Guild Wars 2

Hello all.

I am considering rolling a necromancer but after reading a load of threads and several youtube video viewings it seems that the general consensus is that they are bottom of the barrel for PvE because every other profession brings more to the table as well as being similar or better DPS. In regards to PvP it seems to be mixed.

Now as a new player I am wanting to not ‘waste my time’ on a character that get’s shunned at mid to max level due to the professions failings (my own I can live with, I can get better eventually if need be). This is due to having limited gaming time and having no real intention of being ‘cutting edge’ if that makes sense.

I love the idea of a dark magic spell slinger and summoner however I am very cautious with jumping in for the above reasons.

Can some of you kind folks sell me on the necro? Seeing so many negatives is very off putting but I really want to give it a shot and not be disappointed 20 hours in.

Thanks everyone

The only real selling point is that things might improve with HoT. Otherwise what you have heard is all correct. And we cant really tell you what to do. You sound like the type of person that would get fed up with necro because of its shortcomings even if we somehow managed to persuade you to play it.

For a safe pick play ele. Then roll a necro when HoT comes out if its improved.

If you like the playstyle, yes. If you plan on being a hardcore pve or pvp player at the highest end, then perhaps not.

Lucky for me I do not care what people say and play what class I like. It might be harder to find a dungeon group as a necro if your hardcore, but I am sure any mild group will invite you.

As far as the class goes make a necro and take it to Heart of the Mist. You will have all the traits and weapons available to try out the mechanics to see if you like it.

One last thing, negative threads have been on here since the game came out and people still play necromancers.

Do not roll a Necromancer if you want a spell caster. Necromancer is pretty low, if not bottom, of all professions and is not much of a spell caster, anyway. It is a tanking profession – sort of a wildly unpopular anti Guardian. All professions, ALL, do debuffing and have offensive magic and summons. Necromancer’s design theme was too powerful so it was nerfed to oblivion before game release and the developers have been trying (half-heartedly) to find it a new place. That place is a dps tank with no group synergy.

Necromancer is a melee profession. Ranged damage is low and scales up as weapon range decreases. You face tank more than a warrior.

I would say: yes roll necromancer.

As someone who has around 4k PvP matches played and two legendaries from PvE, I can tell you that necromancers are a fun class to play and they don’t get shunned. Yeah may be on a couple occasions but who cares, its still a fun class to play and still has a role in this game.

Its possibly going to get better with the expansion, and they are pretty good in the world versus world game mode. I don’t know what everyone above me is smoking.

Jelzouki.4128:

I would say: yes roll necromancer.

As someone who has around 4k PvP matches played and two legendaries from PvE, I can tell you that necromancers are a fun class to play and they don’t get shunned. Yeah may be on a couple occasions but who cares, its still a fun class to play and still has a role in this game.

Its possibly going to get better with the expansion, and they are pretty good in the world versus world game mode. I don’t know what everyone above me is smoking.

I agree. I love my necro. Also, I found that those who kick necro on sight because “reasons” are not the type of people I want to play with anyway. I’ve never been kicked for running a necro. But I’ve been kicked by elitist groups joining my “Any Welcome Casual” groups on my warrior, but thats a story left for another time.

On a related note, I’ve been seeing a LOT of necromancers in PvE. I’ve only been playing about a month so I don’t know if this is a growing trend or it has always been this way.

fracture.9754:

Short answer: no.
Long answer: nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Endless Soul.5178:

On a related note, I’ve been seeing a LOT of necromancers in PvE. I’ve only been playing about a month so I don’t know if this is a growing trend or it has always been this way.

Necros are popular for the aesthetic. As soon as people realise the mistake they made they often regret it and roll another class. With the influx of new players its not really a surprise seeing loads of necros in open world. Besides noone gives a kitten what anyone plays in open world.

Play whatever fits you best. Can’t really consider it a waste of time if you enjoy yourself seeing as that’s the purpose of playing the game in the first place.

You can be a spell caster just fine with Scepter/ Any OH and Staff.

It’s a powerful class, especially while leveling. So much CC and you have Death Shroud which is effectively a second HP bar. Good travel with Signet of the Locust, and you can easily achieve perma Swiftness if you want.

And then there is also the fun of going full Minion Mancer and swarming the enemies with your 6+ undead pets!

spoj.9672:

Endless Soul.5178:

On a related note, I’ve been seeing a LOT of necromancers in PvE. I’ve only been playing about a month so I don’t know if this is a growing trend or it has always been this way.

Necros are popular for the aesthetic. As soon as people realise the mistake they made they often regret it and roll another class. With the influx of new players its not really a surprise seeing loads of necros in open world. Besides noone gives a kitten what anyone plays in open world.

I think another reason is that all the other professions have been leveled to 80, already, and players are just finishing off the unpopular stragglers.

If you love the “looks” and have good control of your emotions especially anger definitely go for it, of course keep in mind necro is not what it looks like the closest thing is champion boss in disguise except that you can use necro as ping pong ball. Like someone mentioned let’s see what HoT has to offer.

Overall you shouldn’t but could. I’ll add necro is only melee in face tanking not in offense while having slow range prowess. I would say try it to feel it but that’s bad advice simplest way is necro is casual mini pve boss.

Worth….

Is it worth having fun in the game?

If you feel that you’d like to try some profession, just do it. Are you playing it for stock buisness or to make a living out of that?

Seriusly, people and their questions. What’s the best? What should I roll? I heard from X that it’s not worth, is it worth?

Games are played for fun. You don’t have to be max efficient in having fun. If it’s fun, it’s worth it I guess.

You people have to stop this madness…That strange mentality becomes really annoying. Like everyone is just lost without a guide and won’t just try it for themselves to make their own opinion.

Some people have fun by being useful/efficient. And their fun is ruined if their class is really subpar. There is nothing mad about it. Its fair to ask questions about this sort of thing to get a good background of the situation.

Although I admit asking people what you should do is a bit silly. That should be your own decision based on the information you have gathered.

Also, new players come into the game with preconceived expectations on how each profession should work based upon how similar professions work in other games and the explanations given in the character creation page.

Necromancer is a profession that does not play like a dark sorcerer. It plays more like a dark paladin or evil tank.

GW2 lacks a class system but still uses profession names and armor classes that suggests one. That, alone, no doubt causes misconceptions.

fracture.9754:

Short answer: no.
Long answer: nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Necro isn’t in the best spot right now, and I play Necro as a main. I’d suggest Warrior or for a more interesting play style go for Elementalist.

Not worth it. Roll another class, at first it’s cool to think and believe you control of all of these undead minions and dark magixxx and stuff, but if you truly want to have fun, DON’T roll a Necro.
Like others have said, Warrior or Elementalist for all occasions and situations AND versatile builds and gameplay.

Run away from it if you want to be needed for things.

Not exactly sure about your concern about being “shunned” to say whether its the class for you. But I will say we arent exactly a “group magnet” in the sense that warrior/guard/ele are. If you want a strong grouping class pick from those 3.

That said you dont really need a group in wvw and can do fine, just people wont be lining up to add you to their party because you really dont give them anything …except dead enemies which they dont need to be grouped with you for..

I have 2 necros. One can take on most any build since she has all the traits unlocked thanks to having been around since the beginning, but i primarily run her as either wells/marks condi build or a minion master/heal battery build. My other one is a power-crit/siphon build for roaming and generally being a goof.(Mostly since i only have the traits for that build) Also PvP on her a bit.

They are fun to play, but get lots of hate. End of the day, try to play how you want.

Pray they fix the trait system if you like making alts.

Depends on your goals. If you want to play in PvP, then by all means Necromancer while not in the PvP meta can be very fun and is a pretty good class.

However, if you plan to PvE there is not much saving grace everything the class does another class does better. This may change with HoT but considering that the game is balanced around PvP I highly doubt it.

tl;dr:
PvE – no
PvP – yes

After about two years of playing I finally tried out necro. I tried out all the classes, played many to 80, only to delete them (only the ranger and engi survived), but I wanted a light armored class. After quick leveling him with some tomes and getting the hang of it, I started to really enjoy it. Necro is the only class for me where I can be full zerk and face tank by popping in and out of death shroud. I love face tanking btw. I’ve started spending so much more time on the necro than my other toons. I take him into PvE, WvW and PvP and do just fine in all of them. I dungeon every so often with guildies or PUGs and I’m usually one of the few surviving the encounters.

I always enjoy playing the necro. Give it a try, it can’t hurt anything.

no, necro is garbage class in PvE

1. power necro is all about spamming 1
2. condi necro… what? condi in pve? lul
3. bottom tier in everything (dps/support). The only top thing on necro is survivability but who cares about that on GW2 PvE right?

oh it has cool visuals though

Brahmincorle.1264:

3. bottom tier in everything (dps/support). The only top thing on necro is survivability

excuse me? we have 0 blocks and 0 vigor, 0 invulnerability, 0 endurance regeneration skills, full death shroud can be gone in 1 hit (and even sometimes will kill your both hp bars), 0 leaps, 1 escape that has to be precasted and can be killed, 1 escape that has to be precasted and you have 8/12 sec to use it or it’s wasted, our only aoe blindness is on a long utility cooldown and entering plague renders you harmless. our healing sustain is crippled as our healing signet has icd and our lifestealing traits are nothing compared to thief’s signet of malice

now that i’ve explained our uselessnes at soloing bosses or playing tough encounters, let’s talk about how useless we are at everything else, for example blasting, having useful field finishers, buffing party, having some utility?

why can’t some people just agree to the truth.

Sublimatio.6981:

Brahmincorle.1264:

3. bottom tier in everything (dps/support). The only top thing on necro is survivability

excuse me? we have 0 blocks and 0 vigor, 0 invulnerability, 0 endurance regeneration skills, full death shroud can be gone in 1 hit (and even sometimes will kill your both hp bars), 0 leaps, 1 escape that has to be precasted and can be killed, 1 escape that has to be precasted and you have 8/12 sec to use it or it’s wasted, our only aoe blindness is on a long utility cooldown and entering plague renders you harmless. our healing sustain is crippled as our healing signet has icd and our lifestealing traits are nothing compared to thief’s signet of malice

now that i’ve explained our uselessnes at soloing bosses or playing tough encounters, let’s talk about how useless we are at everything else, for example blasting, having useful field finishers, buffing party, having some utility?

why can’t some people just agree to the truth.

yea necro is hopeless at soloing but if u r speced into power DS, it is fairly easy to not die It might not be “top” but it is not bottom either

Brahmincorle.1264:

yea necro is hopeless at soloing but if u r speced into power DS, it is fairly easy to not die It might not be “top” but it is not bottom either

it’s actually bottom. something has to be bottom, the worst, otherwise we wouldn’t have the best (looking at ele in general, or war in survivability). necro is the only class that cannot solo lupicus anymore (excluding nomad gear etc)

Necromancers should probably invest a lot in defense just to stay alive. They are a terrible class in their current state, and completely neglected by Anet. I stopped playing because of it.

I find the necro’ an underwhelming class to play which only offers occasional moments of inspiration.

Being predominantly a WvW’er, unless the stars align, I get melted by just about everyone and most fights last only a few seconds.

Doesn’t matter what gear sets or spec’ that’s used – almost everyone else is better.

No.

No it’s not. Anet devs hate this class and troll us with joke changes and then have the nerve to joke about it. Don’t roll this class you will find it fun until you start to master it and realize the tremendous amount of limitations, get frustrated and play something else while continuing to hold out for improvements and grow ever frustrated. Then you begin to hate the devs and realize they don’t play the class at all

Honestly, I knew nothing about the class when I started about a year ago, I just liked the idea of necro. I have a LOT of fun playing it, and it’s still my main, but I find myself wishing that I had chosen another class based on a few things:

1) some players rag on you for being a necro, for example I have been kicked from dungeon parties simply because of my class (before even entering dungeon to show that I can hold my own)
2) I wish I could be more helpful to a group, sometimes my class seems pretty selfish
3) Lacking in some traits and utilities

I would recommend a necro as a secondary character, or level 2 simultaneously so that you have the choice. Right now I am leveling an engi to 80 so that I can use her when it seems more useful to not use my necro. I still really enjoy playing my necro though.

Don’t start by playing a necromancer.

The devs didn’t give the necromancer any defense and they expect you to face tank everything. This will give you bad habits and you will essentially have to relearn how to play in order to get good.

powerwell necros are really fun in wvw.

Necro is very skill based. If you have a tough time keeping track of what’s going on, controlling half a dozen (very) stupid minions, while watching your health bar and life force counts while simultaneously timing the right time to enter death shroud is suicide for most non-necro players. However, if you can do all that, necro is unbeatable. They are nearly indestructible if played and built right.

My mains are Mesmer, Necro, and Guardian. They all have radically different play styles. Honestly when it comes down to straight up soloing open world, my minion master necro is able to just overwhelm enemy mobs that the other classes couldn’t even begin to think about fighting. Command your minions to attack while you are out of Afro range and you can clear whole maps of bad guys before they even know your necro is in the fight.

Only if you like the play-style of the profession, it has solid damage….that’s about it.

Frankly, I just stick to it because I’m blinded by my love of the mechanics and how it was my very first profession in Guild Wars 1, but whatever..

Derenek.8931:

Command your minions to attack while you are out of Afro range

Skoigoth.9238:

Derenek.8931:

Command your minions to attack while you are out of Afro range

Thanks mate, now I can go to sleep