Guild Wars 2

I will admit I am not fully educated on this topic. My first character is a Necromancer and only level 55, but after putting stock into the first pet, I got tired of watching it die so quickly.

TBH the only pet I might work with is the golem from elite skills, otherwise I find myself absolutely loving the wells.

I purposely get 4 or 5 enemies around me before using Well of Corruption and Well of Suffering, I also have healing well when I need..and also if necessary, Well of Power. I have found that I can take down huge mobs at a time with this tactic.

I was just wondering if other players use the Necro in this way. So far most Necros I encounter in-game are surrounded by all the varied minions. More curious to see what is more effective, or may it is more effective to go the Signet route?

I think the general consensus (at least on these forums) is that minion builds are weaker than non-minion builds. The Flesh Golem is the best by far and is a good choice to have as your elite. While I’ve never really liked Wells (cooldowns are too long) they are pretty powerful if you can get enemies grouped up on them. Well builds work pretty well with a melee power build with a mainhand Dagger.

As for Signets, the only one that is really any good is Plague Signet, and that’s really more useful in PvP or dungeons than general PvE. Signet of Spite looks good at first glance, but the active is not worth the 90s cooldown and the passive is lackluster. The other two are not too great either, though Undeath has some situational use.

You could always try the popular condition heavy build. It’s great in PvE, all you really need is a Scepter and Epidemic to do it. Anything else that adds bleeds or other conditions are good in this build too. It gives the Necro devastating AoE especially when paired with a Confusion stacking Mesmer.

Oh the scepter skills are wonderful. When I’m in large groups or dungeons I use the scepter, whole occasionally running up to the boss, welling, then running back. The bleeding, poison and other condition skills are priceless.

But in most PVE situations while exploring, I use the dagger skills (so I can drain) while doing massive condition damage with the wells.

As for Plague Signet (the only once I’ve invested in so far besides locust), the cool down is way too slow to make it effective in combat. I do wish Necro’s had more abilities to increase speed. My Necro charr is horribly slow.

When doing PvE I typically keep Spectral Walk on the skill bar just so I can have swiftness for a good amount of the time. I don’t feel like I really need a 3rd utility for most combat situations anyway.

As for plague Signet, as I said, it’s more useful in PvP but I like to have it if facing enemies that have Fears, Immobolizes, or Stuns. I think being able to recover from one of those quickly is too good to pass up. There aren’t too many enemies who really hit hard with conditions in PvE, so you could probably pick up something else and be fine.

Oh, I just got Spectral Walk, didn’t see the speed boost. Now I can run around better.

I generally have 2 condition builds for PvE:

1). Stack a lot of conditions on one mob and epidemic or
2). Use AoE’s (namely wells and marks)

Once I’ve finished all the renown hearts and skill points, I switch to warhorn and spectral walk and perma-swift the rest.

So if you have a warhorn equipped with spectral walk, you’re always running fast?

So if you have a warhorn equipped with spectral walk, you’re always running fast?

Gotta go fast!

Go Wells then if you don’t like pets.

You’d be surprised how the Flesh Golem will turn into your best friend after you give it the +50% hp trait, or the +30% damage. Even without them, I still use Flesh Golem as my elite simply because it stays with you for high lengths of time. Use Well of Blood to heal yourself and itself, and you’ll do very well.