Guild Wars 2

I played a Necro in GW1 and loved it. But Necro now feels very awkward. The core mechanic, DS seems like nothing more than an “o crap i’m about to die” button. And the ramp up time for damage makes soloing slow. I’m sure Necro is a great PvP with a party kind of profession.
Am I missing something? I only played Necro a bit and probably didn’t give it a fair shot to win me over, mostly because it’s so different from my expectations. Tell me why I should play a Necro. I want to know what’s awesome about it.

Short answer – you should not : )

So far I have seen nothing to vindicate Necro as a great PvP profession, either. I won’t flat out say you shouldn’t play it, but you should be prepared for a frustrating, uphill battle against “common knowledge” and having no blatantly powerful or tricksy mechanics like Hundred Blades, Heartseeker, Cloak, Phantasms, or Shatter.

Your most powerful abilities are still arguably weak; as you said, they have a lot of ramp-up time and as should be evident our CC has very short duration, as where in PvP the things that matter most tend to be active survivability, burst and control.

We currently excel in nothing. Anything you want done, there’s a profession that can do it better than the Necro. I’ve heard that AN said they were going to buff the Necro after they overnerfed it with BWE2, but John Peters seems to think it’s just the Necro players who are miraculously all bad.

the necromancer is pretty hard countered by guardians (condition removal) and mesmers (can cancel out every single necromancer elite with moa morph). Until bugs are fixed and the meta shifts, don’t PvP with them. Otherwise they’re OK in PvE.

Short answer – Don’t.

Long answer – Don’t. Other classes with out-DPS you by miles in PvE.

You will get outplayed regardless of how good you play in pvp due to other classes simply being that much better. It’s an uphill fight every time.

I’m not one to argue on forums so I won’t. I’ll simply just state my experiences.

I am a level 80 necromancer in a WvW focused guild. And I am very successful at what I do. I am usually the first to run into a group of people, (along with a group of my own of course.) and will come out with at least half health. I win all my 1v1’s on the battlefield. (Only a thief beat me once. I had a moa on me, but no excuses I suppose.) and still I was able to get him in the downed state.

I do a considerable amount of damage with long retaliation buffs, lots of vulnerability, and 10+ might. (All applied, just by myself)

So far I have enjoyed my necromancer, and have not looked back. I will admit however, that the necromancer is not where it could, or should be. A buff is mostly wanted by the populace, and I don’t see a buff hurting anything, but only helping the necromancers be more playable, in more varieties to more players.

In its state right now. I disagree that the Necromancer is unplayable. That simply is not true. It just will not appeal to a greater amount of people that every other class seems to do

Edit: I’m not usually a bragger either, but I want to here. I once took on a 1v5 killing 3, before the other 2 simply gave up. I did have to run away quite a few times though. And I’m confident I personally would not of had that success on any other class.

Edit2: I did not mean weakness, I meant vulnerability

@Tyler – Finally someone else that has learned to play a Guild Wars 2 necro. I have had the same thing in WvW. Most 1v1s I win. Almost always the first to run into the battle and can come out with health to spare. I have lost to thiefs and rangers the most.

I just do not understand how people can say that Necromancers are a weak class, I have so many “Escapes” that it is very hard to kill me unless I am focused by the whole other group.

I agree with the last two posters. I’m only lvl 52 but I melt everything in PvE (drop two wells, blood of power, and if they aren’t dead I use DS and megadrain #4, and in the rarity something survived that I still have plague/lich)

I’ve done my fair share of Spvp, as well as WvWvW.

I never die 1v1. Ever. I even had a 2v1 vs 2 warriors in WvWvW and I had BOTH below 30% health before I died.

So much survivability.

I would agree, if people think Necro is unplayable, they are doing it wrong.

Except the players in Spvp and WvWvW are terrible. Come play high-end, competitive tPVP and get dismantled. Necro has a ton of issues. They have a very hard-time finding a proper role on a 5 man team. Lack of mobility, very little access to stability, no burst in condition or power, etc. Anything they do, someone else can do better. I have played about 450 tourney matches since release with about 90% winrate all as a necro (ranging from condition to power), and while I do good, I definititely see so many mediocre to weak areas of the class.

Zzod.5791:

Except the players in Spvp and WvWvW are terrible. Come play high-end, competitive tPVP and get dismantled.

Zzod.5791:

I have played about 450 tourney matches since release with about 90% winrate all as a necro.

…. What? You know what that reminded me of?

“See I never just did things just to do them, I mean, come on. What am I gonna do just, go in and grind my feet on somebody’s couch cuz it’s somethin’ to do? Come on I got a little more sense than that..”

“Yeah I remember grindin’ my feet on Eddie’s couch.”

That’s you.

lol

Cocaine’s a hell of a drug!

HyDraLiNsK.2470:

Zzod.5791:

Except the players in Spvp and WvWvW are terrible. Come play high-end, competitive tPVP and get dismantled.

Zzod.5791:

I have played about 450 tourney matches since release with about 90% winrate all as a necro.

…. What? You know what that reminded me of?

“See I never just did things just to do them, I mean, come on. What am I gonna do just, go in and grind my feet on somebody’s couch cuz it’s somethin’ to do? Come on I got a little more sense than that..”

“Yeah I remember grindin’ my feet on Eddie’s couch.”

That’s you.

lol

Cocaine’s a hell of a drug!

Yeah..because us winning or losing is solely resting on my shoulders and my necro spec…Next.

Seras.5702:

I played a Necro in GW1 and loved it. But Necro now feels very awkward. The core mechanic, DS seems like nothing more than an “o crap i’m about to die” button. And the ramp up time for damage makes soloing slow. I’m sure Necro is a great PvP with a party kind of profession.
Am I missing something? I only played Necro a bit and probably didn’t give it a fair shot to win me over, mostly because it’s so different from my expectations. Tell me why I should play a Necro. I want to know what’s awesome about it.

You should play a necro if you like the play style. It’s a strong debuffing class with high, consistent AoE damage. It is true that Necros have ridiculously low single-target damage right now, but I doubt that it’s intentional for a number of reasons.

The main thing you’re missing is that DS is not an escape button. It is useful for a large number of purposes, including damage, support and defense. If you’re only using it for defense, you’re missing out on most of its usefulness.

Necro is a control class based on debuffing/conditions, with some support utilities on the side as of right now. There aren’t any very appealing direct damage options, and I’m sure you saw the stickied thread listing all of the bugs and issues they have right now. A lot of the other threads in this forum express the same opinions I’ve formed over the last 3 weeks about the class regarding damage, mobility, and other things. By yourself, I’m sad to say, necro feels a bit weak, but there is a lot of utility you can bring to a group setting.

The condition builds are definately nice. And between good DS use and proper cc timing your survivability is more than fine. Especially with dagger offhand and Staff you can be pretty much immune to conditions.

Dagger + well power/crit build is absolutely disgusting dmg. And IMO necro’s are the best for AoE dmg, next to thief.

I play Necro for PVE, WvW, and PVP. I will tell you my experiences. In PVE, Necro is a support character, mostly good for providing meatshields( minions), and conditions. In general, during dungeon runs I often hear that the runs go faster when my Necro is there, not smoother, but faster. In WvW, the Necro is an escape artist. When your …. Hmm.. Group? Squad? Commrades? Are flanked, as a Necro it is likely that you will be one of the few to escape. In PVP th Necro does surprisingly well. Cons: longer time to make a kill, and mesmers and thieves cut your necros to pieces, quickly. Pros you can hold a point for a descent amount of time, and generally will survive against two players long enough for one of your teammates to stroll on by. ( unless facing a Mesmer or thief). I once held a control point for over 3 minutes against a ranger and a warrior. So there is my Necro experience so far and for what it’s worth.
Ohh, as far as water battles, I can’t give a good perspective as I have not tried the other professions, but generally the Necro is terrible underwater… Could be the way I play, or the profession, not sure.

Zzod.5791:

Yeah..because us winning or losing is solely resting on my shoulders and my necro spec…Next.

So you just said that when you tpvp as a necro you get destroyed, and then you said that you win 90% of your tourneys as a necro. I never said it is solely resting on your shoulders, I was merely implying your ‘knowledge’, if you can even call it that, is one big contradiction. Sorry if you’re too dumb to realize that, but what you say makes absolutely no sense.

I told you I love my necro in pvp wvwvw and pve, and you told me none of that matters and the REAL problem is in tpvp. Then, in the very same post, you went on to tell me that you win 90% of your tourneys as a necro.

Trying to understand your logic, or more importantly why you don’t realize you are a contradicting fool hurts my brain. I realize tourneys are a team effort, but if you win 90% of them who really gives a crap if you had more kills than other classes. You played with your necro, and you won – period. And unless you were dead last in every one of those tourneys with no kills and the most deaths, I’d say your argument is void.

How they are “useless” or “unplayable” in tpvp in the mind of someone that has won approx 405 tourneys as a necro is comical to me.

P.S: Saying “next” is kind of funny too, like you have a line up of people just waiting to talk to you or hear your opinion. lololol!

I’m only 69 on my necro but I’m doing pretty good in sPVP, WvW and PVE. I also rarely loose if its 1v1, being a tanky minon master. lol