The real reason GW1 Necro wins...
Visually, GW2 necro beats GW1. Granted, much of this is due to the greatly increased graphics engine of the game, but you just feel much more like a necromancer when you actually see the life energy flying from your victims into you.
To me it’s not what the class itself but the interactions between classes that made GW1 a better game. They tried to to take that concept and strip it down into a spam fest of field and finisher. Maybe it was the dual profession, maybe it wasn’t.
In GW1 we had abilities that played off of one another that the current combo system couldn’t dream of. Splinter ranger? Echo SS? 55/SS? Amazing examples of interdependent skills creating something fun, noticeable, and game changing. Blasting fire fields is not fun. The beauty of GW1 is that each class had a role beyond DPS, Heal, and Tank, but did so in a way that personalized the classes to an unimaginable degree.
Whatever profession I brought, I had a very individual and specific duty, and most importantly, I could see my output. I could measures effectiveness. I knew why I was there and what my group expected of me that couldn’t be provided by any other profession.
What we have now is a failed attempt at encouraging diversity through allowing any build to be trivial. No. Create content that makes me want to depend on others because they bring something different to the table.
That is how you encourage build diversity. Sorry if I went off topic.
I loved the GW1 necro for three main things. The Hex system, our support, and the ability to play with HP as a secondary, unique, resource.
However, the GW2 MM is vastly superior to the GW1 one. Not necessarily in how useful they are to your normal group, or how powerful they are, but the corpse limitation in GW1 made the spec innately niche. I hated that I could never run minions in a large amount of content simply because I needed to be able to kill things very often to make it work.
Lets not over remember the GW1 necro.
For most of the lifespan, it could do 2 things: MM or SS. SS was a curses necro that was only good because dumb AI didn’t punish it the way it responded to regular AoE damage.
It was a gimmick.
MM was another Gimmick that flat out didn’t work in hard content and pvp where there were few deaths and/or no corpses.
There was also orders build, but that doesn’t punt as you didn’t kill anything so far away from the action and as a result got no loot.
Another gimmick.
Towards the end of the lifespan you saw, especially with heroes, Necromancer’s taking on the roles of other classes using soul reaping as an energy engine. Fine. Useful. Not very necro-y.
GW1 necro locked you into gimmicks.
GW2 necro is almost a solid all arounder, but GW2 developers have to figure out that Death Shroud is not a second HP pool, but instead a limited pool damage mitigation system that locks you out of your skills and that leaves you with the same HP you were at when it runs out.
#24 leaderboard rank North America.
Visually, GW2 necro beats GW1. Granted, much of this is due to the greatly increased graphics engine of the game, but you just feel much more like a necromancer when you actually see the life energy flying from your victims into you.
I’d argue that the models for the minions in GW1 were vastly better to GW2 minions. (Note I said models, not textures).
However, the GW2 MM is vastly superior to the GW1 one. Not necessarily in how useful they are to your normal group, or how powerful they are, but the corpse limitation in GW1 made the spec innately niche. I hated that I could never run minions in a large amount of content simply because I needed to be able to kill things very often to make it work.
I miss how you could snowball the minions though and have a large army. I think they were trying to mimic this with the Reanimator fix with 15s cd.
“Be like water” – Bruce Lee
(edited by Lonewolf Kai.3682)
Bring back hexes!
[rT] – Necro guide for Dungeons
GW1 necro locked you into gimmicks.
I’d like to agree to part of this. Keep the nostalgia glasses off when we look at GW1.
I miss how you could snowball the minions though and have a large army. I think they were trying to mimic this with the Reanimator fix with 15s cd.
I miss the ability to do that, but I don’t miss what happened in games where it didn’t happen. Unfortunately, GW1 MMs were way too hit-or-miss in many parts of the game. I remember dozens of ABs or FAs where my squad did really badly in our first engagement, and from that point on I basically was useless for the rest of the game, because I could never get a decent snowball going (you almost always snowballed by getting minions off the first AI camp and rolling through either one more, or the first enemy squad, otherwise it got hard fast).
GW1 necro locked you into gimmicks.
I’d like to agree to part of this. Keep the nostalgia glasses off when we look at GW1.
I miss how you could snowball the minions though and have a large army. I think they were trying to mimic this with the Reanimator fix with 15s cd.
I miss the ability to do that, but I don’t miss what happened in games where it didn’t happen. Unfortunately, GW1 MMs were way too hit-or-miss in many parts of the game. I remember dozens of ABs or FAs where my squad did really badly in our first engagement, and from that point on I basically was useless for the rest of the game, because I could never get a decent snowball going (you almost always snowballed by getting minions off the first AI camp and rolling through either one more, or the first enemy squad, otherwise it got hard fast).
Yeah, I don’t miss that either. It sucked when you ended up with a pebble of a snowball instead of boulder.
Just to reiterate and clarify what I miss the most was the Flesh Golem model, and how it got bigger with higher skill level.
“Be like water” – Bruce Lee
You guys clearly did not use some of the extremely good skills in Gw1 then if you can only think of 3 builds, i had my own builds for Hard Mode and Vanquishing and i can tell you that there was a kittenload of good skills to actually use and not only MM, SS and Orders.
I remember a build I’ve made on GW1.
I called it “Boomer”, because your foe become a real bomb. If he died, the explosion inflicted a great AoE, with Icy Veins, Putrid Bile & Rising Bile.
I think it’s stupid to not have inspiration from the precedent Guild Wars.
It could be fine if they create something like that in GW2, somes “types” of skill, like each classes.
But now, I think it’ll have many news skills only with a new extansion, and I hope with a new continent (Cantha or Elona, I don’t really care).
It’s difficult to compare because most everything in GW1 relied on managing energy. In that regard, Necromancer was one of the most useful (primary) classes, so long as enemies and corpses were dropping.
If I had to choose a “winner” I strongly favor the GW2 necro, as it is a much more effective MM, AoE and survivable class. There’s also no energy to manage (the cost and cast time of necro skills generally countered its replenishing energy). Hexes were powerful but situational, and mesmer was arguably stronger there. In PvE, heroes ended up replacing them, really.
But if you ask me, at least from around 2007 onward, necros have continued to need improvements.
Lets not over remember the GW1 necro.
For most of the lifespan, it could do 2 things: MM or SS. SS was a curses necro that was only good because dumb AI didn’t punish it the way it responded to regular AoE damage.
It was a gimmick.
There was more to the game than PvE.