used for teleportation recall. Flesh Golem can tank, and cc.

3) MMs generally use staff, Mark of Blood, Chibilians and Reaper’s mark can be used defensively to help keep your minions alive, and Putrid mark is capable of dealing respectable damage. Summon minions, let them zerg the enemy, keep them alive using your staff.

4) Vary vulnerable. You still possess your staff/DS cc, but no real stopping power.

5) Fear, immobilize and torment through DS. Bleed and poison are easy access, others are mainly situational.

6) Run away. A MM can’t really do much against a good ranger. A dagger necro can do pretty well if he ckittene his cc to keep himself close. A condition ranger is a good blend of sustained damage and defense that works well against a ranger 1 on 1.

7) Ranger beats MM, Ranger with lots of cc beats Dagger necro. Dagger necro beats ranger without cc. Ranger and condi are evenly matched, and more or less a skill competition. 1 on 1 of course.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Alright guys, I’m about ready to crack down on this story. I had one last question I wanted to ask that I’m a bit surprised I didn’t think of sooner.

Rotations.

Are there any popular rotations/combinations that Necros use?

To use Memser as an example, a Greatsword Mesmer often uses: Mirror blade >> MindWrack >> MindSpike and a Sword Mesmer will Illusionary Leap>> Swap>>MindWrack>>Blurred Frenzy

I would figure Bone Fiend Immob >> Flesh Golem Charge opener, Mark of Blood >> Chillblains >> Reaper’s Mark. Let the Bone Minions get in close and detonate for decent damage (~2k ea) + Poison.

Tainted Shackles+Doom >> Life Transfer for forced Torment moving damage, ending in Immob and a decent AoE burst of damage (and minion heal).

That’s about all I can chime in with since I’m usually a powermancer (more interesting combos/rotations there). I figure Bhawb (the resident MM) may have more to chime in with.

Good luck with the story! If my character’s still being used, give whoever loses (preferably not me, lol) a glorious death worthy of a disciple of Melandru or Grenth!

I was thinking the same thing today!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/balance/Being-that-Necros-ARE-Necromancers

As always, much appreciated and exactly what I was looking for. Thanks alot!

And yeah Sors, I’m definitely still using you’re Necro if I’m still allowed. =] The problem is that I’m not sure if Ranger will still be the opponent.

Though I already wrote for Guardian, I was thinking of maybe pitting Guard vs Necro since one uses life-preserving magic and the other using death-manipulating magic…. annnddd I don’t have a ranger to play. x.x

Chaos, you’re certainly still allowed. Let me know if you’d like an updated pic since I’ve changed the a bit, or just find me in game.

Im a bit later to the party but I thought id throw my 2 cents in. Ive played a MM since release and ive fought alot of them in my time in the game so heres my take on fighting a ranger.

(FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDIIIIIIIIIING TIIIIIIIIIME) (sends forth a shadowy hand from my staff as my horde surges forth) (Ranger responds by putting out a crippling field of arrows between me and him. I stand in the field and then give that cripple back to him so hes slow enough for the minions to catch.)

(My bone fiend immobilizes him while my flesh golem hamstrings him) (He looks down in agony to see my bone minions grinning up at him maniacally) (He uses lightning reflexes to get away from them right as they explode only to catch a face full of acid from my flesh wurm.) (He screams as an icy chill fills his body and cuts appear randomly over his form. He can suddenly hear me chuckling in his ear and turns around to look at me where I have appeared behind him just in time for me to shove a ball of life energy through his chest "here have it back)

(He looks up at me in hatred right as my flesh golem tears his head from his shoulders)

Did I mention playing a minion master is kinda like a cross between a Evil Genius and a Hardcore Sadist?