Guild Wars 2

I am pretty new to this game but I rolled a necro and I have a few questions (Im level 10):

Right now Im fighting with a dagger and warhorn offhand/ and a scepter dagger. Im finding that the dagger/warhorn is better for single target and the scepter is better for groups. Is this true? Is there another combination Im missing?

Is there any really great leveling spec/weapon combination that I should try in later levels (20-80)?

Right now I feel pretty OP at leveling. When does this end? When does Necro get weaker?

I dont do much PvP but how are necros in PvE?

Thanks so much!

Why dont I see more necros?

Dagger is a bit better at single target, but the real difference is that dagger scales off of power and does normal damage, whereas scepter scales more off condition damage (a little power). Eventually you will probably choose to do either power-build for normal damage, or condition build for condition damage.

Imo the easiest levelling is using a staff and at least a few minions until you are pretty high in level. Minions will take aggro, meaning you wont take much damage, and staff puts down nice area damage which makes it easier for you to get exp for kills, even when others are attacking.

Necros are strong all game, and in all the game types, but at the lowest levels we can feel really OP, because your heal does damage and tanks for you (minion).

Necros are great in PvE, we have multiple builds available, and are very fun imo.

You don’t see a lot of necros because the class plays differently than others. Our builds are very rarely super straightforward, and there are some nuances in building necros effectively, and using them effectively in game. Thats not to say we are particularly difficult to play/use, just that it takes a lot more overall knowledge of the class mechanics to be good.

Right now Im fighting with a dagger and warhorn offhand/ and a scepter dagger. Im finding that the dagger/warhorn is better for single target and the scepter is better for groups. Is this true? Is there another combination Im missing?

I prefer scepter/dagger + scepter/focus. Good for single or multiple targets.

Is there any really great leveling spec/weapon combination that I should try in later levels (20-80)?

There is no one super-duper build; there are several viable ways to play a necro. I prefer a hybrid: 20/30/0/10/10. Start with building 5/5/0/5/0 and then fill out the Curses line first, and fill out the other next.

Right now I feel pretty OP at leveling. When does this end? When does Necro get weaker?

Shhh! You’re not supposed to say such things on this forum! Actually, I never found necro getting weaker, only stronger, with levels.

I dont do much PvP but how are necros in PvE?

Quite fine. We’re just not speed killers.

Why dont I see more necros?

They read this forum and decided against it? I usually see a fair number of them, though, at least leveling; not as many in Orr. It is one of the underdog classes, and not being bursty, necro may not give alot of folks the gratification they want.

Where/how are you levelling? Every time I try to raise my necro a few more levels, I just end up going back to another character or logging off. It’s infuriating because it seems more fun/complicated than the warrior and engineer I’ve got to 80 (though not as funny as watching the engineer w/ rifle and jet-powered boots bounce all over the screen), but at the same time it needs so much more effort to just barely handle the same things that are easy for them.

LameFox.6349:

Where/how are you levelling? Every time I try to raise my necro a few more levels, I just end up going back to another character or logging off. It’s infuriating because it seems more fun/complicated than the warrior and engineer I’ve got to 80 (though not as funny as watching the engineer w/ rifle and jet-powered boots bounce all over the screen), but at the same time it needs so much more effort to just barely handle the same things that are easy for them.

Maybe someone can tell me if there is a more effecient way but…
I try and round up a few mobs (I can control them pretty well with my scepter skills) and then drop well of suffering. If i get low on health i use shroud of darkness and the aoe skill (life leech? it is great damage). This works great on groups of mobs. In events I can take on quite a few at a time with death shroud and the aoe.

For single, tougher enemies I use dagger mainhand skills. If I get in trouble I use the immobilize skill and the skill that steals their health. Alternatively, switch to scepter and kite a bit or simply death shroud.

I do not use minions (and I will try the above’s suggestions) because they always seem to grab one mob so it can not be in my well of suffering, die and then I have one random creep running around.

Thanks for everyone’s imput!

For what it’s worth, full on minion builds that move into 20/0/30/20 with survivability skills (flesh of the master and vampiric master) obtained first, and that use staff are ideal for leveling. You will brute force smash through everything but champion level mobs and you can wear full magic find gear.

LameFox.6349:

Where/how are you levelling? Every time I try to raise my necro a few more levels, I just end up going back to another character or logging off. It’s infuriating because it seems more fun/complicated than the warrior and engineer I’ve got to 80 (though not as funny as watching the engineer w/ rifle and jet-powered boots bounce all over the screen), but at the same time it needs so much more effort to just barely handle the same things that are easy for them.

What kind of build are you running? What weapons/gear?

As I level my second necro, several things are apparent to me as to why the first seemed much harder to level:

1) I used staff. There, I said it. For PvE leveling, unless you are have a full army of minions dump the staff completely and use scepter, axe or dagger for your MH weapons, depending on your preferences. Staff is a crappy solo PvE leveling weapon, unless it is to support a bunch of minions.

2) I tried to run a partial minion build, and gave minions up at around level 23. I think for leveling you either want to be all the way into a minion build or not. (Flesh golem as elite is an exception.)

3) I didn’t gear. Gear every 10 levels with blues/greens off the TP (preferably for Vitality/Toughness until you get 40-50ish). Don’t bother with sigils/runes/etc. though, until 80.

4) I didn’t understand damage mitigation was so important. Weakness especially is quite potent, in a defensive sense. Since we are officially an attrition class, lengthier killing times mean using blinds, interrupts, cripples and weakness when available. So, Dagger4 & 5, CPCloud, WoDarkness, Chilling Darkness/Withering Precision/Weakening Shroud traits., Scepter2, Dagger3, Focus5, Warhorn4 & 5, DS2&3. That’s alot of CC and mitigation abilities. (Asuras also get confusion (Pain Inverter) and their own version of CPC (Radiation Field) as racials. Nice.)

5) I thought AOE damage = wells. Not that wells are bad, but the long CDs make them situational utilities, not repeatable attacks. Epidemic is your best AOE friend. Even untraited the CD is short, and you get to leverage the conditions others put on targets.

6) I used DS as a last-ditch survival tool. DS4 is a good kiting AOE. Use it. While leveling, DS1 won’t hit for alot unless you have vulnerability on the target, so pair it with Axe or Focus4 attacks for some nice damage. DS3 is a great interrupt.

7) My lifeforce bar was empty. I didn’t plan or use my skills or traits to intentionally make sure my my LF bar was filled, whenever possible. If I’m in trouble, using DS with a full LF bar right after using Consume Conditions lets me survive and burn alot of CD time off of CC so I can perform a second heal shortly after coming out of DS.

Anyway, that’s my 2 cents. YMMV.

Gear-wise I’ve changed a lot. I’m not exactly rich, but I can easily afford to screw around with sub-80 gear so keeping that up to date hasn’t been an issue. I even use runes/sigils, though at lower levels that isn’t saying much (lol @ the early sigils of force. 2% of nothing is uh, let’s see…).

The staff is something I eventually settled on purely for utility, its damage is awful but the condition transfer & frost come in handy. It’s not exactly what I’d call an ideal main weapon though. I’d honestly prefer if #1 just let me hit things with it, for all the good that flying hand does.

My primary set was initially dagger/dagger after I’d unlocked all the weapon skills, but I discovered I don’t really like single-target melee. It just puts me in range of more damage sources, while still limiting my damage output to one enemy, so I ended up going to the axe (sceptre seemed like it had more range than I had a use for, so I figured more damage would be better). The auto attack is so-so and the #2 feels like a worse version of the warrior’s axe #5, but the area cripple with bonus retaliation is interesting. Plus when I go into DS, it works at the same range I’m already at, which always annoyed me using a dagger and suddenly finding myself having no melee left.

I kept the off-hand dagger though. The condition transfer and area weakness make it one of few weapons where I don’t feel like I’m tolerating some of it to have the rest of it. I was also used to area-weakness from the warrior’s warhorn #5 so using that as a defence just sort of came naturally.

The huge cooldowns on a lot of things definitely get in my way though. I pretty much avoid long cooldown skills on every class I play, unless it’s something like signet of rage where between that, warhorn, and for great justice I can keep those effects up literally forever. Somehow it seems like the necro just gets an unusual amount of them, and skills I might otherwise find useful are abandoned because mostly when I want them they’re recharging, and I hate feeling like half the fight is just delaying for my skill to be ready.

And minions… they’re just weird. Funny to look at, but sort of like really bad utility skills with two cooldowns. Flesh golem excepted, from using it in PvP it seemed occasionally useful and actually healed out of combat.

I like my necro, but the axe auto attack feels too weak. I would go with d MH and another set axe MH I think…though I use the staff a lot…it just really seems to let me beat up mobs before they get close (I do pve stuff, no pvp).

Often I find d/d the most fun even though I understand OH dagger is more condition, it has not seemed to hurt me at all. At times I use focus or WH.

Wish I could be happier with axe but…the auto attack always leaves me wanting. I try it every so often in hopes that will magically like it.

Try axe/focus dagger/warhorn out, you shouldn’t really NEED to auto attack with axe, you should switch into axe, focus 4, axe 3, axe 2, and then either you can attack for a bit of vulnerability, use utilities, or go DS for the few seconds extra, then switch back to dagger, dagger 3, WH 5, WH 4, dagger 2, auto with dagger, switch back, etc.

You increase your damage, LF gain, and condition output by a lot if you are swapping back and forth every so often (just a bit longer than on swap CD), you should almost never be staying in one weapon set as a power build except for very specific scenarios (keeping axe out because you don’t want to be that close, or keeping dagger out to top off your LF pool).

Dagger/Warhorn + Staff Power build is what I’ve been using for leveling and honestly, it has been easier than my warrior. Not even close.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/67051-necro-power-build-daggerfocus-and-wells/

That is where I found the build.