Guild Wars 2

XiL.4318:

What exactly is confusing you sir? Yes Minions, Siphon Health, and a couple Life Force generators don’t work right. One of those things should be fixed in the next patch. Everything else works just fine though. I can still keep massive stacks of conditions on the other team while turning all my ally’s conditions into boons, and at the same time offer support healing and chain chill/blind/cripple/poison…

Guides and or videos, please… sticks hands out in the universal “gimme” motion

Half the people who complain about the class… and losing in 1v1.. just dont know how to play the class.. period.

Yeah… 4v1.. you obviously aren’t going to win… esp to people who know how to play their class even halfway decently.

Most of the people that i see that complain… dont know a decent rotation of either bleeds or burst… they dont run plague signet or BiP.. or even how to counter bulls rush/100b/heartseeker builds.. also dont know how to use DS properly…. plague signet should be used in every build… regardless of the build you’re running imo.

The only class you should be having any issues with are hybrid spec Guardians… even then it comes down to the skill of the Guardian…

Necro is a high(er) skill capped class… kills aint gonna come easy.

This thread is full of “i want to win every fight, with little to no effort, and without spending much time learning my class”

Ive got over 700 hours spent pvping with a necro… and im still learning… the rest of you should do the same.

Sprawl.3891:

says the guy who pugs and only qps come from beating other pugs and has zero experience actually playing other classes. meta is necro for rez signet more than anything which Ian why they are first target many times. did you not listen to the spvp q and a session with the top players?

Stop exaggerating. Rez Signet is OP right now because of down timers, but Necro is not the only class with Rez. So yer just being dramatic.

The only options not competitive for Necro right now are Burst and Bunker. Everything else is bauce. And they are only not competitive because minion AI doesn’t work in competitive PvP.

Condition control and support are not optional in tourny. Necro has the best condition control combined with monster support. Pairing Necro with Mesmer in a team fight guarantees victory against any team that does not counter with another Necro/Mesmer. Period. Time Warp combined with AoE Chill is game over.

So pack up the tiny violins. It is not like it’s Dec 21st yet.

VladimirLem.5894:

Half the people who complain about the class… and losing in 1v1.. just dont know how to play the class.. period.

Yeah… 4v1.. you obviously aren’t going to win… esp to people who know how to play their class even halfway decently.

Most of the people that i see that complain… dont know a decent rotation of either bleeds or burst… they dont run plague signet or BiP.. or even how to counter bulls rush/100b/heartseeker builds.. also dont know how to use DS properly…. plague signet should be used in every build… regardless of the build you’re running imo.

The only class you should be having any issues with are hybrid spec Guardians… even then it comes down to the skill of the Guardian…

Necro is a high(er) skill capped class… kills aint gonna come easy.

This thread is full of “i want to win every fight, with little to no effort, and without spending much time learning my class”

Ive got over 700 hours spent pvping with a necro… and im still learning… the rest of you should do the same.

This mentality is not productive. Mastery is not the goal for the vast majority of players. Some classes like Thief and Warrior have extremely tardeasy mechanics that allow even the biggest noob in the random match to smash a couple buttons and get a kill when they get all their cooldowns off.

Necro has no such mechanics and instead relies on a series of complex skill chains as well as extremely active gameplay. Where that Warrior is hitting charge, quickness, hundred blades, and /dance, the Necro is dodging in, stacking conditions, building Life Force, setting up channeled skills that can easily be dodged from or miss entirely…

Even if I can take any class I play and push it to its max potential without more than a few hours messing around, the majority of people playing this game haven’t been playing MMOs since March 1999. They don’t have my experience. They don’t have my drive to develop mastery. And pretty much none of them care either.

These games don’t thrive without New Players. All the classes need to offer some sort of reward to new players otherwise they will just avoid them. They aren’t here to learn, they are here to play.

So while I can competitively play Necro against the best PvP players in the game, within reason (bunker and burst being what they are to Necro…), new players cannot without frustrating themselves into playing something else. And that has to be fixed.

XiL.4318:

So while I can competitively play Necro against the best PvP players in the game, within reason (bunker and burst being what they are to Necro…), new players cannot without frustrating themselves into playing something else. And that has to be fixed.

Guides and/or videos, pleaseplease… sticks hands out in the universal “gimme” motion again

KirinDave.6451:

XiL.4318:

So while I can competitively play Necro against the best PvP players in the game, within reason (bunker and burst being what they are to Necro…), new players cannot without frustrating themselves into playing something else. And that has to be fixed.

Guides and/or videos, pleaseplease… sticks hands out in the universal “gimme” motion again

I barely have the time I want to play let alone make videos and guides. That is ArenaNet’s Job.

XiL.4318:

KirinDave.6451:

XiL.4318:

So while I can competitively play Necro against the best PvP players in the game, within reason (bunker and burst being what they are to Necro…), new players cannot without frustrating themselves into playing something else. And that has to be fixed.

Guides and/or videos, pleaseplease… sticks hands out in the universal “gimme” motion again

I barely have the time I want to play let alone make videos and guides. That is ArenaNet’s Job.

Nemesis.8593 has made some good guides at the top of the necromancer page if that matters.

We cannot really say that necros are broken. We have a few builds that work well, even if it takes relatively more effort to be competitive that it takes playing another class.
The problem as I see it is that necros are supposed to be minion masters specialized in dealing condition damage.
" The necromancer is great at inflicting debilitating or damaging conditions on enemies as well as removing conditions from allies and boons from enemies. " (gw2 wiki)
The abilities that make us special like Plague Signet or Corrupt Boon dont work or work half of the time. The minions are kitten to the point that using them is not only annoying but also a good way of gimping yourself. We can apply conditions relatively well, however there are other classes/specs that can do it faster than us (i know we have epidemic, but not every necro has it slotted). We lack a condition type that is unique to our class. Our fear is the worst in the game.
By making a quick comparison between the trait trees that others have and ours it is rather easy to see the lack of synergy.
And yet, despite all this, and having played warrior, mesmer, thief and guardian to 80 in spvp/wvw/pve i can honestly say that the necro is still my favourite class and my most played character.
We need a few fixes here and there, maybe some redesign of some of our traits (i`m looking at you Reanimator) and we`ll be just fine. I just hope Anet will communicate more with us and atleast tell us their “roadmap” for the necromancer and how they envision it and its place in today`s pvp.

gamefreak.5673:

XiL.4318:

KirinDave.6451:

XiL.4318:

So while I can competitively play Necro against the best PvP players in the game, within reason (bunker and burst being what they are to Necro…), new players cannot without frustrating themselves into playing something else. And that has to be fixed.

Guides and/or videos, pleaseplease… sticks hands out in the universal “gimme” motion again

I barely have the time I want to play let alone make videos and guides. That is ArenaNet’s Job.

Nemesis.8593 has made some good guides at the top of the necromancer page if that matters.

Nem’s vids a re a little long for my tastes, and i’m a speed reader so i actually tried to write a LOT of different guides to help new/old players with the necro.

most of the time, they got shot down

Sheobix.8796:

gamefreak.5673:

XiL.4318:

KirinDave.6451:

XiL.4318:

So while I can competitively play Necro against the best PvP players in the game, within reason (bunker and burst being what they are to Necro…), new players cannot without frustrating themselves into playing something else. And that has to be fixed.

Guides and/or videos, pleaseplease… sticks hands out in the universal “gimme” motion again

I barely have the time I want to play let alone make videos and guides. That is ArenaNet’s Job.

Nemesis.8593 has made some good guides at the top of the necromancer page if that matters.

Nem’s vids a re a little long for my tastes, and i’m a speed reader so i actually tried to write a LOT of different guides to help new/old players with the necro.

most of the time, they got shot down

Hey you try to help out the community so it goes along way. I still miss my old army of undead from the first one and the ability to have then be the same type of minion instead of just 1 bone fiend i would have 6-8 running. Good times in gw1. I will be glad to spend many hours/days testing the MM again once anet says they fix them and tweak reanimator.

Mammoth.1975:

Slan.5496:

Can someone elaborate on how the necro is being used in these lineups? And possibly link to a build? I played an engineer and a condition thief before starting on my necro. I’m having some difficulty understanding what the role is in organized pvp (conditions, boon removal, tanking, what?). My main source of experimentation atm is hotjoin and that probably doesn’t help.

Eating guardians alive from range, big aoe damage on downed players, reviving from outside enemy aoe with signet of undeath.

This build covers the essentials, the rest is up to you:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.5.7.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.119.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.332.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.10.0.0

Sprawl.3891:

ITT guy who only plays one class saying it’s fine without playing other classes and seeing that they do the same things, but better. MMO forum classic.

You’re just embarrassing yourself dude. No one does what a necro does. If they did, people would run that class instead. Maybe you should let us all in on the meta changing secret mr ‘I haven’t been to the hotm in months’.

There is no meta its a dead pvp population with only a handful of teams running what they are comfortable with. You only playing a single class proves this.

Over inflated ego in a non-ranked pvp system with a population lower then any pvp game I have played. There will never be a true meta with such a dead/small pvp population it will evolve way to slow.

Ranked games is also a must for a meta to develop it wont for pure farming. GW1 had a meta because it had GvG ranked play. This game will never have a meta in its current state.

Xom.9264:

Mammoth.1975:

Slan.5496:

Can someone elaborate on how the necro is being used in these lineups? And possibly link to a build? I played an engineer and a condition thief before starting on my necro. I’m having some difficulty understanding what the role is in organized pvp (conditions, boon removal, tanking, what?). My main source of experimentation atm is hotjoin and that probably doesn’t help.

Eating guardians alive from range, big aoe damage on downed players, reviving from outside enemy aoe with signet of undeath.

This build covers the essentials, the rest is up to you:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.5.7.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.119.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.332.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.10.0.0

Sprawl.3891:

ITT guy who only plays one class saying it’s fine without playing other classes and seeing that they do the same things, but better. MMO forum classic.

You’re just embarrassing yourself dude. No one does what a necro does. If they did, people would run that class instead. Maybe you should let us all in on the meta changing secret mr ‘I haven’t been to the hotm in months’.

There is no meta its a dead pvp population with only a handful of teams running what they are comfortable with. You only playing a single class proves this.

Over inflated ego in a non-ranked pvp system with a population lower then any pvp game I have played. There will never be a true meta with such a dead/small pvp population it will evolve way to slow.

Ranked games is also a must for a meta to develop it wont for pure farming. GW1 had a meta because it had GvG ranked play. This game will never have a meta in its current state.

basically – the limited meta he is talkign about is every necro running with rez signet, they even talked about rez abilities being OP and too needed in the round table Q&A with some of the pro players, which is why necro is so valuable to survive the first push so they can insta rez during the first fight and then its snowball victory from there.

If it was just the res everyone would run 4 rangers and instarevive every 30s, or quickrevive if anyone managed to die in between. Stop blaming the class for your own failures.

And Xom, comments about over inflated egos from you are incredibly ironic.

Xom.9264:

Its simple Mes has game changing power that wins maps I wont go into theory crafting detail what the mes and other classes bring that wins games because i dont think any of you casuals care about the details in tpvp. I will again say there is a reason Necro is so underplayed in Tpvp and its a low percentage of top teams setup.

If only you hadn’t been quite so absurdly wrong about that, you could almost have looked like you knew what you were talking about. Thanks for not boring us casuals though.

Mammoth.1975:

If it was just the res everyone would run 4 rangers and instarevive every 30s, or quickrevive if anyone managed to die in between. Stop blaming the class for your own failures.

And Xom, comments about over inflated egos from you are incredibly ironic.

Xom.9264:

Its simple Mes has game changing power that wins maps I wont go into theory crafting detail what the mes and other classes bring that wins games because i dont think any of you casuals care about the details in tpvp. I will again say there is a reason Necro is so underplayed in Tpvp and its a low percentage of top teams setup.

If only you hadn’t been quite so absurdly wrong about that, you could almost have looked like you knew what you were talking about. Thanks for not boring us casuals though.

listen to the q and a and otherwise stop posting, if you can’t see the difference between an aoe ranged rez vs a single target rez, well just lol.

Sprawl.3891:

Mammoth.1975:

If it was just the res everyone would run 4 rangers and instarevive every 30s, or quickrevive if anyone managed to die in between. Stop blaming the class for your own failures.

And Xom, comments about over inflated egos from you are incredibly ironic.

Xom.9264:

Its simple Mes has game changing power that wins maps I wont go into theory crafting detail what the mes and other classes bring that wins games because i dont think any of you casuals care about the details in tpvp. I will again say there is a reason Necro is so underplayed in Tpvp and its a low percentage of top teams setup.

If only you hadn’t been quite so absurdly wrong about that, you could almost have looked like you knew what you were talking about. Thanks for not boring us casuals though.

listen to the q and a and otherwise stop posting, if you can’t see the difference between an aoe ranged rez vs a single target rez, well just lol.

Yes, that AoE rez for that vast multitude of times that two enemies die, within 180 range of each other, in a close enough time frame that one of them is not already stomped.

Just…no.

I totally agree with this post. People just don’t realise the full potential of a necro. I’ve been playing mine since the beta and pretty much nothing else. Though, I was incredibly disappointed when they nerfed my flesh wurm in beta.
Just a couple of things here to help any struggling necros in PvP though.

1. Spectral Grasp.
You might be thinking, “why do I want an ability that pulls an enemy towards me?”
Put marks down, control enemy movements and when the time is right, drag them into a mark and they activate it. It has saved me more times than I can count.

2. Flesh Wurm.
You might be thinking, “minions are kitten I don’t want any”.
While only a shell of it’s beta glory, the Flesh Wurm is like a nerfed version of the lock summon. Don’t take it for a pet, take it for a get out of jail free card.
Warning: You can no longer abuse the z axis with this spell. /sad panda.

Hope those two little hints helped any struggling necros out a tad with survivability.

Sprawl.3891:

listen to the q and a and otherwise stop posting, if you can’t see the difference between an aoe ranged rez vs a single target rez, well just lol.

And you’re the guy criticizing me for not playing other classes.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Nature%27s_Renewal

Hint, the area is much bigger than SoU. It also casts faster. And recharges faster. In fact, if you include the 4 minute recharge time on the spirit, you still get more revives per second than SoU even if the signet is traited for reduced cooldown. Plus it can be used to self revive.

So, as I was saying, if it was just about the res, everyone would bring rangers instead.

alanis.6094:

Sprawl.3891:

Mammoth.1975:

If it was just the res everyone would run 4 rangers and instarevive every 30s, or quickrevive if anyone managed to die in between. Stop blaming the class for your own failures.

And Xom, comments about over inflated egos from you are incredibly ironic.

Xom.9264:

Its simple Mes has game changing power that wins maps I wont go into theory crafting detail what the mes and other classes bring that wins games because i dont think any of you casuals care about the details in tpvp. I will again say there is a reason Necro is so underplayed in Tpvp and its a low percentage of top teams setup.

If only you hadn’t been quite so absurdly wrong about that, you could almost have looked like you knew what you were talking about. Thanks for not boring us casuals though.

listen to the q and a and otherwise stop posting, if you can’t see the difference between an aoe ranged rez vs a single target rez, well just lol.

Yes, that AoE rez for that vast multitude of times that two enemies die, within 180 range of each other, in a close enough time frame that one of them is not already stomped.

Just…no.

listen to the q and a, seriously.

Mammoth.1975:

Sprawl.3891:

listen to the q and a and otherwise stop posting, if you can’t see the difference between an aoe ranged rez vs a single target rez, well just lol.

And you’re the guy criticizing me for not playing other classes.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Nature%27s_Renewal

lol what? pro teams are the ones talking about reliance in certain rez skills. that’s not one. go listen to the q and a or stop posting here.

Sprawl.3891:

lol what? pro teams are the ones talking about reliance in certain rez skills. that’s not one.

My point exactly.

“Everything I needed to know about how to play tPvP I learned from watching a video of people discussing it”

alanis.6094:

“Everything I needed to know about how to play tPvP I learned from watching a video of people discussing it”

grats on missing the point. the discussion was about the meta and use of necro which has a lot to do with rez signet which they touch on in the q and a and basically say there are certain rez abilities that they feel are too strong and make them a must have. but hey thanks for playing and acting like you know what’s going on.

Sprawl.3891:

grats on missing the point. the discussion was about the meta and use of necro which has a lot to do with rez signet which they touch on in the q and a and basically say there are certain rez abilities that they feel are too strong and make them a must have. but hey thanks for playing and acting like you know what’s going on.

What’s difficult for you? If it was just about the res like you’ve been trying to say for fifteen posts, people would bring rangers instead. They have a better res.

Get off the forums and learn to play the damn game.

Mammoth.1975:

Sprawl.3891:

grats on missing the point. the discussion was about the meta and use of necro which has a lot to do with rez signet which they touch on in the q and a and basically say there are certain rez abilities that they feel are too strong and make them a must have. but hey thanks for playing and acting like you know what’s going on.

What’s difficult for you? If it was just about the res like you’ve been trying to say for fifteen posts, people would bring rangers instead. They have a better res.

Get off the forums and learn to play the damn game.

but they don’t. necros weren’t used on ant teams until they changed the rez timer and people realized how valuable rez signet was to the first fight. if you win the first fight you snowball and only lose if you screw up royally.

for the thousandth time listen to the q and a.

Sprawl.3891:

Mammoth.1975:

Sprawl.3891:

grats on missing the point. the discussion was about the meta and use of necro which has a lot to do with rez signet which they touch on in the q and a and basically say there are certain rez abilities that they feel are too strong and make them a must have. but hey thanks for playing and acting like you know what’s going on.

What’s difficult for you? If it was just about the res like you’ve been trying to say for fifteen posts, people would bring rangers instead. They have a better res.

Get off the forums and learn to play the damn game.

but they don’t. necros weren’t used on ant teams until they changed the rez timer and people realized how valuable rez signet was to the first fight. if you win the first fight you snowball and only lose if you screw up royally, or so I’ve been told, as I don’t have any actual experience whatsoever to speak of.

Fixed.

Sprawl.3891:

Mammoth.1975:

If it was just about the res like you’ve been trying to say for fifteen posts, people would bring rangers instead. They have a better res.

but they don’t.

Exactly.

alanis.6094:

Sprawl.3891:

Mammoth.1975:

Sprawl.3891:

grats on missing the point. the discussion was about the meta and use of necro which has a lot to do with rez signet which they touch on in the q and a and basically say there are certain rez abilities that they feel are too strong and make them a must have. but hey thanks for playing and acting like you know what’s going on.

What’s difficult for you? If it was just about the res like you’ve been trying to say for fifteen posts, people would bring rangers instead. They have a better res.

Get off the forums and learn to play the damn game.

but they don’t. necros weren’t used on ant teams until they changed the rez timer and people realized how valuable rez signet was to the first fight. if you win the first fight you snowball and only lose if you screw up royally, or so I’ve been told, as I don’t have any actual experience whatsoever to speak of.

Fixed.

Sorry but I’ll take the word of 6 representatives from the most skilled teams and the ANet PvP devs acknowledgement of it over some random.

Mammoth.1975:

Sprawl.3891:

Mammoth.1975:

If it was just about the res like you’ve been trying to say for fifteen posts, people would bring rangers instead. They have a better res.

but they don’t.

Exactly.

rangers don’t have a better rez

Timewarp and portal I hear are good.

I said you bring a necro for their utilities I even talked about rez sig….. Honestly I want to see instant rez skills removed anyway. It favors poor boring gameplay bunker + roamer with rez sig. Removes alot of tactics and skill from the game, I might be biased I hate downstate concept + rallies and rez sigs…. it should only be heal up yourself or another player heals you.

Xom.9264:

Timewarp and portal I hear are good.

I said you bring a necro for their utilities I even talked about rez sig….. Honestly I want to see instant rez skills removed anyway. It favors poor boring gameplay bunker + roamer with rez sig. Removes alot of tactics and skill from the game, I might be biased I hate downstate concept + rallies and rez sigs…. it should only be heal up yourself or another player heals you.

agreed on downed i say dont even allow heal of yourself, it’s supposed to all be about team so make it that way, you get downed, you either get rez’d by team or die. They should also make a pool of #2 abilities and let you pick whichever one you want, then they will realize how OP certain ones are (hello ele), which was another complaint during the Q and A.

All the classes have steep reward curves for getting proficient at build tweaking and knowing how to use their toolboxes.

My experience with my necros (of which I have two) is that they’re just plain deficient in a PVP setting, especially sPvP. I love rolling along in dungeons though, where I can focus on being a force multiplier in the form of raining conditions down like scornful laughter from the black depths of my necromanctic soul as well as doing a respectable job of helping offset damage to my party.

Soloing worldmap PvE on a necro feels very mediocre. The pets are braindamaged and evaporate like rice paper in a rainstorm, and if they’re attacking at all, its not usually for very long. Anet’s not very good with pet classes. Those that’ve played games where the devs understood how pet classes can/should work, you know. If you don’t know, feel blessed and simply understand that necro pets are kind’ve confusing.

Someone, somewhere, made them on purpose. Someone else verified that work, and many others nodded at it to get it included as it is. I’m not sure how that happened. It probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

Gluttony’s observations about the trait lines is true; we’re expected and mathematically balanced around having pets. I think our DPS is intrinsically lower because pets are expected to make up the difference, and the way conditions/boons work in this game is something that, coming from any other game, not only takes some getting used to but isn’t quite all its cracked up to be.

Necromancer relies heavily on stacking conditions, and in an sPvP environment, that’s frequently asking too much. PvE mobs don’t use terrain, don’t actively dodge much and don’t comprehend the meta-system of limitations on LoS’ing, counter-strategizing, creatively employing stealth and mobility and so on.

Necro’s toolbox is designed for PvE. A lot of the set-ups required to fully exploit a necro’s output strength are virtually unviable in small group PvP, and are limited to circumstantial viability in WvW. Pets, for example, are of no account in PvP of either flavor; they’re not even speedbumps that will so much as hinder a halfway competent opponent.

And they’re a vital component of the necromancer class’ overall survivability and damage output.

So…/five cents

Sprawl.3891:

Mammoth.1975:

Sprawl.3891:

Mammoth.1975:

If it was just about the res like you’ve been trying to say for fifteen posts, people would bring rangers instead. They have a better res.

but they don’t.

Exactly.

rangers don’t have a better rez

Tech seen both rangers and warriors have a better rez, to be exact massive aoe buffing rezzes in their elite slot.

I think the problem with Necro is it’s a very unforgiving class. Other professions you can make mistakes and get away with it most of the time. Mistakes on Necro usually means death. So I can see how it can push a lot of newer players away, and lead to a lot of misconceptions about the class.

But that’ just my imo.

I honestly only skimmed through the discussion, but the possession of ONE utility skill people want the necro for in PvP doesn’t mean the necro isn’t broken. It means he is shoe horned into a very specific setup.

To say the necro isn’t broken, they need to want him for more than one very specific skill. The rez signet thing isn’t a necro fix, it’s a meta issue.

Every time a thread gets necroed in the necromancer forums I am immediately reminded of this for some reason.

I disagree. I think necros are lacking in many areas. Rangers , warriors, thieves, and engineers all stack condi better. I have never wanted a necro in any of my dungeons since they fixed the Life Siphon bug in cliffside fractal; I hit 48 in fractals back in December and then dropped them because the loot sucks. Well of blindness is good in wvw and pvp. If I want damage I would bring almost any other class, support I’d prefer ele/banner warrior/refuge thief/etc., if I want condi dmg then see above. There is literally no pve scenario where I would prefer a necro over other classes.

PvP, the class is ok. WvW, talent epidemic and press it alot.

There are some good things, but the class is missing a lot and it needs work.

Xynn.2748:

I disagree. I think necros are lacking in many areas. Rangers , warriors, thieves, and engineers all stack condi better. I have never wanted a necro in any of my dungeons since they fixed the Life Siphon bug in cliffside fractal; I hit 48 in fractals back in December and then dropped them because the loot sucks. Well of blindness is good in wvw and pvp. If I want damage I would bring almost any other class, support I’d prefer ele/banner warrior/refuge thief/etc., if I want condi dmg then see above. There is literally no pve scenario where I would prefer a necro over other classes.

PvP, the class is ok. WvW, talent epidemic and press it alot.

There are some good things, but the class is missing a lot and it needs work.

I feel this way as well. Even my thief feels like it brings more utility than necromancers with Smoke Screen, Caltrops (godly for kiting groups or slowing those charging mofos in the Ascalon fractal), blind on stealth trait (infinite blind every 3 seconds), Shadow Refuge, and the venom share build (ever see a boss frozen with basilisk venom for 6 seconds straight? Bypasses defiant stacks too)

Necros aren’t useless, but they feel extremely mediocre at everything they do. Damage, utility, survivability are all just… meh. Its just as bad in PvP as well. I constantly feel like I’m being carried.

PvP is all about what do you bring to your team. A necromancer just thrown into a pug game is going to do very poorly, unless you are playing a 1v1 build and just sitting on near point (we have 2-3 1v1 builds that are very strong in the boon-heavy meta). The problem is that any necro not totally geared towards 1v1 needs team fights, and needs team help; comparing it to a moba, you are the carry, you need support to be able to drop huge epidemics and blow people up with corrupt boon/fear chains.

We have the potential to do great things in PvP, but it really requires high skill to do so, and it requires a team that is going to help you achieve that. But realistically we are in a good place in PvP, we just need that out of combat mobility to be just about set.

PvE is another issue. Fractals is the main challenging area of the game right now (people tend to just drop any other dungeon path if it is too annoying), and I don’t think many people appreciate what a necro can bring. We have very high healing, we have very strong damage reduction via AoE weakness/chill, its just that people don’t see that, whereas you will see the stack of buffs a warrior/guardian/ele gives you.

Another thing, necros have bad combo fields and finishers. Few blast finishers (um…bone minions lol?), and bad uptime on the majority of their fields. They don’t have to be ele-level, but rangers have 50% uptime on water, guardians nearly 100% uptime on light, eles 70%+ uptime on fire (or some other field), etc.

If Axe 2 was a Whirl finisher and Axe 3 + Dagger 3 were blast finishers, and maybe even make Scepter 2 a dark field, now they are starting to look a little intimidating and more useful in groups.

Bhawb.7408:

PvP is all about what do you bring to your team. A necromancer just thrown into a pug game is going to do very poorly, unless you are playing a 1v1 build and just sitting on near point (we have 2-3 1v1 builds that are very strong in the boon-heavy meta). The problem is that any necro not totally geared towards 1v1 needs team fights, and needs team help; comparing it to a moba, you are the carry, you need support to be able to drop huge epidemics and blow people up with corrupt boon/fear chains.

You mind sharing those 1v1 builds? I don’t have an sPvP team and I’ve trying to work on the champion phantom title. Its been extremely frustrating to say the least.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;0_-34;0kHFC0A4JJkJ0;9;5T99J;11591;02;038-C-F4C;1hoHAhoHA2VA
It’s not exactly a 1v1 build, but it can win every 1v1 except against bm rangers.

Blackmoa.3186:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;0_-34;0kHFC0A4JJkJ0;9;5T99J;11591;02;038-C-F4C;1hoHAhoHA2VA
It’s not exactly a 1v1 build, but it can win every 1v1 except against bm rangers.

Hmm, this is one of the builds I’ve been running actually, only I’ve been using runes of the necromancer instead of nightmare. The 20% fear duration from necromancer gives a higher chance of a second tick, right?

No, nightmare actually gives 20% condition duration, not 10 and fear is a condition.

Blackmoa.3186:

No, nightmare actually gives 20% condition duration, not 10 and fear is a condition.

Is nightmare bugged then or is it just a tooltip error?

In PvP nightmare is bugged giving 20% (16% on 4th rune), in PvE it plain doesnt work (with Lich), not sure if they patched it trough.

Not patched yet.
On a side note, lifestealing+wells with the appropriate gear makes necro both tanky and quite DPS heavy. Sure it’s not a warrior, but I’ve been rolling that for quite a while and it feels really versatile and efficient

Vennyhedgie.5369:

Not patched yet.
On a side note, lifestealing+wells with the appropriate gear makes necro both tanky and quite DPS heavy. Sure it’s not a warrior, but I’ve been rolling that for quite a while and it feels really versatile and efficient

I’m interested. Got a build/gear setup?

Kravick.4906:

Vennyhedgie.5369:

Not patched yet.
On a side note, life-stealing+wells with the appropriate gear makes necro both tanky and quite DPS heavy. Sure it’s not a warrior, but I’ve been rolling that for quite a while and it feels really versatile and efficient

I’m interested. Got a build/gear setup?

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.2|8.1g.h15.g.1g.h1|7.1g.h8.d.1g.hz|1n.7a.1n.7a.1n.7a.1n.7a.1n.7a.1n.7k|1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.1g.67.2s.0|0.u28c.a4.u258.0|54.7|3t.4d.4b.4c.4g|e
Here you go!
Basically the idea is to lifesteal out of every hit and crit possible, while maximizing your defense with toughness (I know many say vitality is better for necro’s DS, but I honestly don’t like it that much as a mechanic so I built for toughness). Since you don’t need much more extra vitality cuz necros already have a ton, having a lot of defense and tons of micro healings seemed more effective to me.
Wells are used both for offensive purposes such as suffering and corruption (I usually use this one for the damage output, not for the corruption itself) and for defensive with darkness. I usually use well of power for helping out the party on dungeons, and corruption for messing up with guardians on pvp. You will have to change your wells depending on where you’re playing.
When on PvE I might use the racial skill Battle roar from charrs (2 might, 6 secs of fury) over well of darkness if I don’t really care getting hit by weak mobs.
Armor will provide you the toughness you need to be tanky, while zerker trinkets (exotic or ascended if you can) and weapons will boost up your damage quite a bit. Mesmer runes will also increase your damage, tho the 33% daze duration from the 6th rune was useless for me so I put on some extra precision.
Traits are pretty much self explanatory. Protection on well summon is a really good add. And increased warhorn CD means more locust swarm ticks, means more life-steal. Also one of the best interrupts in the game IMO.
Flesh golem seems the best elite option. Decent HP even while not traited, decent CD, decent damage and decent IA. Also the charge skill can be really OP against champions if they’re close to a wall. Removes all their defiant stacks. Thrice. Also a good mass interrupt too.

So far this is the tankiest build I’ve run on any class, it even seems to surpass my guardian, so I’m happy with how it came along.