Guild Wars 2

Hey All!
Did a similar thread in the ele forum and I’m just wondering what it’s like for you to play the game for so long knowing that your main character is the Necromancer class — what your perspective / outlook is on situations, for example what you feel like when you go solo PvEing, solo roaming — or do you depend more on others.
How do you feel maining Necro in comparison to other class mains -
IS it fun? Do you feel useful everywhere? Do you feel outclassed or squishy? Do you feel all-powerful or niche? Does anything seem possible or do you feel like you might need to barely squeeze into something with a lot of effort?
This is kind of a broad open-ended question but I’m just wondering what everyone’s experience is!
Thanks!

Well first, necros are not squishy. At all. You have a high health pool, then you have the bonus of DS (death shroud). Second, if you’re soloing, necro is great. I have solo’d champs with mine. You can spec it for power for PvE play and you’ll hit more than hard enough, and have enough weapons at your disposal to melee or kite as the situation warrants (check out spoj’s necro guide in the stickies for some good info). I can roam all over Orr and never feel underpowered. I can group up for events and get tons of loot thanks to great AoE tagging.

Necros are great for PvP and WvW, and you can spec for heavy conditions, or wells, or terror, or what have you. I use mine a lot in WvW groups (small, not T1 zerg) and I love it and it packs a punch.

I think the only place necro isn’t really needed is in dungeon groups. As many have said, other classes do stuff better than necro, though they’re certainly not totally useless.

I love my necro. She was my first character. I stopped playing her for a while because I had no idea about how important armor and builds were, so I got to a point where I died all the time (I was in Orr in underlevel rares, for goodness sake!). Once I did sort it out and geared her appropriately, she is now the lady I play 90% of the time. Love, love, love my necro.

I like the think of the necro as being the ‘all around profession’. Meaning we can be a pet profession if we choose to be, we can be a power based one or a condition based one off our traits and gear. We have a class mechanic, while some complain about it, saves our skins more times than we can count. We have multiple ways of making people suffer and run in fear from us (seriously those WvW videos of the necro standing on top of the airship area and decimating a whole zerg make me giggle) We are one of the masters of AOE with multiple different ways of getting the job done. We are not by any means squishy, though thats what I’d name my elite minion if I could name him

Yes we have problems, a general lack of stability and our best AOE are on a stupid long cooldown and the whole game seems to think all we can do is condition damage so we get labeled as useless in party play. We don’t have banners or shouts or spirits for group benefit, we are more of a take profession than a give one (though to an extent we can clear other’s conditions if we spec for it). Our AOE heal of Well of Blood really should be a water field, not sure why they made it a light one? The fields we can lay down are mostly useless to other players and when overwriting a fire/water field, you can get snapped at.

It’s more of being a jack of all trades and fears but master of none that hurts the image of the profession. Too many impatient people who only want a few warriors/ele/guard in their quick run parties. There are plenty of casual groups out there who just want to run the dungeons and not at breakneck speed.

Domzz.1260:

what your perspective / outlook is on situations

I’m not exactly sure what this means. Do you mean how do we feel we are (viability wise) in certain spots?

Domzz.1260:

How do you feel maining Necro in comparison to other class mains -

It feels great. Despite the issues in group PvE, I feel like I have the most freedom to actually play how I want and be relatively useful compared to the other specs the profession has. We have a ton of builds that are basically tier 2, just below top tier but all good enough to work at anything below competitive play.

Domzz.1260:

IS it fun?

In group PvE no, I feel the DPS rotation is extremely boring and like I don’t really do much. In anything else I love it.

Domzz.1260:

Do you feel useful everywhere?

In everything except group PvE.

Domzz.1260:

Do you feel outclassed or squishy?

Outclassed? Yes, depending on game mode there are other professions that do our job better. Squishy though, no I never feel squishy, just easy to focus fire. Still, base 29k HP isn’t what I’d consider squishy.

Domzz.1260:

Do you feel all-powerful or niche?

Niche, definitely.

Domzz.1260:

Does anything seem possible or do you feel like you might need to barely squeeze into something with a lot of effort?

Little of both. I feel I have to put in a lot more effort in some situations, especially because I have to work against my own mechanics as much as I have to work against my enemy’s, however in other situations I feel like I can “get by” with far less effort than others. It really depends on the situation.

Domzz.1260:

This is kind of a broad open-ended question but I’m just wondering what everyone’s experience is!
Thanks!

There is a reason I always come back to Necro, and its because it is really fun to play despite the issues.

Between my Necromancer and my Ranger, both of which I rotate between fairly evenly, I’d say I sometimes feel slightly OP but that could also be a result of having to strain myself so hard to be a threat as a Ranger.
Most of what I do is solo roaming in WvW and I rarely have much trouble winning fights as either profession. However, when I’m on my Necromancer, I sometimes win fights so quickly I feel almost like I’m about to get hatemail. I’m not claiming to be exceptionally good by any means, just that I sometimes feel from a WvW roaming perspective the Necromancer is very, very powerful and it’s almost surprising sometimes how easy it is to win most of my encounters.
Since WvW is the vast majority of what I do, I’m only giving my perspective on that area of the game: I consider Necro to be very powerful and I sometimes feel like I outclass people just because of my choice in profession not because of my skill. I’m not by any means saying Necro is OP nor am I saying it’s a brainless profession, I’m just saying that with the proper build it can be a very difficult profession to defeat.

And while we’re on the subject, S/D Thief and PU Mesmer = only thing I consider OP in this game. So if you’re one of those people that thinks everything they can’t beat is OP, we might be at a different level of understanding.

But yeah, basically I feel in WvW if you’re a decently skilled Necromancer you’re a pretty menacing opponent.

Domzz.1260:

Hey All!
Did a similar thread in the ele forum and I’m just wondering what it’s like for you to play the game for so long knowing that your main character is the Necromancer class — what your perspective / outlook is on situations, for example what you feel like when you go solo PvEing, solo roaming — or do you depend more on others.
How do you feel maining Necro in comparison to other class mains -
IS it fun? Do you feel useful everywhere? Do you feel outclassed or squishy? Do you feel all-powerful or niche? Does anything seem possible or do you feel like you might need to barely squeeze into something with a lot of effort?
This is kind of a broad open-ended question but I’m just wondering what everyone’s experience is!
Thanks!

I have a lot of fun playing necromancer, and so far sunk about 1k hours into it. There were times where I felt out classed early on, but as I became used to fighting other classes, the balance of power equaled out. Generally I play about 80% of the time in WvW, and feel I’ve made a very positive difference in many skirmishes. Necros can tank pretty well, and using DS and plague correctly can improve your survivability dramatically.

Necro for me is a much more controlled, and unique experience, as opposed to playing my thief/mesmer/warrior/ranger. I started as necro, and continued to main it because of it’s uniqueness, and selfish versatility. There are, of course, many things other classes can do better. I’m less focused on what other classes can do, and more focused on how I can manipulate the outcome of engagements through corruption and fear, or through might stacks and penetrating LB, or through constant mass blindness and bursting dark fields.

I’ve had many gripes with necro as a profession, which to some extent has been resolved, and in other directions has been intensified. Playing as a minion master used to be a lot of fun for me, but the ai completely destroyed that experience. Lately I’ve stuck to the same 3 builds for WvW, and alternate depending on whether I’m roaming or hitching a ride with a zerg, and what the zerg composition is depends on what kind of power build I run.

Roaming as a condition-mancer is a lot of fun, and can be much easier to accomplish minor tasks such as solo capping camps or unguarded towers, than it would be as a power build. It’s hard to sum up my entire experience as necro in one page, but I’ll say that necro is fun, and interesting enough to keep me playing it despite how much easier it is to play other classes. I’ll say one of the biggest drawbacks, is due to the lack of escapes and likelihood of mass conditions, as a necro I’ve been focus fired down in every situation Ive run into where due to topography, I wasn’t able to position myself properly, or was simply ambushed.

As necro, don’t even try to run away. Just do your best to slow them down in that case, which is the only thing you can do. It’s been a fun experience, and I hope the shortcomings are fixed soon.

Necro isn’t my main but it is the class I find easiest to just solo everything with. When I did map completion of Orr Ele was somewhat challenging, it was easy with Thief and Mes due to teleporting and stealth tricks allowing me to bypass things like champs on SPs and my Necro just didn’t need to bypass things. They definitely don’t feel squishy to me at least not compared to the other classes I play. I can also easily swap out to different still viable builds some of which play more actively and other play very relaxed. I like them PVP though the lack of stability hurts sometimes and I’m not into it enough to truly say whether they are actually underpowered or overpowered.
Group PVE is where being a Necro hurts. I’ve only taken Necro into dungeons a few times because I feel like I should be using my other characters for it because they don’t feel useful in may situations. They can do well and can be a great help in some specific scenarios but other classes can bring more to the table generally while still doing good damage.

Edit due to unnecessary censorship (seriously? this thing censors the middle of words or when the end and start of two words happens to make a swear?)

Necro main is playing twice as much to be just as good.

Necro Life in zerg(WvW) = bags!

I honestly live this class. It’s far from perfect but it’s usable in ever situation with the proper coordination and builds. Even in PvE, our damage is pretty good and PvE in this game is so stupid and easy that every meta build does fine regardless of class. And I find pve in this game to be so boring and repetitive after being burnt out from grinding for a legendary.

In WvW we are almost god tier and we are vital in GvGs. Condition builds are also very top notch for roaming, but that’s not really my thing.

There’s a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
And this hole in my heart
Can’t be filled with the things I do

There’s a hole in my heart
That can only be filled by you
Should’ve known from the start
I’d fall short with the things I do

Honestly, back in 2012 I picked up Necro for the Epidemic skill as I loved the concept. After AoE nerfs and this skill being a little bit underwhelming in tPvP where Necro has to either go PvE wells or build for 1v1 to survive, I’m still using my Necro for open world solo PvE.

However, the thrill of the profession is slowly fading for me. So many missed oportunities, regular kicks from dungeons despite running them as meta as possible just for not being braindead warrior, guardian or ele…

The very cool concept of resource/energy/health management is more and more often just landing or not landing combo and running away from teamfights.

I’m just slowly burning out. I achieved various things on my necro, often working twice as hard as other professions, both in PvP and PvE. But I miss the depth and feeling of being a Necromancer.

It feels quite nice to main a Necromancer, I myself started as a necromancer switched to many other classes but found it to be a bit worthless, granted i started off the game thinking necro was best when specced for conditions, found out the hard way to lvl that made me not want to play. After going power for pve it’s been so wonderful to feel like i can deal dmg and not die so quickly while waiting for them to bleed out, or get conditions cleansed.

I feel sorry for the guys who get kicked because they are labeled as a bad profession. No one really knows it but most classes who don’t dish out a good amount of dps get hurt badly or maimed because of the lack of stab or vigor for additional dodging. but Necro’s can get from members and they always give nice Retal for added dmg to the boss. Don’t feel down about the class. I’m still having problems with my power build. get criticized for why did i run this? and are you mad? use this it’s more useful and what not. Truth be told, I give my own pov on builds tweak it and use it how i will. Not because i choose to but because the profession may have it’s flaws but all classes do. I take criticism for builds if it’s PvP but for PvE it’s common knowledge that people don’t grasp. Blood Fiend for instance, you can’t live with using it you can’t live………. no you just can’t live with using it either. Signet of Vampirism another one you can’t live with using it, knownto some people as Necromancer Healing Signet! …………………….. no it’s not. Well of Blood, A.K.A should be water field. Kinda agree but also disagree. Condition heaving bosses, whirls and projectiles = condition removal, kinda useful, but that’s a small percentage. As opposed to blast, leaps, and projectiles as Regen/Heals, which could be useful but the blast finisher heal doesn’t heal for high amounts as i noticed with spvp/tpvp but it’s different for everyone.

I’m still gonna rock necro even if it’s been burned to the ground dead as a door nail from nerf bats/sticks!

I do not main any class – I got the most ingame time on my warrior (due to PvE mostly) and in PvP I play Warrior, Ele and Necromancer about the same… Though I can try and answer some things…

(…) for example what you feel like when you go solo PvEing, solo roaming — or do you depend more on others.

PvE solo roaming is quite easy and fun on a Necromancer… Minions act as a good meatshield as you kite around the mobs, Conditions are a blast especially with Epidemic and Power specs benefit greatly from DS – all in all, really quite good… Maybe some mobility issues, but I never had such an easy time discovering the maps….

How do you feel maining Necro in comparison to other class mains -
IS it fun?

Necromancer is something you play because of the theme… If green and black suits you, and some sadistic humour about death, then you are sold on this class… I love all the dialogues races make when using Necromancer skills, especially human femals raising the dead… So yea, pretty fun…

Do you feel useful everywhere?

Yes and no… I do not feel useful because I play a Necromancer sadly, but because I am the player… In PvE, something I’ve done over and over, I can play any class and still be way more valuable than other players… Despite this, taking another class is oftentimes way more optimal, especially dungeons… Is your team bad in Fractals though, I feel as if Necromancers outshine any class since you can spec for DPS while still maintain survivability thanks to DS builds! When your team cannot go full into melee, chill and cripple help a lot (think of the Archdiviner)
Though again, chose another class in PvE in general – you are simply the worst choice…

In PvP it is a whole other game… I am no slacker, not the best one either, but I am quite capable of holding my own… 1v1’s no longer rely on the better build, you are either a better player, or you are dead… 2v2’s are even more fun, and quite frankly the best situation for a Necromancer to be in since you can freecast if your partner is say a Warrior… Anything bigger requires a lot of managing position wise, otherwise you will not survive for long as Necromancers are extremely suspicable to focus fire due to the lack of good scaling damange mitigation – worst offender is DS in that regard…

Do you feel outclassed or squishy?

No.

I have played all classes (trust me, I did) and the least squishy of all are a full support guard, warrior and necro…

Do you feel all-powerful or niche?

Niche in PvP… Necromancers are no longer Gods of 1v1’s, but surely a good one to take within the current meta of PvP as Eles have almost free roam without one…

In PvE they are quite alright damage wise, but in a team regard the worst option to take… But that has been discussed to death…

Does anything seem possible or do you feel like you might need to barely squeeze into something with a lot of effort?

Necromancers are punishing to play – there is no ultimate faceroll build in higher end PvP – and mistakes will get you killed in return…

In PvE… meh, who cares? Attack that random wall and win!

Necromancer is METAL.

The synergies with conditions & physical damage, the control, hell even the sounds. It just feels like power tempered with intelligence. To me it’s just the most METAL of all professions. A sort of shock & awe playstyle.

There’s a lot that needs work though especially in PvE, but I think once the game carves out a more vital place for us we will shine like we were meant to. Like METAL.

The only place where I feel all powerful instead of niche is WvW large scale. And probably roaming on a cheese perplexity dhuumfire terror build hehehehe, but I don’t roam really so I can’t comment too much on that.

Noone mains a necro anymore.

I only play necro for the theme. But thats not enough to make me play it as a main anymore. My necro is purely for soloing living story stuff to keep her up to date. For casual dungeons and fractals etc I go with any of the other 7 classes. Unless im really craving the theme and I want to leech/troll.

spoj.9672:

Noone mains a necro anymore.

I’ve got all classes to 80, but my Necro has the best gear. My main has always been Necro, since beta. In beta I tried Mesmer (main from GW1), Guardian, Ele and Thief. Necro playstyle just felt right to me.

Probably the reason why I still main a Necro is that I don’t really spend much time in the areas that Necros are weaker.

I don’t do sPvP, tPvP.
I don’t do dungeons

I do solo PvE
I used to do WvW, before my guild disbanded. After I get enough to transfer I’ll be back into it again.
I do EotM…..Fearomancer is too much fun, especially on FR.

What do you feel like when you go solo PvEing, solo roaming—or do you depend more on others?
There’s a confidence there, that whatever situation you find yourself in, unless you screw up badly, you’ll make it out alive. In addition, there’s the knowledge that you’re the “ambassador” for your class, and while a lot of people don’t like us, you’re there to show our capabilities. While necromancers don’t have a lot to contribute to the team outside of dark fields & AoEs, we do remove a variable- the bad players in “good” classes; we know how to play our class well and, coupled with high survivability, we’re dependable damage & support in other ways (such as rallying downed allies.

How do you feel maining Necro in comparison to other class mains – IS it fun?
Yes, very much. We have a wide array of tools, but only a small toolbox to carry them in (referencing utilities), so it’s a “forced resourcefulness”.

How do you feel maining Necro in comparison to other class mains -Do you feel outclassed or squishy?
Nope, nor have I ever. As far as feeling “outclassed”, I see it more as there’s something else I need to improve upon. Feeling squishy? Not at all. High HP & DS makes for a very durable class. Add to that our easy access to regen, condition xfer/cleanse & high LF-generating skills, we can become very difficult to kill.

How do you feel maining Necro in comparison to other class mains – Do you feel all-powerful or niche? Does anything seem possible or do you feel like you might need to barely squeeze into something with a lot of effort?
I feel like a jack of all trades, but master of none. I am a versatile class that can adapt to the situation at hand better than others. Being a necromancer, I have no choice but to play at my very best and it is because of this that I am capable of achieving what others cannot.

Life as a necro main in a nutshell: the other players spam all their boons and expect to be good, I blow them up anyway, they send me dirty message about op necro and come to the forums to ask for nerfs.

As a necromancer player since GW1 I have to say GW2’s necromancer feels nothing like it used to.

I often feel its a do or die situation all the time. Most the time trash mobs don’t cause any problems, but they don’t cause any problems for any of my other 4 avatars either. The necromancer being my main is interesting. We don’t get the option to just run away from a fight, even in PvE. Sometimes we can’t just escape. Its not worth it a lot of the time. Sometimes it would take us less time and effort to just kill the for then to try and progress. This slows us down quite a bit. Where as on my guardian or Mesmer, I can easily escape, either through just being invalnerable to attacks, preventing me from being hit so I can maintain my speed or teleporting and vanishing.

I feel like I have to have thick skin because we are always getting hit by attacks. We don’t have many ways to prevent ourselves form being hit, so we often just get it. The large health pool helps us quite a bit to alleviate this problem but not against bosses who can often knock out your death shroud in one strike. This often puts us as a Mid-line fighter. We need to be close enough to deal our damage, but far enough so we can effectively use our endurance. This limits what we can do.

That said we are extremely good at mid-line damage/support. We can apply a tone of conditions in a rather short time period. We also have excellent boon stripping, allowing us to cripple enemies that otherwise would give our party problems through retaliation or protection(although this hasn’t been too useful yet.). The mid-line is were the necromancer really shines.

Personally though, I don’t feel like I’m as powerful as I used to be in GW1. Back then I felt like the center piece of the group or at least an important part. Everything I did was done extremely well but never felt like I was broken or over powered. I guess you could say back then I felt like the Envoy of death. Now I feel more like I have a death wish.

I primarily play a condition Necromancer so this won’t necessarily apply to other types.
In WvW (in large mobs mostly) I’d say I’m doing well enough, good attacks on my weapons (staff and scepter+dagger) and rushing into a large group of enemies using plague (and sometimes death shroud to get out alive) is great (both fun and, probably, effective).
In solo PvE I’d say I’m doing well enough, other classes (especially Warrior) are a lot easier in PvE but that’s not a problem with Necromancers in my opinion.
In large scale PvE (say, worldbosses or such) however due to the condition cap functioning as it does I do far too little damage.
Even in small scale PvE (say, dungeons) it’s not optimal, in a party with a second condition user (who uses the same conditions as I do) we’d both lose a small part of the damage we could do (to a single target), a third is basically useless. It also doesn’t help that some attacks by non-condtion users inflict conditions anyway (which costs damage due to the cap).

I still have fun playing my Necromancer (if I didn’t I wouldn’t play it as a main, or much at all) but the current implementation of the condition cap annoys me every time i meet more than a few other players in PvE.

what your perspective / outlook is on situations, for example what you feel like when you go solo PvEing, solo roaming — or do you depend more on others.

Solo roaming, I feel both like an insane monster and a weak dog. If I find 1v1s, most fights I can end pretty fast and have the guy either running or on the ground. that all changes if there are more than 1 in front of me/around me. In situations like that, its better to have a team to rely on to help you stay alive to DPS down targets. You can destroy targets with support. Without it the uphill battle is real.

How do you feel maining Necro in comparison to other class mains -
IS it fun?

Ive played all but 1 profession (guardian) and all geared decently with ascended weapons used. Its VERY fun with support or someone to peel for you in WvW battles. In PvE it can be fine, but in TPvP it can be a nightmare since you are good, but spend a lot of the time on the ground or stunned. compared to my other favorite classes, thief and ele, It can be similar but about 70% more frustration at many points.

Do you feel useful everywhere?

If you mean in TPvP and PvE, no. I feel useless in PvE and I feel like a walking bouncy ball for the other team in TPvP. I can kill many fast if im free casting, but that situation barely occurs. Basically its a mixed bag. In WvW, I feel like a god sometimes.

Do you feel outclassed or squishy?

Outclassed? sort of but mostly because they need some of the attrition things that would be really nice for necro (stability, dodges, good hp recovery). But outside the attrition thing, no. Its hard to be outclassed when you have such good tools. The only problem is being able to use those tools. (aka need stability or someway to have time of freecasting similar to what zerker stance does for warrior) .

Do you feel all-powerful or niche?

Niche. Need a condi bomb? I can bring it. Need high damaging projectiles and boon strips? I gotcha. but everyone else can give you stability, auras or stealth. I cant even give you a way out of a fight without throwing myself into whatever is killing you.

Does anything seem possible or do you feel like you might need to barely squeeze into something with a lot of effort?

I feel anything would be possible if I had more ways to deal with focus.

Class needs a little bit of help. Ive been thinking of quitting it for a long time. Only reason i havent is because WvW is fun on it and I love the theme. Still going to make a legendary on it most likely.