Guild Wars 2

Heya all, while i’m gearing up my ranger, i decided to pick a second class to solo roam in WvW, and im indecided between Necro and Warrior.
Can someone that have experience about solo roam can help me with some tips to compare the strenght and weakness of the 2 class?
Necro sounds fun, but while warrior can run condi and power builds to roam, i don’t know if a necro can have some builds variety in roaming, if someone can enlight me.
The other question i have about necro is about their mobility, being spotted by a zerg means you always die?
Thank you all in advance!

Yes, necros have build diversity. You have the basic, effective, condition necromancer using plauge and heavy aoe. There is also the cannon necro, which has great direct damage to single targets. Also there is the Wellomancer which has pretty good aoe direct damage. There is also the terrormancer, which has some interesting stuff (very similar to the condition mancer, many consider them the same thing but they are not), and, last but not least, the perplexity mancer, which stacks perplex pretty well because of interrupt through fear.

When seen by a Zerg, escape is possible. Traiting for perma swift in a necro is easy. Also, fear and the staff marks provide great utilities for slowing down enemies, giving you time to escape/ooc. Hope this helped.

Best Wishes,
Oscuro of Kaineng

oscuro.9720:

last but not least, the perplexity mancer, which stacks perplex pretty well because of interrupt through fear.

It should be noted that this build isn’t possible until the April patch, and the rune overhaul might make it no longer workable. Currently, Fear is not an interrupt.

Roaming in a spectral power build is reasonably viable, but not ideal. It has lots of weaknesses in the current “meta” of roaming, and will have a hard time either surviving or dealing damage depending on how you trait.

Conditions on the other hand really only have 1 required stat, and are much better for roaming because they synergize with epidemic, which can allow you to handle more than even numbers.

But don’t punish yourself by solo roaming a necro. It is a team roaming class, and is much better at that. If you want to solo roam, you will get much less frustrated on a thief, mesmer, or warrior.

Warrior has the mobility, build options, and heavier armor with the same HP. It has immunities and some very strong single target condition application. As a solo you would generally not take on more than 2, and warrior does well that that.

Necro on the other hand will often roll over the top of one player (especially in a condition build), but have a harder time with two. The no mobility means you can and will get zerg-steam-rolled, even if you trait for mobility, you are likely to not get away from a bloodthirsty zerg.

But either way, if you want to solo roam necro you need to be familiar with worm and walk, otherwise you will get frustrated really quickly.

Thanks all for the answers, so solo roam can be doable but difficiult you says, ok. How can i trait for permaswiftness?
Thanks all again

helmino.4138:

Thanks all for the answers, so solo roam can be doable but difficiult you says, ok. How can i trait for permaswiftness?
Thanks all again

I think warhorn + spectral walk + 20 points in DM for greater marks gets you 100% swiftness. Warhorn is a niche offhand for a condition build though.

Rennoko.5731:

helmino.4138:

Thanks all for the answers, so solo roam can be doable but difficiult you says, ok. How can i trait for permaswiftness?
Thanks all again

Warhorn is a niche offhand for a condition build though.

With Fear meant to become an Interrupt it might find it’s way into some Perplex builds with DM 30 for Lifegain in DS (with Warhorn 5 Providing more DS uptime.)

But then again I run power so i’ll leave Condi theory to you lot.

Necros make great solo camp cappers in WvWvW. If, instead, you’re looking for fights while roaming, it can be done per the suggestions given above.

Running into a zerg isn’t automatic death if you remain aware of your surroundings and spot them early enough. Just maintain good situational awareness at all times because you don’t have a get-out-of-jail-free-card blink, leap, etc. like other professions. You can use Flesh Wurm for a teleport, but it’s not on-demand like the other classes’ escape mechanisms; you have to pre-place it.

Spectral Attunement (Curses major trait) will increase the duration of the swiftness you receive from Spectral Walk from 30 seconds to 45 seconds. Combine this with Spectral Mastery (Soul Reaping adept trait) to reduce the cool down of Spectral Walk from 60 seconds to 48 seconds. With a little bit of boon duration (~6% or 7% 60%) from either Death Magic, upgrade components, runes, or consumables, Spectral Walk’s 45 30 seconds of swiftness increases to ~48 seconds to match the decreased cool down gained from the Spectral Mastery trait.

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

Spectral Attunement (Curses major trait) will increase the duration of the swiftness you receive from Spectral Walk from 30 seconds to 45 seconds.

Unfortunately not. All it does is increase your period for Recall (and the gain-life-force buff) from 8 seconds to 12 seconds. The Swiftness doesn’t increase at all.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

Spectral Attunement (Curses major trait) will increase the duration of the swiftness you receive from Spectral Walk from 30 seconds to 45 seconds.

Unfortunately not. All it does is increase your period for Recall (and the gain-life-force buff) from 8 seconds to 12 seconds. The Swiftness doesn’t increase at all.

Thanks for the correction. Yes, I forgot it only effects the spectral part of Spectral Walk (obviously, I don’t use this method). In which case, more boon duration (60% increase) would be required to get the duration of the swiftness portion of Spectral Walk to match the cool down of the skill when traiting Spectral Mastery.

It’s doable but would probably require too many sacrifices to achieve perma-swiftness using this method. In which case, you can use Spectral Walk in conjunction with Locust Swarm (warhorn #5) as suggested earlier. Just be careful that the locusts swirling around you don’t come into contact with anything lest you be put into combat slow. Be aware it will sometimes bug out and combat slow you, anyway. Doesn’t happen to everyone, but it’s a known issue.

I solo roam on my Powermancer, and it’s a lot of fun. The only class that is truly an irritant is Thief, and really it’s mainly just when they run D/P. The ones that cheese the weapon set the hardest will be the most difficult. You can bring them down, but it’s the most annoying thing in the game for me.

The rest of the time it’s a lot of fun. I run with Traveler runes to get the 25% movespeed buff (I don’t enjoy swapping weapons/utilities while running around, though I did that for a while), and the key is that if you enter a fight, you win it. If you’re out of range of a chasing zerg you can swap to Spectral Walk quickly to get down a cliff, but if you pay attention to where your zerg is and keep an eye on the horizon, you’ll be fine. I feel like getting a 1200 range blink is peanuts compared to the utility from Plague Signet, Corrupt Boon, Well of Power, Spectral Grasp, etc., so I stopped using it a long time ago.

I would provide more, but I need to get out of dodge. It’s a fun class, but if you want to escape situations more easily, Warrior is a better choice. I just personally think the time saved from escaping is basically nothing, and resetting a fight is the same as losing to me. In it to win it.

Cogbyrn.7283:

I solo roam on my Powermancer, and it’s a lot of fun. The only class that is truly an irritant is Thief, and really it’s mainly just when they run D/P. The ones that cheese the weapon set the hardest will be the most difficult. You can bring them down, but it’s the most annoying thing in the game for me.

The rest of the time it’s a lot of fun. I run with Traveler runes to get the 25% movespeed buff (I don’t enjoy swapping weapons/utilities while running around, though I did that for a while), and the key is that if you enter a fight, you win it. If you’re out of range of a chasing zerg you can swap to Spectral Walk quickly to get down a cliff, but if you pay attention to where your zerg is and keep an eye on the horizon, you’ll be fine. I feel like getting a 1200 range blink is peanuts compared to the utility from Plague Signet, Corrupt Boon, Well of Power, Spectral Grasp, etc., so I stopped using it a long time ago.

I would provide more, but I need to get out of dodge. It’s a fun class, but if you want to escape situations more easily, Warrior is a better choice. I just personally think the time saved from escaping is basically nothing, and resetting a fight is the same as losing to me. In it to win it.

Little question: How much crit chance and toughness do you shoot for when running power? I also run power, but since Im running travelers I feel Im always short on crit chance or toughness even though I can shoot for awkwardly high crit damage.

And what weaponry do you prefer if you are solo roaming? Do you still take a staff?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vQAQRBIhdG1IHN122XjrNs3mQge8e4izEV4Yoe4OrzHC-zUCBYfFRjmgAhoAgsIa0HhO1sIaslhFRjVXDT5iIqOAACwOrz6sODG6QH6QH6QboDdoDdoDtUARsAA-w

A quick draft of something I tend to run.

Power Necro is a good option for solo roaming. Of course, you have to be very aware of surroundings because you won’t stand a chance against some zerg or even group of strictly roaming players. Your power and defense come from Life Force and Shroud and these are just worse and worse the more players focus you.
This is a variation of my Tpvp power build. In my honest opinion and preference, listed weapon set is best you can possibly get and I’ve tested all possibilities.

I can’t speak for all Power builds because they can vary, but mine relies heavily on direct critical damage and Clearcast in Death Shroud. With right rotation, interrupts and LF management I’ve been able to beat every spec up to date (well, excluding well-played PU maybe simply because of constant aegis, prot and stealth and some very good warriors with that god immunity to slows). Some are easier, some are tougher. Matter of timing and skill.
One miss with WoD can be a loss, but if you execute things correctly, you can end the duel in no time. It’s also very sustain when it comes to Life Force.

Keep in mind it provides nothing for teamplay. Can pick a target in a teamfight and kill it in matter of seconds but is weak to high physical pressure (there comes the Wurm).

If you want to roam in more safer way or with a group, just pick Conditionmancer.

Rennoko.5731:

helmino.4138:

Thanks all for the answers, so solo roam can be doable but difficiult you says, ok. How can i trait for permaswiftness?
Thanks all again

I think warhorn + spectral walk + 20 points in DM for greater marks gets you 100% swiftness. Warhorn is a niche offhand for a condition build though.

It’s 10 in the last trait line. It increases spectral duration. Then have warhorse off hand. I use war horn off hand in EVERY necro build because the daze and cripple is so good for 1vX, which I basically do all day in WvW.

Loyo.8526:

Cogbyrn.7283:

I solo roam on my Powermancer, and it’s a lot of fun. The only class that is truly an irritant is Thief, and really it’s mainly just when they run D/P. The ones that cheese the weapon set the hardest will be the most difficult. You can bring them down, but it’s the most annoying thing in the game for me.

The rest of the time it’s a lot of fun. I run with Traveler runes to get the 25% movespeed buff (I don’t enjoy swapping weapons/utilities while running around, though I did that for a while), and the key is that if you enter a fight, you win it. If you’re out of range of a chasing zerg you can swap to Spectral Walk quickly to get down a cliff, but if you pay attention to where your zerg is and keep an eye on the horizon, you’ll be fine. I feel like getting a 1200 range blink is peanuts compared to the utility from Plague Signet, Corrupt Boon, Well of Power, Spectral Grasp, etc., so I stopped using it a long time ago.

I would provide more, but I need to get out of dodge. It’s a fun class, but if you want to escape situations more easily, Warrior is a better choice. I just personally think the time saved from escaping is basically nothing, and resetting a fight is the same as losing to me. In it to win it.

Little question: How much crit chance and toughness do you shoot for when running power? I also run power, but since Im running travelers I feel Im always short on crit chance or toughness even though I can shoot for awkwardly high crit damage.

And what weaponry do you prefer if you are solo roaming? Do you still take a staff?

My crit chance tends to hover around 35% (so 85% in DS) and my total armor is around 2300 or so. I use Cavalier’s for my armor, then Zerker weapon/accessories. I have some Cavalier accessories I can use, but I’ve recently been leaning more towards the zerker for the accessories. I use Dagger+Focus/Staff as my weapon sets. The utility on Staff is tremendously good, and Dagger+Focus is amazing burst/control.

I’m fine with the occasional LB not critting, because by and large, they do crit. I don’t know that the extra few hundred Toughness really helps, but I like it just in case.