Guild Wars 2

Necromancer by its very nature the strongest class in large-scale WvW fights, even if it does have issues in other areas of the game.

When I first set foot in WvW 3 years ago, I was faced with whether to choose Lich Form or Plague. I ALWAYS CHOSE PLAGUE. Let me explain why:

Lich Form
At a glance, Lich Form seems like the statistically better option.

Pros:

1. 5 skill rips 9—that’s right—9 boons from 5 enemies, and cures 12—that’s right—12 conditions from 5 allies INSTANTLY
2. 1 skill has high damage coefficient and pierces, and can cast behind yourself while running away.
3. You get double Precision.

Cons:

1. 5 skill is SLOW MOVING PROJECTILE, making it very easy to miss, get blocked, or even reflected. (this mechanic seems totally pointless considering the other skills are marks, juss sayin) :p
2. 5 counts enemies that are blocking, invulnerable, or evading (meaning you usually only hit 2-3 people)
3. 2, #3, #4 skills are all worthless
4. 1 skill is a SLOW MOVING PROJECTILE, meaning is can be reflected, block, or just kited.
5. 1 skill has a 1.1sec CAST TIME, not 3/4th second.
6. 1 skill rarely hits more than one person, if any (same problem as piercing life blast, or piercing projectiles in general)
7. Lich ONLY LASTS 15 SECONDS
8. Only gives 1 stack of stabby per 3 seconds
9. It makes you a giant glowing green guy that screams to the enemy, “GANK ME, I’M A NECRO THAT HAS ISSUES WITH MOBILITY AND I’M SUPER SQUISHY RIGHT NOW!”

Plague Form
At a glance, Plague seems kinda under-powered and lame.

Pros:

1. Perma poison on 5 targets in Well-sized radius, cuts healing by 1/3rd, and prevents downs from getting banner.
2. Perma blinding on 5 targets Well-sized radius, rendering 5 people in enemy melee train worthless.
3. OR perma cripple keeping enemies in your bomb longer.
4. GIVES 3 STACKS OF STABBY PER 3 SECONDS!
5. Lasts 20 seconds
6. QUADRUPLES—that’s right—quadruples your toughness, and triples your Vitality
7. Pulses effects in an area instead of a projectile, even when stunned or disabled

Cons:

1. No direct party support (but a good offense is a good defense)
2. No Gank Value
3. Requires keeping enemies in range

Conclusion
Lich Form is only really good for one reason: skill #5. And that blows your elite slot on a skill that IS NOT GARUNTEED TO HIT ANYTHING, and has an effective 180 second CD.

Plague is good for many reasons. Frontline sustain through blind. Pressure on enemy frontline and downs through poison. Keeping your squishy necro butt from getting ganks or railed on by the melee train. Getting through hot chokes (eles and mesmer can just teleport through, necros can’t). Serving as a GTFO skill.

TL;DR
Lich works when under no pressure, and probably already going to win the fight anyway. Plague works under heavy pressure, and is a catalyst to turn around a fight (just watch a plague-form necro yolo on enemy train or restack. it can ruin their next push).

THE TIME SPENT IN LICH COULD BE BETTER SPENT SPAMMING MARKS AND LIFE BLAST

When disagreeing, please do it courteously.

CrazyRabidSquirrel.9274:

Cons:

1. No direct party support (but a good offense is a good defense)
   • No Gank Value*
2. Requires keeping enemies in range

Plague stomping is a thing, and it can be used to reliably resurrect your downed allies, often times that first death snowballs your side to victory.

I think the functionality (and casting time most of all) are the biggest downsides to lich. When you trait it now, it’s not too bad for duration and as always the auto hits reasonably hard. But it just doesn’t seem to offer enough to warrant wasting that elite slot. Not for me anyway. Nevermind the giant glowing green target on my head when I use it. Pretty much everyone knows by now to pop reflects or teleport away when a lich shows up (or in zergs to mow it down mercilessly), so it’s one useful function becomes…you guessed it…useless. If #2-5 skills were insta-cast and had massively lower cooldowns so they could be used more than once without traiting lich, I would consider it because on paper they are pretty powerful skills.

Plague all the way!
Safe stomp/ress, aoe blind/weakness for team support.

IMO, there’s no contest: Plague is much stronger in Zerg situations. The durability you gain and AoE conditions are both really strong, but the pulsing stability is also invaluable for surviving tricky situations. Yeah, Lich Form hits really hard, but WvW is more about sustain than burst. It’s more important to survive than to kill because of the wide range of effectiveness between any given combatant.

For roaming, I still generally prefer Flesh Golem over Lich Form. Lich Form hits really hard, but it also makes you extremely vulnerable. Flesh Golem, meanwhile, also hits pretty hard and leaves you free to use all your own skills, plus it has a neat knockdown effect and can even make life more difficult for opponents who tab target by its mere presence.

Plague is clutch in multiple situations (stomp, revive, hot chokes, blind support, surviving burst), where as Lich gets you trained & focused. The choice is clear.