Guild Wars 2

Iam finding it so hard to be use to anyone in wvw, As for defending or attacking a tower ect i have the option of using arrow Carts,Catapults,Ballista,and Trebs, but for inflicting damage on enemies from range seems so poor i might as well just attack the front gate which is boring and gets yourself killed most of the time and don’t even get me started about trying to solo kill someone, What use am i with cloth as armor and aoe abilities that can be so easily out maneuvered, so what are you guys thoughts?

Cons
- Confusing trait lines and a lot of traits seem useless and dont do much at all.
- Most aoe abilities are easily out maneuvered or are rendered useless due to bugs.
- Not very usefull in wvw apart from healing with aoe.
- Very poor ai, will randomly attack monsters and players and get itself killed.
- Self inflicted damage from range is extremely poor and it can get out maneuvered easily.
- Maneuverability is extremely poor without wasting skill slots.
- Most bugged class in game not enjoyable at all.

Plus
- Try to think of one?

Critmancer build thread. WVW.

Condition + Crit/Power hybrid

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/WvW-Critmancer-Build-Power-Condition/first#post198743

This is the thread for it. There is just too much and I didn’t want to spam multiple posts with a build guide.

My WvW build for some zerg stopping AoE.

Yes I said Zerg stopping.

Step 1: Find a meat shield or wait till a zerg force’s front lines start taking hits, possibly even using cooldowns.

Step 2: Apply Staff Marks 2-5 / WoS / CPC on one location and then start dropping DS4 or Scepter abilities on people in a choke point.

Step 3: Collect the bags from the bodies you just killed

EDIT: It actually is a lot more viable then just zerg AoE. You can swap Utility skills for help survive 1v1s. You can alter a trait or two if you want to improve specific features to the build. I;d recommend reading through the thread for playstyle insights perhaps.

This is more a problem with wvw than the class. Necro is relatively good for wvw imo.

i’ve not tried spectral grasp in WvW, but it is the longest pull in the game at 1200 range, in theory if you can hit them with the staff you can pull them down.

My necro is tank spec and it works in WvW, and I use spectral grasp+well of suffering all the time, it kills individuals fairly quickly.

The power/crit build is better in s/tpvp than WvW.

No class is ever useless in WvWvW, this is because in WvWvW all that matters is how big your zerg is in comparison to the other servers’ zergs.

Pros:
- Incredibly tanky if build right
- Mass retaliation with axe
- Mass cripple with axe
- Fear enemys from the rams
- Strong AoE with Staff
- Strong AoE with Wells (even tagetable if specced)
- Spread conditions to the enemy zerg
- Pull enemys from walls
- 2 Speed buffs, which let you travel really fast
- Lich form to kill the occasional roamer
- AoE Blindness for the enemy zerg
- …

In my eyes the Necro is one of the strongest WvW classes around. It’s only sPvP where it really feels meh, but that is off topic.

@drakor: How much WvW have you played? Give it some time and you will get the hang of it.

I think all classes have their strength and weaknesses when it comes to WvW.

I do think that range > melee for WvW. If you don’t like being a necro in WvW, I doubt you’ll enjoy any melee class. Staff is pretty useful in WvW. Staff skill 2-5 can do a lot of damage and it has great range and epidemic can destroy a small zerg.

If you want to just destroy people while in a zerg then you should re-roll elementalists. .. they are pro at spamming AOEs. I still believe that necros can stand their own against anyone in 1 vs 1. We really do have a lot of versatility I think.

Lich Form can at least kick some kitten as long as you are not going 1v1 with a guardian (? these are the ones that can heal 100% health right), or mesmer that is very illusion heavy/uses that projectile blocking bubble/Moa (the anti necro). However, I haven’t gone against a mesmer since the nerf, so maybe it is easier now. Use all your bursts as fast as possible (maybe use DS to block their bursts, though I am still terabad at this), and then go into Lich Form and watch as their health drops.

Though I don’t feel as useful as any of my friends, I can at least cause some pain.

However, they broke our only good escape mechanism, so I am not sure how well I can do now.

Ya a condition build with greater marks, Epidemic and WoS will decimate people if they cant get all the bleed stacks off. Just team up with a ranger and have both of you stack 15-20 bleeds and epidemic, people literally melt.

merch.1026:

i’ve not tried spectral grasp in WvW, but it is the longest pull in the game at 1200 range, in theory if you can hit them with the staff you can pull them down.

Spectral Grasp is great… when it works. The problem is that even though something looks like 10 feet in front of you, you can use spectral grasp and it fails because the target is too far away. Trying to account for latency is tough, especially in WvW with hundreds of players in a single area. And with the long cooldown it is only really useful in certain circumstances. A good example is if you try to do some elaborate jumping puzzle and someone is chasing you, Spectral Grasp them off the edge! Lots of times its an insta kill if you are high enough.

Necromancer is good in WvW, there’s a few viable specs. After reading your entire post, Drakor, you come across as new to the game/Necro/WvW. You also list a pro under one of your cons, about healing, then make out like there are no pros at the end of your post. All in all, a new spec may help you a little bit but a new attitude and gaining some experience will help you even more.

I feel you’re expecting too much and may benefit from trying other professions in WvW to compare, and need to practice to become more familliar with Necromancer. Necromancer can be a great help in groups and great in AoE situations. One vs one you won’t be, but that’s really not the point of WvW to begin with.

Keep in mind Necromancer is one of the harder professions to play in this game, whilst Thief among others is easier to get into and better at solo play. You might just be better off playing as a different profession due to your playstyle and preference.

merch.1026:

i’ve not tried spectral grasp in WvW, but it is the longest pull in the game at 1200 range, in theory if you can hit them with the staff you can pull them down.

“Theory” yeah. Practice no. I spent all weekend trying to pull then root (with my slyvari racial). Never worked past ~600 or if the enemy was running.

Whichever dev thought spectral grasp would make a good arching projectile- you were wrong.

Plague form is pretty good in wvw. I wouldn’t go lich in wvw because that’s just asking to get focused. (Look! Giant green thing!)

With wells we are pretty good at keeping enemies off choke points and walls.

Spectral grasp is bad because it does not adjust to player movement real well and it takes a while to get to the player. Only time I found it useful is when I try to pull players off the wall that are just standing still.

Spectral Grasp is way too easily avoided or blocked by a shrubbery. If there is one leaf between you and the target you just get OBSTRUCTED.

Wells are pretty good AoE nukes in WvW if you get the trait that allows you to ground target them. Life Transfer is an excellent ability as well, especially if traited. With Transfusion it’s a 3k heal over 3 seconds on everyone around you as well as dealing good damage without the need to aim. Marks are great to place traps in front of portals.

All in all, the only downside of the class I see in WvW are the huge cooldowns of all these abilities.

You should watch, if you have the time my necromancer WvW tutorial and WvW example… maybe it will give you a different view on things…

They are posted in the Necromancer builds sticky here on the forum.

I find necro pretty awesome at wvw, one of the top classes…. I am amazed you find it so bad. Necro is SUPER Tanky with lots of aoe and single target damage. It is great for defending or attacking keeps/towers etc. Targetable wells marks pulls, tons of condition cleansers. Very diverse class. Whatever you are doing is not working, so maybe it is time to find a better build. I have noticed there are ALOT of REALLY BAD NECRO’s not sure why. They waste all there LF before the fight really even begins.

Nemesis.8593:

You should watch, if you have the time my necromancer WvW tutorial and WvW example… maybe it will give you a different view on things…

They are posted in the Necromancer builds sticky here on the forum.

That’s like expecting people to do research before making a post on the forums. It just isn’t gonna happen lol.

Multiple stickies with TOO MUCH information yet here we are lol.

- Maneuverability is extremely poor without wasting skill slots.

See, I consider it not a ‘waste’ of a skill slot, if it provides the utility to get you where you need to go and get you out of where you don’t want to be. With Spectral Walk and Warhorn you can keep nearly 100% up-time +33% speed.
I don’t actually like the warhorn very much in combat, so I switch over to sceptre-dagger prior to engaging.
What I do consider a waste of skill slot is minions, throw them away, they are fundamentally kitten at every level!

Wells, are mostly terrible in WvW open-field, people will simply evade right through them or stand outside the radius and shoot you in the face, the only people who won’t are the million flavour of the month thieves too stupid to figure out what they are and tanks, who have lots of HP-Toughness and don’t care about a pissy 5-sec tick or debuff. Where they work however, is static situations like a door or portal, then you switch out spectral walk for them, then dump a few more aoe-effects from the staff and blow up the most infected with a BiP+Epidemic.
Ever seen what happens to a zerg when their tank gets loaded up with 20 bleeds (at 140+ a tick), chill, fire at a keep door with arrow carts and other aoe spam raining down on them?
They all die, if they can’t cleanse it, if they do, do it again, your timer will beat theirs.

The other thing to consider is, the majority of new players and everyone else is going for the ‘Big Numbers’ glass cannon builds focused on with barely any vitality or toughness. In any kind of protracted attrition, you will persevere and win, if you survive the initial big numbers. Remember, most glass-cannons- guardians and ele’s out there are running around with 11-13k or so hp, the adventurers with 15-17 or so and tanks with 20-22 at the most usually.

For people who do have a clue, then you might be in trouble and then that comes down to how you position yourself, learn to cut and run, cripple and kite them through to friendlies who can assist. This is not so much a game of numbers, but teamwork where even 2-3 people with a clue can change the way a fight pans out and you shouldn’t consider yourself a simple, single entity.
Team up, get some communications going and make a difference.

- Most bugged class in game not enjoyable at all.

No, it isn’t fun. It isn’t fun when we’re locked into a couple of proven specs and not much else, but we’re not the only ones. Ele’s are pretty busted in a lot of ways as well and its pretty hard to just persevere when you see lots of other classes like warriors, mesmers, rangers and thieves just doing it all so easily.
Your choice really, if you don’t feel effective then you can switch to one of them and keep playing or go hide out in pve and hope at some point Anet makes the necro a more diverse, debugged and viable career.
Personally, I can work around the bugs by taking the ‘least-busted’ of them and going as far as I can with them, but it does frustrate me too that there are no real viable specs outside the condition one. I’d like to bury someone under a swarm of pets or hack them to death with an axe, but neither work very well at the moment

Necro’s are the complete opposite I’d say, with the proper build.

Open field, I find necro is the best tank in the field. Imagine this:

Use Heal
Use DS
Use Heal
Use Plagueform
Use Heal

Just imagine how much hp your oponent has to burn through. In all that time, if you’re a condition mancer stacked with toughness, your dots will be killing them faster then they could kill you.

I play a variation of the build I posted in the guide here.

Needless to say, the most important aspect of this build in WvW is positioning. In the open field, I can kill most players in 4 hits while using lich form. I’m not here to boast about how “good” I am at a necromancer- I’m simply stating that it is not only possible, but quite viable to build any way you’d like as long as you keep a calm and focused mind.

Survey the battlefield, know when to close distance to deal damage, and when to fall behind your allied line to recover. Remember that running to the back of your zerg will force the enemy to make a decision: A) Continue to chase you into 50 enemies B) Target somebody else.

Edit: Oh, and that doesn’t mean wait until you’re at 40% hp to fall back.

Necros, IMO are one of the best WvW classes in the game.

Go power, precision, toughness gear with some power toughness vitality on 3-5 pieces.

Go 30 spite, 20 curse, 20 blood. You need ground targetted wells and reduced well CD. Use a dagger + warhorn and a staff.

Practice enough and you will both be a 1v1 (2v1 even) monster (especially if human and you have hounds of balthazaar) and still be very good in large fights with staff + GT wells. Run well of suffer, well of corruption and spectral walk. Once you have practice you’ll learn when to switch to different skills in different situations.

PROTIP: Use well of corruption while running away to turn the switness boons of people chasing you into cripples!

Necros, IMO are one of the best WvW classes in the game.
Go power, precision, toughness gear with some power toughness vitality on 3-5 pieces.
Go 30 spite, 20 curse, 20 blood. You need ground targetted wells and reduced well CD. Use a dagger + warhorn and a staff.
Practice enough and you will both be a 1v1 (2v1 even) monster (especially if human and you have hounds of balthazaar) and still be very good in large fights with staff + GT wells. Run well of suffer, well of corruption and spectral walk. Once you have practice you’ll learn when to switch to different skills in different situations.
PROTIP: Use well of corruption while running away to turn the switness boons of people chasing you into cripples!

I approve this message.

Except I use scepter/dagger & staff instead of dagger/warhorn.

Zintair.1987:

Nemesis.8593:

You should watch, if you have the time my necromancer WvW tutorial and WvW example… maybe it will give you a different view on things…

They are posted in the Necromancer builds sticky here on the forum.

That’s like expecting people to do research before making a post on the forums. It just isn’t gonna happen lol.

Multiple stickies with TOO MUCH information yet here we are lol.

There are multiple “Necromancer builds” posts sticky-ed on the necromancer forum made by Nemesis.8593 ? How strange…

Necromancer is the best area denial class in this game. Extremely useful in WvW.

Last i bothered with WvW the only conditions i personally ignored were … ironicaly bleeds… 25 bleeds are so useless I never even saw the need to waste a cd to get rid of them or transfer them. Not sure what you all smoking.
I get random healed for more then 25 bleeds take off… 1 burn usually does more damage then a full stack of bleeds. What a joke.
Staff aoe lol. What is this magical aoe you all referring to? Measly poison with a dash of 400 dmg? Oh snap call the white house we got an aoe machinegun here. On side note… poison is probably the second condition you shouldn’t waste cd on.

Oh you’re not totally useless. You do give the enemy team some nice rallies with your pets. So technically you’re worse than useless.

I still love my Necro, but the lack of in-combat mobility makes me swap to my Mesmer most nights. Very frustrating to have zero escape mechanisms. It is a shame because pre-BWE Dark Path gave the profession incredible mobility/escapability. It was pretty OP with how the class was at that time, but would be balanced with the current state of the Necro.

Great points, I guess I just need to play around with the class a bit more it takes a lot more skill to play a necro effectively than most classes, once all the bugs are ironed out and traits get some touch ups it will be a more preferred class in wvw.

use this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW7YjQaV6Zaia87JAJFPj90jvHX8IFEPMA

probably the best wvw condition healing necro build I ever made. i always survive and its a lot of fun.

Jason, do you realise that’s just the blank sheet you linked?

awe crap, i will redo it!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW7YjQaV6Zaia87JAJFPj90jvHX8IFEPMA

IMO Necro is one of the best if not the best class for WvW.

Sundial: Not even close. Thieves and Mesmers still take the cake (especially Charr mesmers). We can be legit too, of course, but until they fix bugs and balance better, we have too many problems to be the “best”.

Necro well build is very strong in wvw.

i use my own build and i can live and shoot without problem!!

this: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

another empty build…. Is arena net trying to fix the bug with the urls?

DoctorWhy.3847:

Sundial: Not even close. Thieves and Mesmers still take the cake (especially Charr mesmers). We can be legit too, of course, but until they fix bugs and balance better, we have too many problems to be the “best”.

HA thieves… they’re terrible in group based fights, they’re only good for picking off loners. As for mesmer, my mesmer is pretty decent in groups and can survive people chasing me when I want to separate their group up but I usually fall short on offense.

But my necro handles pvp in both offense and defense and even 1 vs 1 against most classes bar engineer (still haven’t figured them out yet). I don’t use my pets, except sometimes the flesh golem mainly for the charge knockdown, the 3 utility slots are better used for boon/condition cleansing.

Thieves only good in 1v1? The thief has an AOE bow that kitten large groups. I watched my roomy kill 1v3 easily. And I watch him down a kitten ton when they were attacking a wall. Whoever goes into WvW speced to fight only pic-offs is a bad thief (unless that is what they want to do).

“Thieves only good in 1v1? The thief has an AOE bow that kitten large groups. I watched my roomy kill 1v3 easily. And I watch him down a kitten ton when they were attacking a wall. Whoever goes into WvW speced to fight only pic-offs is a bad thief (unless that is what they want to do).”

If you think the Necro is bad in WvW because of its non existant burst damage I think you need to evaluate what a necro can actually bring to a group besides DPS in different situations.

We are one of the most versitile classes, play to our strengths instead of our weaknesses.

In WvW our strengths are:

1. Bucket loads of CC. Sometimes keeping someone in one place or off of something is more important than the damage you will do to them. AoE fear people off siege equipment or trying to res their fallen. We are great at holding people in one place when you also consider our survivability (heavy tackler role, see below) if we can catch up to them (Dark Path is great for this). Plague Form has the potential to lock down a group of enemies with blindness. At the end of the day, we have alot of CC to go around.
2. Our survivability is off the charts when stacking toughness as a stat because of death shroud and our large HP pool. When we spec for support we can keep protection up when moving onto a group.
3. We have extremely good group support capabilities with things such as well of blood, aoe protection from wells. Using your staff in close encounters you can keep regeneration up on your group and transfer conditions from them onto the enemy. Well of Power… need I say anymore? In support specs Blood is Power lasts 18 seconds, giving you 350 power and condition damage allowing you to actually do DPS even in a support role. With my build I regularly get 20 stacks of might on me when you also consider my traits and group. With a focus offhand, we can stack 9 stacks of vulnerability on a target and increase our groups DPS on him by 9%. Well of Courruption can do similar vulnerability stacking further enhancing your groups DPS, allowing your glass cannons to wreck the enemy faster.
4. We have very good potential for AoE damage. Condition damage specs can decimate using epedemic in the right situations as well as ground targeted wells, lots of AoE condition damage to go around no matter what your spec.
5. Solid DPS with dagger / versatility in weapons. Yes its not the best or extremely bursty, but we do have potential to switch from longer range weapons to higher DPS close range weapons when we need to finish someone off.

We are a class that fights with attrition instead of burst damage and our versatility shines in WvW. Just because we are not hitting huge numbers doesn’t mean we are not important to have in WvW.

I never once said we were bad in WvW. I know there are (2) legit builds. However, I am saying that we are useless compared to what other classes can bring, because other classes can do EVERYTHING we can do, but better.

1. Engie does CC just as good, though I completely agree we do have a lot of really good CC.
2. Survivability? Guardians do it WAY better. Our health melts, even if you go into toughness (the useless and dangerous minor traits to use in WvW).
3. Again, support is done even better by an engie or mesmer
4. Yes, we do have lots of AOE damage if you go Well build. But only 1 single build does it actually work out. Until they speed up the staff projectile, the staff auto attack is useless to anyone who is paying attention.
5. DPS with dagger? Though it is our strongest weapon, dagger does not do near as much damage as I think it should, since you have to be right up in their face. But I still <3 the daggers.

Please pay attention to what I am trying to say instead of attacking me, and putting words in my mouth. I will clarify: We CAN be good, but other classes do everything better. What can we bring to the table, that other classes can’t?

DoctorWhy.3847:

I never once said we were bad in WvW. I know there are (2) legit builds. However, I am saying that we are useless compared to what other classes can bring, because other classes can do EVERYTHING we can do, but better.

1. Engie does CC just as good, though I completely agree we do have a lot of really good CC.
2. Survivability? Guardians do it WAY better. Our health melts, even if you go into toughness (the useless and dangerous minor traits to use in WvW).
3. Again, support is done even better by an engie or mesmer
4. Yes, we do have lots of AOE damage if you go Well build. But only 1 single build does it actually work out. Until they speed up the staff projectile, the staff auto attack is useless to anyone who is paying attention.
5. DPS with dagger? Though it is our strongest weapon, dagger does not do near as much damage as I think it should, since you have to be right up in their face. But I still <3 the daggers.

Please pay attention to what I am trying to say instead of attacking me, and putting words in my mouth. I will clarify: We CAN be good, but other classes do everything better. What can we bring to the table, that other classes can’t?

You are thinking too much in terms of min-maxing.

I disagree with 2 and 3. Or rather, I point out our health does not melt although Guardian’s are far tankier to the point of being overpowered, which is somethnig I’m glad to avoid being. And just because we’re not the best at something does not make us not as useful. The phrase goes along the lines of not putting all of your eggs into one basket.

http://www.youtube.com/user/RhelexKarther/feed?filter=2

DoctorWhy.3847:

I will clarify: We CAN be good, but other classes do everything better. What can we bring to the table, that other classes can’t?

Wasn’t meaning to attack you if that is what it came across as. Yes I agree with you there, there are many classes that can and do outshine us in diversity of builds.

IMO there are more then two viable builds, but again that is just my opinion.

As for what we can bring to the table that others cannot is much higher base survivability as well as DS’s added utility.

My other char is an enegineer btw but I still think there is alot Necros can do that they cannot if you compare them side by side.

Alanis: What if I want to min-max? I am pretty sure ANet didn’t design the necro to avoid min-maxing, as all the other classes can.

Karther: “And just because we’re not the best at something does not make us not as useful.” Actually, that is exactly what it means. If you could get a better class when going through a dungeon, then you will avoid adding any lone necros. This has happened to me before, which is what made me realize this mess in the first place. 2 groups in a row told me they didn’t want a necro. Eventually found a group, but even so, it is really annoying to be discriminated on (using that term for this situation makes me laugh XD).

DoctorWhy: My meaning is that you are merely looking at what you perceive to be a class that is best at a niche, which is likely min-maxed to get to that point.

I’m saying that focusing less on the min-max aspects of the particular professions might allow you to look beyond “condition damage”, “support”, “survival”, and “burst”, to name a few examples, and look at the entirety of the build/profession.

Basically, you equating “not the best at X” as a reason to not take a profession, ignoring that most professions and builds can and do provide much more than one little niche — at least if your not a bunch of guys that are min-maxing around one specific niche, while failing at others.