Guild Wars 2

So I’m happily playing Necromancer. I think I’m one of the few people that actually likes it. Having the power to put on endless stacks of bleeds on something and turning the tables with Corrupt Boon when your opponent stacks a bunch of boons on themselves really makes me smile. But there’s one issue I’ve had when switching from another profession to Necromancer: Necromancer just feels so kitten slow.

I honestly think it’s all the meaningless cast times for pretty much every single ability. Only one ability on my current hot bar (running a Corruption build that emphasizes condition damage and weakness) doesn’t have a casting time. Every other class I play feels so fluid, but the moment I play Necromancer, I worry about interrupting myself more than having my opponent interrupting me. I think that’s one of the major underlying problems.

Another problem for me is that you still get the condition even though you either don’t have someone targeted or you’re blinded when you use some of the Corruption utility skills. Why can’t it be like the Warrior’s adrenaline skill where if you miss, it goes on a shorter cool down with no penalty if you miss?

I just feel like the pace of the Necromancer is considerably slower than other professions and that some of the skills really don’t need such unnecessary casting times and penalties.

Oh god yes.

Necro is the slowest profession in the game in all aspects. You’re almost forced to play it slow even if you try to make it faster. The fastest is Mark spam and weapon swaps.

And you’re misled if you think corrupt boon doesn’t have a cast time. It does, its just hidden. You can’t cast it while casting other things which makes it EXTREMELY misleading.

I think minion cast times are too long.

Focus 5 cast time is ridiculously long for what it does.

And then when you go into Death Shroud you feel suuuuppper slow. The cast time for attacks is 1 seconds but feels 1.5-2 seconds long. Dark Path takes forrreeever to land and move. Life transfer is a channel so that in itself feels long.

Staff 1 moves so slooooow.

Scepter chain feels like it takes ages for it to go off.

Axe 2 is a channel so that feels like it takes forever.

Oh god, I forgot underwater battle is the slowest thing ever.

Channelling skills don’t really count as “slow”, since they take affect almost the moment you use the skill. Channelling and cast time are very different, I don’t feel like the channelling abilities we have are slow really, although I agree with some other things.

Staff autoattack for the fact it doesn’t track the target really should be faster, why did the mesmer get an increased projectile speed to his scepter attack when it tracks the target? Same with the staff autoattack, it’s slow but it tracks the target – thus reasonable. Our staff is both slow AND doesn’t track.

I understand the DS #1 cast time since it deals a lot of damage and isn’t meant to be spammed, but the underwater DS #1 really simply takes too long, if I enter DS with full life force and cast it only 3 times my life force is already halfway done.

Also you’ve clearly never played an elementalist, not only does pretty much almost (almost) every single one (except for the dagger) of their abilities have a cast time, but they usually have a REALLY long cast time. Our reviving signet for example has a 2 second cast time, theirs has a 4 1/2 second cast time.

Delryn.7235:

Channelling skills don’t really count as “slow”, since they take affect almost the moment you use the skill. Channelling and cast time are very different, I don’t feel like the channelling abilities we have are slow really, although I agree with some other things.

Staff autoattack for the fact it doesn’t track the target really should be faster, why did the mesmer get an increased projectile speed to his scepter attack when it tracks the target? Same with the staff autoattack, it’s slow but it tracks the target – thus reasonable. Our staff is both slow AND doesn’t track.

I understand the DS #1 cast time since it deals a lot of damage and isn’t meant to be spammed, but the underwater DS #1 really simply takes too long, if I enter DS with full life force and cast it only 3 times my life force is already halfway done.

Also you’ve clearly never played an elementalist, not only does pretty much almost (almost) every single one (except for the dagger) of their abilities have a cast time, but they usually have a REALLY long cast time. Our reviving signet for example has a 2 second cast time, theirs has a 4 1/2 second cast time.

I have played ele. And they’re probably the most fluid/fast professions in the game. You have 4 weapon sets to swap to with low recharge timers. And who uses the reviving signets? Almost no one.

Almost all ele’s run full cantrips. Or maybe arcane/cantrips. Arcane and cantrips have 0 cast meaning can be chained with all weapon skills/long casting moves.

Necro channels are some of the worst in the game imo. Axe channel is a joke. Life transfer is generally a DPS loss, however it is useful if the targets are invis or you need AOE damage. But if its 1v1 I’d rather be shooting life blasts, cause the transfer takes a long time to cast wasting your life force. You don’t break even 1v1. Life blasts for me do ~1k damage while the full transfer does ~2k. Its just better to do blasts.

Dagger transfer is extremely underwhelming. Its useful for keeping distance, and possible for gaining heal, but its really really weak. Its just better to auto attack.

Trident 5 underwater not a channel. Actually pretty good damage.

Channels also mean retalliation hurts you a ‘lot’ more.

I have to agree. After playing an Elementalist extensively I find Necro to be very cumbersome and slow. Minions are a ridiculous joke. Condition damage is outdone by other classes. Mobility is almost nonexistent. Survival is great, but there’s very little punch to help you win the grueling attrition fights that the profession is supposed to shine in. There’s lots of CC, but not much to keep enemies that want to flee from doing so. The weapons are fairly unimpressive, which makes the class very dependent on Utility skill choice. Death shroud is a huge missed opportunity for what should have been a very interesting and fun class mechanic.

All in all, though I’ll continue playing my Necro until I get it completely figured out, I find it a frustrating experience because nothing seems to really synergize together into a cohesive, fluid whole.

Delryn.7235:

Also you’ve clearly never played an elementalist, not only does pretty much almost (almost) every single one (except for the dagger) of their abilities have a cast time, but they usually have a REALLY long cast time. Our reviving signet for example has a 2 second cast time, theirs has a 4 1/2 second cast time.

You clearly like making bold statements while being horribly wrong at the same time. The only professions I haven’t played in SPvP are Thief and Ranger because I like face-to-face man fightin’. Even though I’ve played Elementalist the least out of the ones I do play, it still takes up 12% of my total earned glory in SPvP. I mostly use cantrips which, as Berullos pointed out, are instant. There’s also another flaw in your example that Berullos also pointed out: Elementalists have double the amount of weapon skills of any other profession in the game. Even switching attunements can be counted as an attack if specced correctly since switching can come with an attack and a boon.

But let’s take into account other professions, too. Shouts are instant cast. Many of the Guardian’s utility skills are instant. All of the Warrior’s stance utility skills are instant and only the banners have a 1 second channeling time. Many of the Ranger’s skills are instant and only one is as long as a 1 second channeling time. Most of the Thief skills are instant or have only a 1/2 second channeling time. Imagine if the Mesmer had to channel for a full second before Feedback landed on a target or to use Mirror Images. Do you know how many skills the Necromancer has that are instant? 3 out of 20. Every other skill has to be channeled or has some kind of delay. And this is just for utility skills. A lot of the weapon skills are worse.

Do you want to know why people including myself think this is a slow profession? It’s because it is.

IMO every other class should be slower like the Necro. Then there will be less spam and more skill involved.

Ruufio.1496:

IMO every other class should be slower like the Necro. Then there will be less spam and more skill involved.

I feel this way too, but as it stands there’s a large gap between fast/slow and burst/non-burst professions.

I can be wrong, but necro is intentionally slow, a turtle gameplay like for example. In theory, necros are slow but deadliest if they caught enemies, but just in theory…

Schnitter.9857:

I can be wrong, but necro is intentionally slow, a turtle gameplay like for example. In theory, necros are slow but deadliest if they caught enemies, but just in theory…

I’m 95% positive its intentional to make it slow. But I feel they shouldnt make the cast times slow, but rather the time to kill should be slower, an attrition class. And thats already done with the focus on condition damage and high tank. I don’t need the long cast times too though ;[.

I agree. to top things off, the long cast times are coupled with LONG cooldowns. So not only are some classes able to cast Great skills instantly (or with fast cast times) they also do not have to contend with ridiculously long cooldowns. Wells are some of our best skills, but in a fight, it is like they are single cast, because the cooldown is long.

PinCushion.7390:

I have to agree. After playing an Elementalist extensively I find Necro to be very cumbersome and slow. Minions are a ridiculous joke. Condition damage is outdone by other classes. Mobility is almost nonexistent. Survival is great, but there’s very little punch to help you win the grueling attrition fights that the profession is supposed to shine in. There’s lots of CC, but not much to keep enemies that want to flee from doing so. The weapons are fairly unimpressive, which makes the class very dependent on Utility skill choice. Death shroud is a huge missed opportunity for what should have been a very interesting and fun class mechanic.

All in all, though I’ll continue playing my Necro until I get it completely figured out, I find it a frustrating experience because nothing seems to really synergize together into a cohesive, fluid whole.

I’d have to agree with you fully. No synergy and a frustrating experience but i like necro.

weird i thought i posted here already.
i have pretty much quit game but i am bitterly disappointed so will probs qq a bit more (mesmer and thief too strong, many people i like did not play because they also did not like the game, they alienated support/heal type players, time to kill is way too short, i had higher expectations etc

for me the only way they can fix it is intro better healing or a healer class or reduce damage across board. if it damages tpvp change tpvp format so it works better. I don’t know why this isn’t considered as an option? e.g. they are so concerned about bunkers, instead of nerfing e..g bunker ele which might affect all ele builds, why not just make it easier to cap with a bunker on the point. or why not introduce different game types. Add to this I doubt tpvp is where the money is, i doubt that many do it /shrug)

-unnecessary long cast times (focus 5, warhorn 5, staff 1, sceptre 1, sceptre 2, dagger 5, DS 1, DS 2)
-huge amounts of channels
-unnecessary slow projectile speed or animation
-snare takes longer to fire than on other classes, this is an issue (all snares)
-sidenote, but i feel our heal animtion is more obvious than [some] other classes too lol
-lack of access to teleport (precasted worm and slow projectile which requires a target don’t count)
-lack of access to leaps (well these are similar to teleports tbh but no break stun)
-sure we have an immobilise but the range is too short
-our pull doesn’t work a lot of the time

Yes pointless long cast times, really really really really hate the cast times on staff marks. The cast times are so long on lich skills people dont even use them other then the pets…..and just spam 1.

Xom.9264:

Yes pointless long cast times, really really really really hate the cast times on staff marks. The cast times are so long on lich skills people dont even use them other then the pets…..and just spam 1.

You have to love how often the 1 on lich will miss a target in wvwvw.

Meh, Lich cooldowns are such that you only get a single shot at each before you drop out of the form.

Yeah true story…. use lich to for maybe 1/4 of its duration…. its a stomping tool for me when I need stability.

I had two engineers down last night and could not finish them off kept getting knocked around had to lich form to stomp them lol.

The sceptre cripple and staff chill should really be instant i think. I found these really hard to land in wvw :S People just run out of range.

idk, am sick of devs designing for low or consisten ping and great fps* and not considering that as an mmo they’re gonna have 1. people with lower end machines 2. people who don’t live near the servers. But they bring in fps kitten like dodge with a short window. I have even heard americans complain about seeing the animation happen but nothing happen and wonder why. Ncsoft always seems to have bad servers too.

The latency stuff probably wouldn’t matter if the burst was’t so ridic high, too.

*ok i think they have done ok with the fps performance. compared to swtor wvw lollll

Face it, the game is tuned for esport. This is why the game is more player twitch and burst than methodical application of skills over time.

yeah, that is why necro will never preform at the high levels, because our slow cast times, LONG kitten cooldowns will ensure the calls wont function vs twitch classes with high fast damage output. Mesmers are just an all around better condition, surivivable, dmg class and necros just cant compete. not really. you can prolong with DS, and hope your teammates arrive to save your kitten

Perhaps the point of the class is to tie up opponents and waste their time/cooldowns, thus negating the fact that they do lots of damage. There’s no way to be sure, but I’ve wondered if perhaps the sole reason Necros exist is to waste everyone’s (both player and opponent) time.

Schnitter.9857:

I can be wrong, but necro is intentionally slow, a turtle gameplay like for example. In theory, necros are slow but deadliest if they caught enemies, but just in theory…

You can’t run away from a necro, mate

Hufflepuffer.4201:

Schnitter.9857:

I can be wrong, but necro is intentionally slow, a turtle gameplay like for example. In theory, necros are slow but deadliest if they caught enemies, but just in theory…

You can’t run away from a necro, mate

Its very easy to do. Even if you are built around wells, and chills, roots. Almost everyone has ways to negate it and will just get away from you way before you can finish them off. Sometimes ill get that one thief who doesn’t realize my wells are beating him to crap but mostly they just shortbow away as soon as they see me drop my wells. guardians and ele’s have no issue getting away as well. Dont see many engineers though so cant tell you how they do against running away.

to counter the potential lethal burst of necromancers they put a cast time on everything.

This my friends is called balance.

Imagine a class that has no cast times and could just spam every burst with just the
touch of a button that would be..

oh wait nvm..

move along nothing to see here !

Necromancer doesn’t feel slow until you go under water and use Death Shroud.

What the kitten were the developers thinking?

if u think necro skills are slow then u shod try meany other MMO’S, my point is that i have seen much slower spell cast’s in MMO’S then necro has & that’s why i ton’t complain about it

Human/necromancer lvl 10

I don’t know how many times I pressed epidemic when the target was with tons of condition and more then half life, and by the times epidemic lands he’s dead and I’m spreading a big black cloud of nothing :/

Sugram.3106:

if u think necro skills are slow then u shod try meany other MMO’S, my point is that i have seen much slower spell cast’s in MMO’S then necro has & that’s why i ton’t complain about it

Human/necromancer lvl 10

I know what you mean with the other MMO’s having slow cast times, but if you compare our skills to other classes, you will see that ours are quite slow.

Btw: Hope you enjoy Necro!

Sugram.3106:

if u think necro skills are slow then u shod try meany other MMO’S, my point is that i have seen much slower spell cast’s in MMO’S then necro has & that’s why i ton’t complain about it

Human/necromancer lvl 10

Really? Level 10 and you want to comment that the necro does not feel slow? Have you pvp’d? Have you done any wvw? Both of those aspect depend on mobility, and when you run up against classes that can insta-use abilities, or don’t even depend on their utility skills to down you, then you will see that the long cast times, coupled with the long cool downs make us a crap class at times.

Level 10. Good job. SO you have played a necro 1 day, just got your first trait? oh, no, that’s level 11. Yeah, you’re an expert.

Gryph.8237:

Sugram.3106:

if u think necro skills are slow then u shod try meany other MMO’S, my point is that i have seen much slower spell cast’s in MMO’S then necro has & that’s why i ton’t complain about it

Human/necromancer lvl 10

Really? Level 10 and you want to comment that the necro does not feel slow? Have you pvp’d? Have you done any wvw? Both of those aspect depend on mobility, and when you run up against classes that can insta-use abilities, or don’t even depend on their utility skills to down you, then you will see that the long cast times, coupled with the long cool downs make us a crap class at times.

Level 10. Good job. SO you have played a necro 1 day, just got your first trait? oh, no, that’s level 11. Yeah, you’re an expert.

Dont worry give him more levels and time in wvwvw and pvp and he will learn how annoying it is to have cast times on just about our skills. Cast times we cannot be doing other things like how a thief can string two attacks together so it seems like 1 hit. He will learn how annoying it is that when we channel something how painful it is that we cant do anything unless we want to interrupt it. Let him think its fine only a ele has to deal with these pointless cast times. I feel bad for alot of ele skills as well.

Yeah, I can’t believe the guy posted his level (10!!!!!) and commented on the class. First 10 levels of all classes are a cake walk and you blast mobs. No traits, what 1 utility skill, and the ability to switch weapons and YOU’RE THE MASTER of your class. joke hahaha

Archmagel.1350:

Sugram.3106:

if u think necro skills are slow then u shod try meany other MMO’S, my point is that i have seen much slower spell cast’s in MMO’S then necro has & that’s why i ton’t complain about it

Human/necromancer lvl 10

I know what you mean with the other MMO’s having slow cast times, but if you compare our skills to other classes, you will see that ours are quite slow.

Btw: Hope you enjoy Necro!

true, i wold like if life siphon is scepter skill & replaces feast of corruption, in some MMO’S i fall a sleep before cast ends LOL, in a figure of speech

Delryn.7235:

Staff autoattack for the fact it doesn’t track the target really should be faster, why did the mesmer get an increased projectile speed to his scepter attack when it tracks the target? Same with the staff autoattack, it’s slow but it tracks the target – thus reasonable. Our staff is both slow AND doesn’t track.

Staff autoattack does not track but it pierces. It’s essentially a line AoE. I find it more useful to have piercing attack that goes in a line when using staff in large WvW battles or when doing events. It’s bad only in one on one fights or when facing few mobile targets. Besides it seems to track (or maybe it’s just animation). It’s just slow.

Mesmer skill hits a single target. It’s reasonable that it tracks. Even Mesmer staff attack merely bounces. Again reasonable that it tracks.