Guild Wars 2

I’ve been a Ranger main since headstart and as much as I love the class, I don’t find it very fulfilling anymore. Necromancer is really the only other class I’m interested in learning the ins-and-outs of; So I figured I’d work my way up from the basics.

Obviously after all this time I’ve got a good grasp on general combat mechanics, but I want to know if there any juicy tips for necromancer. Maybe a list of do’s and don’ts. If it helps, I really prefer power based specs, but I want to learn everything, so don’t spare me.

Good example would be burst rotations or absolutely vital traits to use (or not bother with.)

Thanks in advance!

Sevans.4619:

I’ve been a Ranger main since headstart and as much as I love the class, I don’t find it very fulfilling anymore. Necromancer is really the only other class I’m interested in learning the ins-and-outs of; So I figured I’d work my way up from the basics.

Obviously after all this time I’ve got a good grasp on general combat mechanics, but I want to know if there any juicy tips for necromancer. Maybe a list of do’s and don’ts. If it helps, I really prefer power based specs, but I want to learn everything, so don’t spare me.

Good example would be burst rotations or absolutely vital traits to use (or not bother with.)

Thanks in advance!

open world pve, dungeons fractals, pvp or wvw?

First things first: “burst rotations” don’t exist outside of PvE for Necros. Necro burst comes from wells, which players leave.

I think the best help would come from when something can be demonstrated. I plan on streaming this evening (link in my sig), and I’m more than willing to answer questions. Necros have a few things that get rather funky (I find Cloak and Dagger to be more important to actually dodge than Eviscerate, for example, as Eviscerate can be absorbed by Death Shroud), and do require changing how you prioritize things to play well.

@Nexed — Everything. WvW is my favorite game mode, but I want to learn it all.

@Drarnor — What time this evening?

Looking at about 7-7:30 EST this evening for start time.

Traits, what you do take varies with build. What you don’t take always includes Spiteful Marks and Speed of Shadows.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

First things first: “burst rotations” don’t exist outside of PvE for Necros. Necro burst comes from wells, which players leave.

I think the best help would come from when something can be demonstrated. I plan on streaming this evening (link in my sig), and I’m more than willing to answer questions. Necros have a few things that get rather funky (I find Cloak and Dagger to be more important to actually dodge than Eviscerate, for example, as Eviscerate can be absorbed by Death Shroud), and do require changing how you prioritize things to play well.

I specifically remember taking what appeared to be a Zerker Thief from 100 – 0 in a matter of seconds without wells. There’s always some counter some player should have done when setting up a Necro burst, but I always found reality different than the hypothetical, and simple things like Dag #3 → Focus #4 → DS #3 → DS #1 can land for intense amounts of damage fairly regularly, regardless of how easy the forums say it can be avoided. And if you hit DS before Focus #4 lands, it gains the benefit of Death Perception and gets those money crits. And if you get your Chill of Death proc to crit on DS #1 with some potential air/flame crits? Forgetaboutit.

But yes, I’d recommend watching a Necro for sure, and realize it’s probably going to take a lot of practice to get a feel for LF generation and DS usage. A lot of your abilities are fairly slow to cast and your dodges often need to be used more carefully, but once you get the cadence of it all.

And if you trigger Spectral Armor before immediately going into Death Shroud, you’re mostly invulnerable from players for 6 to 9 seconds (whatever you have traited). Ultra good combo to persist.

Also, you may find that you prefer a weapon set that doesn’t follow one of the standard builds. Someone on the forums might even call it bad. At the end of the day you should be open to trying new weapons to see if they feel better, but don’t be afraid to do your own thing. I’ve seen all kinds of weapon compositions for Power builds used in PvP scenarios, and every person who uses them speaks about how much they love them. I was always a fan of Dag+Focus/Axe+Dag myself, but I don’t know anyone else who did that.

I’ve tried Axe/Horn, Dagger/Horn, and Dagger/Dagger thus far.* I haven’t a clue what I prefer yet. I was going to try out Dagger/Focus later today to see how much the extra damage from Spinal Shivers helped.

I’ve been running a spectral/shroud build a lot and I find it to be fun and (mostly) effective. What are some other builds I should check out?

• = I’ve always run staff on swap because of the utility and the fact that I love ground targeted abilities.

For Power, well builds are pretty popular for both PvE and WvW. They can be good in PvP if you have allies that know to contain your opponents rather than forcing them out of your wells, but that can be difficult to accomplish. Entangle + wells is a brutal cross-profession combo and is capable of screwing up an entire team.

If you are interested in some montages/guides/SoloQ’s with different necro specs (Power and condi) check out my YouTube channel in my signature

Edit: ALSO, if anybody is interested in a double necro killing spree at far point, click below!

Should probably mention that the “7-7:30” stream is when I will be starting, not the total length of the stream.

I’ll keep an eye out!

Anything else? There’s gotta be some nice little necro tricks.

One of the most build defining traits for the power necromancer is death perception. If you can just get your crit chance to around 30-50%, that is all you need. You can then invest in gear with more survivability.

If you haven’t yet, go to the options menu, and under game play options, look for the setting that changes how ground targeting works. Change that setting and experiment with the staff, otherwise that weapon can be a pain to use.

A few patches ago, necromancers got the ability to rez allies in death shroud.

When stomping an enemy player, you can activate plague form elite skill to gain stability and secure a stop, though I wouldn’t recommend doing it unless there are other foes in the area.

Outside of the auto attack, your main hand dagger should never be your main weapon. It is used for gaining life force quick in melee or using the other skills from afar when your foe is attacking someone else, same goes for the focus’ spinal shivers.

I’m not sure what the other applications for condition necro are outside being a noob killer.

With the trait banshee’s wail and 2 points in death magic, you can get perma swiftness with the war horn.

Pro tip: Vital Persistence is always good in PvP, regardless of your build.

In PvE it depends on your build. For both power builds (D/H, DS) it is pretty much 1111111111 and do not stand in aoe

tip: fear people into Swall for more fear!
tip: Learn teleport places for wurm!
tip: Stability is converted to fear with boon corruption!
tip: Learn to Lich stomp! Yes LICH stomp! Spam F at the very last split second of the lich cast!
tip: Keep people in your wells! Never just drop em. Dagger #3 and Doom/fears all work very nicely!
tip: On khylo attacking the buildings gives LF! Use dagger AA on pretty much anything for free LF!
tip: place mark 4 on mark 3 for chill, poison, damage, weakness and condi transfer!
tip: Only use Putrid mark (staff 4) if you have condi’s on you!
tip: Spectral armor + DS = the closest thing to necro invuln
tip: When in plague almost always spam the blind!
tip: When you are low and NEED to heal, fear the target first so he can’t interrupt!
tip: Be awesome!
tip: Try stuff out and learn skills from other classes to know how to counter!

Coffietire.2783:

Outside of the auto attack, your main hand dagger should never be your main weapon. It is used for gaining life force quick in melee or using the other skills from afar when your foe is attacking someone else.

False. It’s used for damage in melee (and life force, sure), extra healing when necessary, and immobilizing for, well, anything you want them immobilized for (usually burst).

Knowing when to use each skill on mainhand dagger is very important to being a good power Necro.

Condition necros are great for a lot more than just “noob killer.” Primarily, they’re the Celementalist and Cengineer achille’s heel. Corrupt Boon wrecks them and the pressure in general s very good.

• Start thinking about conditions (your own and your opponent’s) as tools — you can manipulate them in a different way than other classes.

• You can soak a lot of damage but disengaging can be challenging — I like to pick my fights and I like to be prepared.

• Learn to use Death Shroud — obviously

• Learn to fight under water — not many opportunities perhaps, but rewarding =)

Necro is way different from ranger, thats what I love about it. They have both alternately been my mains and I’m back to necro again since a month ago or so.

In wvw blob necro is pretty decent, you can pew pew and lay marks, not too different from ranger. In spvp (or roaming wvw I suppose), necro is different than ranger in that:

• you cant rely on multiple weapon evades, instead learn to use active cc and shroud to mitigate damage, control your area as much as possible

• you need to get close (~600) to do your best damage, but then you will become an active target so keep an eye on those that target you to cc them off

• there is no escape, you need to play to win

• lifeforce aka Shroud is your gas, dont let it hit empty and refill asap

• pets even more useless on necro, dont count on them for anything

• Fighting different classes require a more individual approach than on ranger

• Throttle your condition returns and buff stripping etc. ie Dont spam these, wait for the right time to do most damage

My first main was a sylvari necro. Sadly over months I realised how much the class was missing in terms of active defense amongst other things. But I really like the concept so I play it every now and then :P I will give some tips on specific utilities that power builds utilise and how to counter some classes.

Consume conditions: Despite being the only viable heal, it has a massive telegraph. As we lack stability try to use this while out of line of sight as any decent player will attempt to interrupt you. You can also combo this with other CC like flesh golem knockdown, any fear or even well of darkness.

Flesh Wurm: Low cooldown 1200 range teleport with a stunbreak! Decent damage and survivabilty but its best to place it somewhere out of combat as you can be really kittened if it dies. I prefer this over spectral stunbreakers sometimes as it gives me time to recover. With spectral armor for example, chances are ill get stunned again rhe next second.

Plague signet: Not that popular amongst power builds but can be often used in pvp and some niche pve situations for the passive (like burning boss). Better to use this if traited for signets. Active will work as long as you have a target that is within the range. You dont have to be facing him but blind wont transfer so you will miss!

Spectral armor: As others have said its one of the core skills of most builds. Try not to waste it when your LF is full.

Spectral walk: One of the few trolling tools available to a necro. Use it in wvw or pvp and then jump off of a caste, bridge, hill if you cant carry on fighting for whatever reason. Then port back and they cant get to you. Also used to close gaps with rangers that chase you. As far as i know, you can cast it twice immediately before hitting the ground to avoid falling damage, especially useful in exploration and wvw. Even saved my behind a couple times in skyhammer as i ported back to surface before sleeping with the wurms. Did i mention it gives beast swiftness? I love this skill.

Spectral Grasp: nice force and interrupt. Can be comboed with dagger 3 or troll people in skyhammer. Gets out of ranged and obstructed quite easily so beware.

Spectral Wall: rarely used with power builds but its preference, can be useful in pvp whwn holding a point and combo fielding with a mate.

Wells: very useful in putting pressure on points. Darkness is especially usefull against any melee and can be used to safe stomp.

They fixed Plague Signet to transfer Blind. Only Deathly Swarm misses due to Blind for our transfers.

How to counter:

Warrior:
Hambow can crush you if you are not cautious. But usually easy kill if played right. Stay in their face when they are on bow and start fight with staff. I intentionally get hit by pindown so i can transfer bleed and immob to him (be aware of their stances, this wont work if they have berserkers stance up). Try to sodge arcing alice, warrior holds bow up and fires a flaming arrow, this does a lot of damage. When they are on hammer, use your CC, dagger 3, well of darkness and life blasting from 600 range hurts them along with chill and cripple. Only waste stunbreak if you couldnt dodge earthsaker. They have amazing sustain and chances are will stun you 10s later so manage them properly.

Axebow can be as dangerous. Save your death shroud 3 fear for when you get shield bashed (charged stun) as it will be followed by an eviscerate to hityou over 8k. Even if you dodge shield bash, they will evis right after and hit you if tou are in range so kite them when they have axe. Movement condis can do wonders. Needles to say, dont burst with Life blast or lich when they have endure pain or reflecting shield stance. You will end up killing yourself.

Sword Sword Bow Hybrid: its just an easy fight the way it is. Use you condi transfers as they usually lack cleansing. I dont know much about sword telegraphs but i usually end up cleansing or transferring condis.
When stomping a warrior, do it so that you minion is between you and the warrior, this will cause him interrupting you undead buddy.

Thief:
Fighting any thief is like walking on thin ice, and you are both on it. They can melt down easily, or you will be constantly CCd. Now a Sword/Dagger thief will try to be very unpredictable, they will lone of sight you with sword 2 and evade everythimg you throw. I usually prefer defensively at first and immob them after they use their heal. Save staff 5 for when they pop up shadow refuge. If they do manage to stealth and you know they are around, use DS 5 and 4 as they work through stealth as well. Another useful tip is that DS 4 ignores Line of sight, i would hit enemies inside stonemist castle behind the gate. If you anticipate that the thief is downed and stealthed spam dagger AA around and watch you life force bar. Thieves steal AoE fear from you which looks like them holding somethinf up in the air. Its vital to dodge that although a good thief will make sure it hits by casting it in stealth or something

D/P now you cant do a lot to counter these guys. You have to manage you cooldowna carefully. Save DS 3 for when they drop black powder to leap inside from. This can hurt them a lot as they wont gain initiative/Health/might/condi cleanse from stealth. Save DS 4 for when you anticipate a backstab so you deal some damage to them in stealth. Casting marks on you while they are stealthed can be OK but be aware that a good theif will dodge past them so spend cheap ones like staff 2. Last tip: try not to heal while in line of sight as they have an instant daze with pistol 4 at almost all times.

Elementalist:
D/D Cele a good one will usually outsustain me on my power spec. Useful to carry a focus for boon removal, chill hurts them a lot as they will swap attunements slower. Play defensively while they are on fire. Put down well of darkness if you are out of dodges. Transfer the burn with staff 4. On earth try to dodge the knockdown (ele jumps in the air to stomp). A smart ele will use earth 2 tp block projectiles if you are spamming life blast. In air they are sort of predictable. Ride the loghtning doesnt doo much damage but you should dodge what comes after, updraft (launch). Dont hit them a lot when they are covered with lightning aura. In water you want to be most agressive and use condis once they leave water. Overall its a good idea to kite if you can as thry are melee. But on most cases they will close the gap.
Guardian:
I dont have much experience with guard other than meditation. Much like warriors they are very predictable with their rotations. A bad one will precast focus 5 , teleport to you while casting to burst you down with 10k damage. Now normally you see this coming and its easy to dodge but if for whatever reason you get hit, know that they spent a stunbreak, block and highest dps skill. If you get scepter immob, break it immediately with staff 4, beware of aegis. If they have sword, dont life blast when thry are casting 3rd skill. If they have focus 5 up wear it down with dagger AA axe 2 or DS 4. When they are on GS they are so predictable. Walk out of wirling wrath and dodge binding blade (also spinning skill). I know they have invulns and everything which gives them some advantage. If they set up their burst right, they wont have a problem killing you, but if you manage to kite, then its gonna end up being a long fight. If you are using warhorn save 4 for their heal as you can interrupt them to prematurely end a fight also works with warr axebows. Dont underestimate them as they will counter you fear and possibly outsustain you.
Thats it for now, ill write more when i have time. Good luck

I glanced over a few of your posts and wow, I wish Ranger had this kind of support in these forums!

Keep all the info coming – and please point me to any WvW builds and hints – all appreciated!

A few things I have learned over time that may help.
1) Always keep a warhorn around (I normally have one equipped but inventory works too). Wail of doom is a nice little stun even though its easy to dodge but warhorn shines in the #5 ability Locust Swarm. This ability removes aegis, kills blindness, gives you run speed, cripples whatever you are fighting, and is great against any of the “block next x attacks” skills you will often find in PvE. It is also great if you are leaching hp.

2) Not so cleaver use of Locust Swarm and Spectral walk can gran a necro significant uptime on swiftness (try not to hit anything with locust swarm if you are wanting to just run by).

3) Staff is not a dps weapon… its not… don’t use it like one. I always have one on me as Chilblains (staff #3) and well of suffering is normally a good way to start the day. That said, every attack on the staff has a good time to use it and a bad time so don’t just spam all of them.

4) When using the chilblains well of suffering combo stated above hold off on the well. Often when people trigger a mark they will dodge so you may be able to better aim the well right after that dodge.

5) Axe is great if you like to fractal. It sucks really bad in most PvE but it has the right range on Trin to stay out of her attacks and inside her spaz-out-and-teleport range. If you would like better views of this range watch a few solo videos (other classes) and you will get a feel for it.

6) Well of power, plague, and lich… all three of these grant stability… you will need to remember that well.

7) Use DS when falling a distance, if you get to the bottom and something is hitting you it is always nice to have a full hp bar.

8) In many WB fights well of power is better than well of corruption. If you use it to counter fear effects you may want to stand in it for a few seconds as many bosses (looking at teq and jarjar) will fear multiple times in a row.

I know I am forgetting some but this should get you started.

Power Necro Guide and stuff, one name: Hollts!

Take a staff and soul marks trait in just about any build you decide to come up with and you should be ok.

Looks like my thread got necro’d (nyuknyuk.)

Since it’s here I may as well report that my endeavor into necromancy has gone very well. It’s not an easy class to learn (in fact, I don’t think any other class needs to be aware of so many things at the same time,) but it’s been smooth. My only hiccups are dealing with proper kiting in the WvW/PvP settings and proper LF management; I tend to either forget I have it or blow it all at once.

Longbow rangers are kittens… And that’s coming from a three year LB ranger main.

Thanks for all the tips!