Guild Wars 2

Honestly, I’ve always thought about playing the class, but through watching videos I often have no idea whats happening, as to me personally Necro’s skills look all the same, but what makes this class fun? Reaper seems awesome but I’d have to at least enjoy the base class first before enjoying reaper.

Reaper. Nuff said

JK, but for me I liked its versatility its a light armor class with amazing survivability, decent condi output, good group support, and in general, the deathly theme of being a Necro :P

I personally run a condi Necro that I plan to make into a hybrid reaper when its introduced and love destroying mobs roaming PvE and the condi transfer/Blood Magic support I provide in fractals and other aspects of the game (saved many a person from insta-gibs with transfusion)

I dont PvP so i cant comment in that area. But for PVE the animations are awesome, the reaper is a great bonus to that. The death theme is great. I love deathshroud. And The hope that one day MM Necro will be semi viable

It’s green…
My other favorite class is pink…
My third favorite is blue
The others are not nearly as colorful…

That counts right?

The brutality. No other profession gives you quite the same feel of tearing into your enemies and ripping them apart, of standing your ground against powerful foes, of turning your enemies strengths into weaknesses and their weaknesses into an early grave.

Boon corruption, scepter and staff. Also the hope they will bring back terrormancer in a big way.

I like the necro because it is low maintenance to play. Its a big ole bag of HP that can out endurance a lot of enemies. It has some unique (but not super useful ATM) utility, too.

Flesh golem + Spectral Walk is always a fun juke mechanic in PvP.

The merciless killing style.

The moment it was announced that charr would be a playable race in GW2 was the moment I decided that I just had to have a charr necromancer as my main character. No further sell necessary.
Since then that charr has paid back my trust thousandfold. I love spellcasters, I love melee, and the necromancer is a great melee spellcaster that is about to become even better with the reaper specialisation. Sure, sometimes there are specific tasks where a different professions excels, but generally the necromancer just feels like the best choice for my playstyle.

I love having that extra shroud defense, I know it gets a lot of hate at times but i still miss it on other classes. Also, i love the visuals and the general feel of the class. I really think they succeeded, at least if you like me don’t think of necromancer = minions only, which I initially thought would be the case. I like the dark magic aspect more than raising minions, so I was pleasantly surprised with GW2s take of actual choice.

Also, I really, really enjoy the unconventional fighting methods that makes so much more sense than missing with your crossbow or wand from the back line (looking at you, various PnP and mmo game systems) and actually being proficient with your weapon choices. Awesome feel of being a cloth-swathed dagger dervish, and I can’t wait for the Reaper.

I roleplay as a Bailiff and thought Necromancer is just perfect for such character.

Necromancer is a very good trash mob farmer. In other words; bags. Necromancer does well at tag and bag events. It feeds my crafting hobby.

Necromancer is also good at soaking up damage. No other profession loses as much health and still survives, somehow, or not.

Finally, Necromancer is also a res-bot. It used to be the master of being downed and finished but changes over the last couple of years has given it the dubious distinction of often being last to go down. Res your group, then go down after their heals are all on cool down.

Ranger is similar because the pet always goes down, first – a good hint to the Ranger to back off.

Other professions have lots of AoE, too, so bagging is not exclusively a Necro skill. However, most professions have higher singe-target dps potential.

Well there are several things that would make you wanna play necro
Death shroud: its your second hp bar savior of your life when being targeted by the enemy team. plus when you get might and swiftness from a guardian get ready to feel like the Terminator.
Wells: Ever wanted those pesky eles and their near infinite supply of boons. well now you can with Well of Corruption. then watch them go from god like to a something you grab by the throat and crush.
Lich form: Cause nothing is scarier than a big giant ghost man that can finger of death you(especially as a power necromancer).
Minions: Point your finger and unleash the horde. think of the game Overlord
Reaper: Jason(from Friday the 13th)+ Super Saiyian + Necromancer = reaper.
I think the other necromancers in this forum will agree with me on the analogies

I wish I knew. I tried Necro, Engi, Ele and Mes in the first betas and expected to like necro the least, but I ended up liking the playstyle the most. Death Shroud doesn’t seem like too cool of a mechanic on paper, but learning to play with it is really a lot of fun. Weapons I think feel pretty good, especially after this last patch. They’re fairly unconventional kits too (I would consider something like Warrior hammer more conventional).

I think it really has to do with that innate tankiness though. It feels good knowing you can get out of most situations fine, and encourages reckless behavior that probably vexes my allies. The reaper is an extension of that playstyle so it will probably be really fun.

If you don’t like it it’s not for you. You might want to give it a second try later though as your taste might change. Engineer was my very first character which I eventually deleted in favor of Necromancer. I recently made another Engineer about 2 years after the first one I had made and enjoyed it a lot more and was a lot more effective with it. Just an example of how experience can change your perspective.

As for what makes it fun? It again really depends on your preferences. For myself and a lot of other Necromancers it’s the ability to eat damage like it’s candy and to strip people of their defenses, even turning it against them through corruptions. I very much enjoy watching someone stack a bunch of Might only to go “NOPE” once it gets too high and turn it in to Weakness instead. Or passively building Life Force while my health is going down only to hop in to a full Death Shroud bar just when my opponent thinks they’ve got me on the ropes but “NOPE LOL.”

Just watch this video and you’ll understand why Necro is great.

Necromancer is a light armor class with the hp pool of a warrior and a secondary damage soak pool that you can tap into whenever you like. It has more survivability than most other classes from that alone.

Necromancer is also the class which is best at throwing out conditions. Even when I’m not even trying, I usually end up applying chill, bleed, and vulnerability to enemies. They also have several ways to cleanse their own conditions, and even take condis from allies and cleanse themselves.

Necros can also strip boons and health drain. Honestly, health drain is a little bit weak even when fully traited, but it still helps survival, especially when using minions.

Oh yeah, and there are minions. People often claim that minions are underpowered, but in my experience they work just fine for most content, especially in a death magic and blood magic build.

Currently I run a build which uses survivable minions which drain enemy health when they attack and feed said health to my Necro. The other component to the build is judicious use of death shroud for added survivability and stacks of might. I’ve been through most of the living story with my Necro, and he’s always been a tanky bugger with solid DPS and mean conditions . I doubt that will change in HoT.

I love Necro because it has a reactive playstyle. You get to punish your enemies for making certain moves.

I loved necromancer in GW1 (and Morrowind before that); kinda stuck with it. It’s very different, but still my favored class.

Things I like about GW2 necro are:
1) Bruiser playstyle. I love how tanky the necromancer is, yet still able to dish out surprising damage. People always seem to overestimate themselves when going 1v1 with a necro.
2) Great visuals. IMO The necromancer has gotten some of the best visuals in the game; and reaper continues that trend.
3) Underdog. I kinda like playing the underdog; i’ve noticed in the past I tend to gravitate towards the class that can be unexpected good in the hands of an experienced player.
4) Lore. To be frank, necromancy style characters have always really been interesting to me in RPGs. The ability to summon an undead army to do your bidding and being this anti-hero that is disliked, yet awesome. Diablo, Elder Scrolls, Warcraft and Guild Wars; in all of those there is some kind of character alike the necromancer and i’ve always been a big fan of those.
5) Minions. I tend to gravitate towards minion classes. If there is anything I find disappointing in the GW2 necro, it’s that the minions are a bit of a side project. Tacked on because of their status in GW1. IMO the minions in GW1 were near perfect, the only downside being that the corpse requirement made it too harsh in pvp and certain pve fights.