Guild Wars 2

It seems like almost every class got a huge buff while necro got multiple nerfs this season. We were already reduced in season 3 and now that season 4 has started I just can’t keep up. I’m getting slaughtered in fights I used to win with ease.

Is there a new meta build for necros this season or are we just completely out of the meta now?

New meta is have a pocket engi and do most your dmg from a downstate.

Open your eyes a bit and try not to be biased, many other classes got nerfs this season. Engineers and Elementalists are in similar scenarios to us currently from the sustain reductions they got. It is much more difficult for a Necro to survive in this season without a pocket Engi or other support, which in a solo queue setting you can mostly forget about. Currently the meta build for Necro is Signets with Carrion and Rune of Krait, although it’s a build which was made with the concept of always being a +1 or always having a Sidecar Engi to hyper-ress you.

Basically, if you’re not great at mechanics like kiting, positioning, and team awareness, then you’re not going to have a great season.

i love running non-meta at season kick-off to see how variations work out. Been dabbling an idea with MM but Death Nova failing to proc on Putrid Explosion is kind of screwing me right now. Death/SR/Reaper with Sc/W & GS unless the team comp is condi heavy then i usually run Sc/W & Staff. Viper amulet with Rise/Bone’s and flesh (heal is dependent on condi heavy (CC)/or not condi heavy(YSIM)). if playing theif/guard/rev/engi/druid teams i tend to do quite well with GS and reduced shroud CD to proc protection (roughly 60% upkeep available) + rise. Added poison fields help in RS#4 and GS#2 or dark fields for added heals.

Negatives – reduced mobility + bad condi clears vs burst condi players. lower HP then meta. no significant source of boon removal.

Pros – High sustain vs direct dmg classes. Lots of minions for projectile hate, very high burst potential with death nova + rise.

Meta builds from the pro tourney necro players are:

-Carrion Amulet
-Rune of Scavenging
-Scepter/Wh + Staff
-Either Signet or Corruptionmancer build
Signet build uses Spite/SoulReaping/Reaper or Spite/BloodMagic/Reaper
Corruptionmancer build uses Curses/SoulReaping/Reaper

A variation of the build used by NoS to counter a team with a thief was:

-Wanderer Amulet
-Rune of Thorns
-Scepter/Wh + Staff
-For this build he took plague, corrosive poison cloud, etc.. to stack poison for rune’s condi stacks. He also took spectral wall. It helped him somewhat against the thief pick but honestly he was still going down a lot.

Note that every single necro during the pro tourney had a pocket engi that followed them for support & rezzing. It was pretty op, but you won’t have this when you soloq so you’ll have to hope you get into the game with competent players that’ll peel, support, and revive you. The good thing about soloq is that the opposing team sometimes aren’t good at focus targeting. But against premades or higher tier players, you’ll most likely go downstate a lot. There’s no build out there that protects you when getting focused by more than 1 competent player.

Pretty much anytime you have any of the following class on you 1v1, you should run:

-Warrior
-Thief
-Druid
-Good Power Revs (Yes we counter revs, but if you haven’t fought Toker, he’s on another level)

While we do counter engi & guards 1v1, they take too long to kill, so you’re very likely to get +1 on. And well, any +1 during a fight will get you killed guaranteed. We also counter eles but you won’t find many of them this season. Stick to team fights and +1 to assist your team mates, when we +1 a fight we can change the tides. But try not to get seen or you’ll get trained. Try to avoid being a yolo 1v1 player because necros aren’t the best at 1v1 in sPvP.

Brawls tend to last forever if there’s no necro around. We are the 1 class that break up fights and make sure fights end one way or the other. For that it’s good to have a necro on the team. But people need to know how to play with a necro, or we’re a huge liability. If you watched the pro tourney last weekend, you saw one round where it was power vs power, no necro on either teams. Those rounds lasted for the duration of the map, they were long, and they were very boring.

I hope Anet doesn’t expect us to have a pocket engi forever because 99% of the playerbase won’t have that in ranked play. We really need some sort of active defense. With that said, people hate us, and we do make a difference in +1 team fights.

gavyne.6847:

A variation of the build used by NoS to counter a team with a thief was:

-Wanderer Amulet
-Rune of Thorns
-Scepter/Wh + Staff
-For this build he took plague, corrosive poison cloud, etc.. to stack poison for rune’s condi stacks. He also took spectral wall. It helped him somewhat against the thief pick but honestly he was still going down a lot.

I wouldnt recommend using that build as it was a niche counter-build to a heavy power comp, and so useless in 99% of soloq matches. Everything else is totally right though.

Oh I agree, with such low hp/lf pool using wanderers, you melt too fast to condi’s which is rampant in soloq still. Definitely don’t use that build unless you’re in organized gameplay and know your opponents.

If you solo queue you are out of any meta. As necro you get focused most of the time. Without support of your team you are a free kill. No mobility, no damage output, no sustain – the only strength is corruption. But a death necro does not corrupt anything.

I use Wanderer’s and I play base necro. I played base necro for 90% of last season and got to Legendary with it. Why? Because I knew how to counter half the professions that were in the meta and this new meta calls for counters or Get Out.

My build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmWDbkjGqpxybwzG4vxBuQF36J4DgXdAsA00oM+CA-TZxHAB/eBA6uMAQ7PQwBBAgnAAA

And if you really want to use Reaper: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNBmWDbkjGqpxybwzG4vxCugFfF7ihRorWAYBEt1mAfAA-TZxHABdXG43LAAAPBACOIAys/AA

Why does this build work? Because Engies spam boons, other necros spam boons, Warriors REALLY spam boons and if a Ranger even thinks of popping Rampage as One, you make them face the wall. It’s the ultimate counter to most, if not all of the professions IF and ONLY IF played with a brain. You can’t just run in and spam (you can, you just have to be smarter about it).

- I use Plague to guarantee stomps and rezzes
- The instant fear in base necro that last for 2s absolutely wrecks anyone without a stun break and does great when fighting thieves because you can time it. Not like the fear from Reaper Shroud that can’t even manage a full second.
- The benefit of Reaper is the movement and the downed cleave. So use Reaper if you think that’s more important. I personally think it’s more important to be able to actually DOWN someone first.

The build is just too good imo. Disclaimer though, if I encounter you playing it and you beat me,…. I will come for you in your dreams ¬_¬….. I’m watching you.

So many people are playing bunker this season (like 3 a team every game), you need to be running some form of a boon corruption spec if you want to contribute to your team in any impactful way… And I don’t mean MM with a scepter.

Personally, I’m finding signet spec to be the most effective as it’s more mobile, gives you a second healing skill, and locus’s move speed lets you consider swapping warhorn for dagger if you don’t think you’ll need the daze. And as an added bonus, you generate a lot of might for yourself to help you reaper down your boon-corrupted-target.

I dunno, it’s only two days in though, we’ll see how it goes!