Guild Wars 2

I have decided to take a leap into the profession Necro and so I am hoping to get some advice on leveling.

-What is the best weapon combo for leveling?
-What is the best spell rotation for the weapon combo?
-What stats am I looking for in terms of gearing myself for leveling?
-Skills and traits what do you recommend I go with?

Thanks for your help.

-Sneaxz

As long as you don’t go for healing you can work with any stats just pick weapons/utilities to match stats or vise versa.
But thats as far as general pve goes. Pvp…dungeons… wvw is different story. And terrible at that.

Sneaxz.9740:

I have decided to take a leap into the profession Necro and so I am hoping to get some advice on leveling.

-What is the best weapon combo for leveling?
-What is the best spell rotation for the weapon combo?
-What stats am I looking for in terms of gearing myself for leveling?
-Skills and traits what do you recommend I go with?

Thanks for your help.

-Sneaxz

If you would like ingame help/advice, add me and whisper me when I’m on. I’ll invite you to a guild specifically for teaching Necromancers.

When i was leveling i really liked the Staff+Axe/Warhorn or Dagger/Warhorn with damaging wells and Power-Precision gear. As for traits i took Greater Marks in Death Magic as soon as i could. I dont really remember what i took after that. Maybe i added some points in to the Spite trait line to get more power.

Run around gathering mobs and 1 or 2 wells, staff marks, DS 4 and any other AoE u may have. Finish of single mobs with either Dagger 1 or Axe 1 and 2.
Since LF builds quickly in PvE you ll be pretty durable even with full dps gear.

Another good way to level are minion builds. You are safer since they provide a distraction for enemies but i think you kill things a bit more slowly because u dont have that much AoE. As far as traits go take almost anything with ‘minion’ in the description. Lower cooldown, more life (Death Magic trait line) and more dmg (20 into Spite trait line) are very important.

I leveled up to lvl 50-55 with events and open world exploration and then used crafting and some CoF (Citadel of Flame dungeon) path 1 runs to get to 80 fast. Each crafting proffesion gives around 10 levels and some are cheap so you can afford them even with your first character.

Dungeons are probably not a good way to level since they are pretty slow and often hard for new players. Also avoid farming mobs, doing quests and events and exploring the world gives you more exp than just farming mobs.

Finally dont be afraid to buy gear from the Trading Post. Fine (blue) quality items are very cheap. If u want u can take some masterwork (green) items but i dont think its really worth it. Try to replace armor, weapons every 5 levels or so. Trinkets with the stats u want might not be available every 5 levels so you ll have to keep them for a bit longer.

Enferian did a pretty good job of explaining it so I’ll just offer any tips or advice you need in game as you come across tough spots. Feel free to PM me anytime.

Solid advice here. One point I differ. I suggest that you buy masterwork gear on the trading post every 6 or so levels starting at level 14. You will be able to sell it back to the vendor for the same price that you paid for it.

I would try some WvW on your necro in a larger group. (Necros are poor solo roamers) Staff marks are useful even at lower levels as is Plague Form.

Samis.1750:

Solid advice here. One point I differ. I suggest that you buy masterwork gear on the trading post every 6 or so levels starting at level 14. You will be able to sell it back to the vendor for the same price that you paid for it.

I would try some WvW on your necro in a larger group. (Necros are poor solo roamers) Staff marks are useful even at lower levels as is Plague Form.

Can’t resell masterwork after you use it, it becomes soulbound :p But it’s cheap enough you can just vendor it or salvage it and not feel any loss. You could honestly prob go every 10 levels with masterwork or rares if you wanted to spend a little more but the good thing about sticking with masterwork is you don’t feel bad about trashing a piece for a different stat combo as needed. And yes if you plan on using staff, the greater marks trait is training wheels for staff, aka easy mode, although a necessity in WvW just to make sure you hit enough area to be effective. Not really needed in open world or most dungeons though if you get good enough with placement.

This class offer great build diversity as long as the build uses Staff and invests 10 points to get Greater Marks

Dagger/something and staff is best leveling. Axe is trait dependant so stay away for til 50 or so anyway. Dagger does massive damage with #1 from the get go. Staff gives you a ton of utility and aoe damage.

Greater marks is a complete waste for pve. Mobs will not bother to walk around your marks, and the aoe/damage/everything else is the SAME.