Guild Wars 2

I just started the game a few nights ago and settled on a necro as my first toon. Is the necro leveling experience “fun” or more difficult/clunky? I don’t necessarily want something easy, but I’d like to enjoy it vs feeling like it was “work”. I know it’s all very subjective but I have limited time to play and will probably spend most of it on my way to 80 (heavy pve focus). This subforum is prob biased but I figured I’d start here.

From the reading I’ve been doing I should be using a dagger/wh but what about utility skills. I’ve gotten 10 hero points so far and spent a few in minions since it seemed like they would help solo. Is there a “best” leveling build?

As for death shroud, is there any reading material you could point me to in effective uses? At the moment, I’m really just using it as a panic button if my health gets to low, is this it’s best use?

Thanks a lot, I appreciate the help. If any of this is in some wiki or guide, point me in that direction.

While leveling you can do whatever you want with your skills and enjoy the game the way you want. LordWafflez in Youtube have many leveling guide videos for every profession. You can watch the leveling guide videos they are very detailed. This is the video leveling guide for the Necromancer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xsDwC4wNNA&t=493s

Death Shroud is better used proactively, since it is difficult (especially while levelling) to regain health in it. Use it to preserve your health instead of trying to buy more time.

Minions are easy mode for PvE, and this has its ups and downs. Upside? You’re likely to be able to handle almost anything in open world PvE. Downside? You won’t be learning the mechanics of the game that you need to be successful at higher levels.

So I should lead with Death Shroud skills?

Weave it in with the rest of your rotation, and switch into it when you pridict you’re about to take a chunk of damage. Your life force generates a lot more quickly than your health pool does. Get comfortable switching into it, taking a hit or three, and then resuming your ‘regular’ style of play.

reav.1930:

So I should lead with Death Shroud skills?

Not so much that, but don’t be afraid to use it while you’re at high health. That said, Death Shroud 2 is a very good engage skill. Play around with Death Shroud at different times in the fight. Try going for entire fights in Shroud, even. The more you do this, the better feel you get for the skills and when to use them.

Thanks

What would you recomend then for skills? Condition damage stuff?

For that, I would suggest playing around with the different weapons and then decide. If you find you like Dagger or Axe mainhand more, go Power. If you like Scepter more, go Condition damage.

It’s also worth noting that, in general, condition damage becomes better when things live longer. I found the scepter to be a bit slower while levelling, but it’s also much safer since you can hang back and have an easier time telling when the enemy is about to do something you need to dodge. Even when you’re using shroud, if a big ability is coming, you’ll want to dodge it (something like a giant or an ettin doing a big knockdown for example).

As far as skills go, it’s probably worth your time to get the signet that increases movement speed early on, or take the trait that increases move speed while using a dagger if you like using one.

A couple of things to mention that you may not realize through PvE play.

1. Life Blast and Dark Path both home on their targets. Life Blast especially is ridiculous on this, making up to a 90 degree turn mid-air to hit its target (and does so instantly), so against teleporting enemies (especially thieves in WvW/PvP), they can’t avoid it in that manner.

2. Dark Path and Deathly Swarm (dagger 4) both hug the ground as they travel. This means they can’t be used to hit foes higher than you unless it’s a gentle slope in between. They’re also useless for attacking something over a gorge.

I’ll tell you how I levelled my Necro. YMMV.
Here’s the rough weapon/utility/gear setup from 1-80.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBHhZakjGapxGbwyG4wxRtQRfj5oahzZAMDyhYsDYA-TRCEABxs/ATK/SU9HCeAAQcIAaTfjBHBAAORAbpEEA-e
Traits do what they advertise, but feel free to ask if you have questions (so condescending).

Gear:
[Power] gear, meaning Mighty, Strong, Berzerker stats are best.
If you are completely new, check out the heart vendors that open up after you complete a heart; some have greens and blues with +Power good for your level. Don’t care too much about Precision, as without proper gearing (e.g. on-level greens) you won’t get consistent crits. Focus on stacking Power, and mobs will die fast enough. Necro doesn’t lack damage.

*Food: *
Cheap food can help, it gives you additional experience on kills. Anything really.

Weapons:
Necro is the sandbag class with no invulnerabilities and 2 health bars, but it doesn’t mean you need to be hit all the time. To develop a proper mindset, here are some good weapons to use.
Shroud: Skills 4 and 5 allow you to clear large clusters of mobs. Apply 5 then 4, and use your 1 to finish off those still standing. Use 3 to interrupt pesky skills. Shroud allows you to protect your Health, but keep in mind if you get knocked out of Shroud, you don’t get access to its skills again unless you gain some Life Force back first.
{!!! Don’t panic and hit Shroud twice on low health, you enter and exit instantly and will die for it !!!}
[Axe/Warhorn]: Axe 2 generates a large amount of Life Force, perfect for when you want to get into Shroud. Axe 3 when you need to run away/get some space to channel Axe 2. Warhorn 4 won’t see too much use but if you like to interrupt nasty skills, it’s handy. Warhorn 5 can be cast, and the buff persists in Shroud, giving you LF constantly in contact with enemies.
[Dagger mainhand]: high damage and can hit 2 enemies at once, but be careful of taking damage in melee. Good Life Force gain on auto-attack.
[Dagger offhand]: Weakness helps you mitigate damage, so Skill 5 can be cast before being hit. The main reason you want this sometimes is if the enemy throws conditions (Burning, Poison, Bleeding, Confusion, Cripple, Chill, Weakness etc.) at you and you want an extra condition removal to deal with them.
[Staff]: great weapon with a complimentary trait in the Soul Reaping talent tree (first trait to go for) that gives you Life Force on trigger. The Marks can be combined in an easy combo: Skill 5 to fear, then Skill 3 to Chill/Poison and Skill 4 inside of 3 to inflict Area Weakness to foes. Skill 2 can be applied liberally. Apply the weakness, then go into Shroud to use your 4 and 5 near enemies in relative safety.
Others: experiment with Focus and see if you like it.

Weapon Sigils:
Minor/Major sigils of Bloodlust so that you can stack Power with every kill, makes your life easier.

Armor Runes:
Use cheap ones if you can afford them; buy +Power minor and major runes sets.

Utilities:
Heal: [Consume Conditions]: good for most situations. Try the other heals if you want, but the condition removal is very handy.
[Signet of Spite]: gives you a lot of bonus Power in its passive effect, so just leave it there.
[Signet of the Locust]: 25% run-speed is pure QoL here, and if you want to go faster, use Spectral Walk to stack with Warhorn for permanent swiftness, but you do have to apply swiftness constantly, if that is chosen.
Free slot: [Well of Suffering]: great damage in a Power build. Group up enemies and get them to stand in it for the 6 seconds of pulsing; great for big mob pulls.
Options: [Summon Bone Minion] is good for AoE too, [Summon Flesh Wurm] is a teleport skill which can come in handy in some situations, [Spectral Armor] can be maintained while you go into Shroud for pseudo-invulnerable 6 seconds, and [Well of Power] if somehow you’re inundated with conditions. [Corrupt Boon] won’t be needed if you have Axe or Dagger, unless your enemy is boon spamming (like the Dredge) and you like boon corruption (who doesn’t?). Play around with the free slot and see what you like.

Elite:
I usually go for Lich Form, and its Skill 1 is basically just a souped up Death Shroud Life Blast. Skill 4 spawns some minions to distract enemies if you’re fighting some Veterans or Champions.

Approach to combat:
Since Necro doesn’t have Vigor for dodging in melee and is a bit squishy, I run with Axe/Warhorn + Staff. I try to stay at range most of the time.
Find a group of enemies:
1. Cast Axe 2 at 900 range. Cast Axe 3 if wthin 600 range. Cast Warhorn 5.
2. Switch to Staff, 5 -> 3 -> 4 on the group to weaken and deal some damage.
3. Put down a Well of Suffering where they are going.
4. Go into Death Shroud, hit 5 -> 4 when within 600 range. Most enemies die here.
5. Finish off strays with DS 1, or come out of Shroud, switch to Axe and hit 2.