Guild Wars 2

I was just reading the Necromancer trait and skill lists on wiki since everybody is saying Necromancers are so bad along with Ranger and Engineer. It doesn’t look bad at all to be honest.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_necromancer_skills
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_necromancer_traits

Here’s how I would build Necro. Standard full damage / berserker gear, axe mainhand and focus offhand. These weapons benefit the party by stacking vulnerability on targets. Spinal Shivers is excellent boon removal tool to deal with those pesky protections and retaliations which would otherwise hamper team’s damage output. Only Mesmer has comparable boon removal. Let’s not forget that Spinal Shivers also chills, which is like premium version of crippled, and this chill is the second longest lasting (5s) chill in the game after Thief’s elementalist steal.

Slot skills: Signet of Locust for the excellent 25% movement speed. See how fast your Mesmer runs. Blood is Power for the massive +350 to Power and Condition damage it provides. Nothing else in the game provides 10 stacks of might. That Warrior elite is 5 stacks of might. Last slot depends on circumstances, but Signet of Spite or one of the wells look like good options.

Traits: this one is a bit difficult, as Necro traits don’t look very appealing. I would focus Spite and Curses for their passive bonuses. +15% axe damage is very good. Most other professions get +5%.

What is so terrible about Necromancers?

Why are you saying “everybody is saying Necromancers are so bad”?

I think they’re fine, some think they are awesome and some think they are bad. All the stuff you’ve written there is very superficial however, like saying +15% axe damage is good, not knowing that axe damage is terrible and +15% is still no where near dagger in dps. But whatever, I dont use axe, and there are other reasons to like axe.

Just use those setup, try it for yourself and then make your own conclusion. The wiki does not reflect of how good or bad a class is doing.

My biggest issue with necro is the lack of synergy with our class mechanic and traits/weapons and builds.

After playing a bit I assure you you’ll find some good and bad things about necro.

That’s because it used to have lot of bugs (and most of them still are), it has clearly a bad design in both spells and traits: look the way minions are summon and use, underpowered (can’t be used in high istances for oneshot motives), occupying the whole utility slots, … Death Shroud having nothing to do with the design of Necromancer and after that it has even big limitations made purposely by developers..

The Necromancer class, after you understand it clearly, present itself as a class which developers have projected with low focus and interest. Most of its spells are circumstancial, every role it plays it’s better played by other classes, here you understand it’s really bad projected.

Of course, it’s not a terribad class after all, you still can play in some way with it, but it’s like playing McGiver with the scraps, raw materials thrown in a corner to define “Necromancer Class”.
It’s the Anet’s failed experiment.

Necros are not bad, they’re just different. Too many players roll a necro expecting to be able to do big burst damage as a glass cannon and then come whine on the forums that their necro hits like a wet noodle compared to their warrior/thief/mesmer/ranger.

Some classes have quickness (now nerfed) and some don’t. Some classes do big damage while others have more utility/group support. Necros can solo-stack 25 vulnerability on targets using axe + focus, while our personal damage is lower, we increase the group damage by 25% to make up for it.

My only real gripe about the Necro class is that it’s designed to face-tank damage in a game where you’re not supposed to face-tank damage.

Otherwise, I think they’re pretty awesome.

Zenith.6403:

Blood is Power for the massive +350 to Power and Condition damage it provides. Nothing else in the game provides 10 stacks of might. That Warrior elite is 5 stacks of might.

Guardian staff gives 12. To the entire party. And heals.

My biggest issue with a necromancer has been trying sustain. I seem to recall hearing it was supposed to be the attrition class, but I don’t feel like I have the ability to actually do that. What I currently have is a condition build and it’s more condition damage burst than anything.

My Ranger is my “main,” and if you want to talk about lack of synergy and variety then Necros do not fit in that definition.

I am having an absolute blast with my Necromancer. I really enjoy the condition AoE spreading which is absolutely devastating and doesn’t compare to a Trapper built Ranger. A Necromancer in a WvW group provides amazing group support and AoE damage.

Well, Marks, Plague, Epidemic, Deathshroud are all just a few examples of how much better a condition Necromancer is compared to any condition-built Ranger. With Bleed Duration, a Necro can sacrifice condition damage for higher, longer stacks of Bleed – a Ranger can’t stack nearly as high nor as quickly.

deepwinter.9015:

My Ranger is my “main,” and if you want to talk about lack of synergy and variety then Necros do not fit in that definition.

I am having an absolute blast with my Necromancer. I really enjoy the condition AoE spreading which is absolutely devastating and doesn’t compare to a Trapper built Ranger. A Necromancer in a WvW group provides amazing group support and AoE damage.

Well, Marks, Plague, Epidemic, Deathshroud are all just a few examples of how much better a condition Necromancer is compared to any condition-built Ranger. With Bleed Duration, a Necro can sacrifice condition damage for higher, longer stacks of Bleed – a Ranger can’t stack nearly as high nor as quickly.

I must object to this statement, a) ranger trait setups have a lot more synergy with utilities and build options (but true that the builds are limited to a stric utility line what necros dont have to bother with) and Shortbow/Axe and Torch with Eagle pet can dish out more condition damage than a necro can.
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/ranger/?6.0|5.1b.h14|7.1b.h17.f.1b.9a|1o.7g.1o.7g.1o.7g.1o.7g.1o.7g.1o.7g|2y.d12.2y.d12.3y.d16.2y.d12.3y.d16.2s.d12|k28.u28b.a5.0.a5|30.d|4j.51.52.50.54|e – quick example.

The reality is that people on the forums say necromancers are bad, sometimes. It is all about perspective; how do you see the necromancer.

In reality, we have the largest variety of builds available to us that are all well balanced with each other. We have a lot of synergy, and can pretty smoothly transition between different types of a main build depending on playstyle. If you completely disregard mobility, we are very nicely balanced right now, being very strong in all aspects of the game. The problem mostly revolves around the current meta of mobility in PvP and WvW.

And also about Anet’ vision of a necro and it’s real application in the game: Master of Attrition.

Now while this is one of their (supposed) only good build in WvW after the last patch, I would trade all my builds choice for one build that would be able to deal with 3v1 like this while playing full rabid (attrition at his best).

Easy access to boons and Invulnerable state will trump any debuff you can bring on the table (for now because of meta) for attrition playstyle in my opinion.

Panhauramix.2784:

And also about Anet’ vision of a necro and it’s real application in the game: Master of Attrition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUkNrrJz43Q

Now while this is one of their (supposed) only good build in WvW after the last patch, I would trade all my builds choice for one build that would be able to deal with 3v1 like this while playing full rabid (attrition at his best).

Easy access to boons and Invulnerable state will trump any debuff you can bring on the table (for now because of meta) for attrition playstyle in my opinion.

That Engineer is using mostly Carrion and Knight gear, with a Sigil of Corruption and Sigil of Earth. At least that’s what he said in the video comments.

Yeah the real point is: Could you do the same as that engineer while playing on your necro, while we are supposely on the same “tier” as an engineer (rock bottom)?

And I’m strictly talking about WvW builds here. Normally on any of my builds, I tend to stay away from 3-4 peoples when roaming solo. A attrition class should be more close to whatever that engi is.

So all in all, you look at Anet description of the class, start one with one style of play in mind, and then learn that others classes are not only able to do it, but do it better.

In PVP, you just roll another character lvl 2, change your setup and tada! In WvW, we’re talking about leveling up and gearing up another character. While it’s not that hard (I already have 3 fully gear 80s and working on a 4th), it still a bit off from their vision of our class.

I dont mind using my necro as something else than an attrition master, but new peoples starting one should be aware that in WvW this type of play is not viable.

I hope the meta stays so strongly towards boons. Means every pop of Corrupt boon, every drop of Well of Corruption, is just going to hit that much harder. They dug their own grave and sat in it, all I have to do is push the dirt on top.

Bhawb.7408:

I hope the meta stays so strongly towards boons. Means every pop of Corrupt boon, every drop of Well of Corruption, is just going to hit that much harder. They dug their own grave and sat in it, all I have to do is push the dirt on top.

I almost want to put that in my sig.

@Panhauramix – Having a single great build and a bunch of bad builds is not conducive to good balance. One great build and a bunch of bad builds is a broken class. Having a bunch of good builds but no great builds is a balanced class and is where the necromancer currently resides. There isn’t a single good Engineer who wouldn’t trade places with us in terms of build variety in a heartbeat.

As for wvwvw, Talentless has several videos of him killing 3 to 5 people without even breaking a sweat. On our recent podcast, Khalifa laughed at all the WvWvW videos claiming how great they are in pvp for killing 5 people when the likelihood of those 5 people being geared and at the same level of you is pretty rare.

My point is taking a video of you killing 5 people in WvWvW is not really that impressive since I have done 1 v 3 and 1v4 before with a minion mancer. It really depends on the level of the players you are facing.

What is easier, bringing everyone down to Necro level, or bringing up Necro to everyone else’s level. Which will be more well received by the community?

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

What is easier, bringing everyone down to Necro level, or bringing up Necro to everyone else’s level. Which will be more well received by the community?

I think this is happening right now. (On people’s perception on the forums at least) Mesmer wants to be Warriors, Warriors want to roll another class because they can’t do 47k damage anymore and they suck on PVP. Thieves want to shelf their toons because it is now broken. So I think Necromancers are actually getting an invisible buff.

I played Wvw yesterday on my abomination build by Nemesis. And I was attacked by a 7 man team. I managed to kill the 2 thieves and the warrior (they were bads I guess, all of them stood on my wells. ) The only thing that killed me was the ranger faraway. So 7 people pounding on me, I consider that not bad.

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

What is easier, bringing everyone down to Necro level, or bringing up Necro to everyone else’s level. Which will be more well received by the community?

They will bring everyone to an equal level, which means bringing a lot of builds up to the necro (and a few other builds that are in our area on other classes) level, and nerfing builds that are out of line back into place. The “community” on the forums will lament every change that doesn’t allow them to press a single button to win, and everyone else with a brain will realize the changes are smart.