Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow Necromancers! I’m fairly new to the game, I described what I wanted in a class to a friend as something with a high-ish health pool, range, tankiness(I.e. effective without being a “glass cannon” build) and versatility. The end result of his analysis of the class for me: Necromancer. I have yet to read all of the changes since the patch, nor would I understand them at the present time and I’m looking to start this new toon when I get home from work today, are there any kind souls, yes pun intended lol, that could reference helpful necro guides from reliable sources/respected members of the necro community! I felt that coming to the forums and getting direct knowledge/references would be better than googling “good leveling necro build gw2 kitten kitten .” Starter guides, leveling builds, more advanced guides for end game content, Dungeons/WvW/PvP/DE that I could save for later in my necro life would be spectacular!! I know I’ll learn a lot just from leveling but still any tips, tricks, leveling builds to maximize my leveling speed and learning experience etc would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Mord

Due to the recent patch, there are not many “cookie cutter” builds settled in yet besides the 30/30/10 terror+fire stuff. I would take any self proclaimed definitive guides or tips on the front page with a grain of salt for that reason (including mine).

Though his guides/videos are outdated, Nemesis’ video tutorials and his guides stickied on the top of the Necro forum are very helpful for someone new. He explains his reasoning very thoroughly as well as highlighting why Necromancers are played the way they are. By getting a rudimentary understanding of the class through his videos, you should be able to discern which guides/tips are correct and vice versa.

As far as leveling goes, using a Power/crit based build or a Minion builds are both great for leveling. I would stay away from condition builds for leveling for the most part, as you lack most of the high tier traits, and going tanky for leveling is silly (Though you are quite tanky with a Minion build). The Power build will be faster for the most part, while the Minion build really kicks in at level 40 with “Flesh of the Master” and provide you with an amazing suitability and a smooth leveling experience.

In general, you will want to look for yellow hearts on the map to try to accomplish, they give you a good idea of the levels of the area nearby. On your way there, you will run into orange events that you should always try to do for more experience. Try to grab all red vistas and point of interests along the way for even more experience. Whenever you can, do your Personal Story missions, as they also give you a great deal of experience.

Good Luck!

SnyderHall gave a good answer. It’s hard to give specifics and GW2 generic tips might be too basic for you, what do I know? This works for me:

• Have a good time.

• Use ranged attacks when in doubt.

• Learn to move and position yourself, or any build will fall apart.

…but I actually have two Necromancer specific tips:

• To me — Necromancer is one of the professions with the fighter pilot challenge of taking in a lot of dashboard information. Just try to be observant and learn as you go. This could be due to my play style but I have a feeling it’s profession specific.

• Train your evil grin in front of the computer =)

Good luck!