Guild Wars 2

Fixing to get my necro to 80 and am about to spend some $$ on him.

Before I do, I am trying to figure out which route to go. I’ve seen both do great things, and I can’t make up my mind!

Only you can choose wich road to go! However in my opinion I like more the condition build for my necromancer.

Conditions have a weakness in wvw when you go up against coordinated guilds. However if you aren’t on a tier 1 wvw server, those won’t be an issue. Conditions, imo, are a much better option in wvw because they have strong AoE damage/support without putting yourself in danger, and can be used from/on walls to defend and attack much better.

I took my Powremancer into WvWvW for the first time last night. Ended up getting 130 kills and only about 5 deaths.

I simply stayed back using staff auto attack (crits for upwards of 3K, to multiple targets) as well as marks. If I was ever in a 1v1, I would pull out my Dagger/WH and go through my single target rotation.

I think the best thing was, whenever I’d go Lich, you’d just see a group of 20 people start running in the other direction.

Maybe it was just a good night, but I really don’t think glasscannon power necro is as weak as people are leading on. A lot of it has to do with positioning and timing.

Also, 19K health for a glass cannon. I’m not sure why Anet made Necros have some of the highest based HP next to Warrior, but it’s awesome!

EzRemake.1860:

Also, 19K health for a glass cannon. I’m not sure why Anet made Necros have some of the highest based HP next to Warrior, but it’s awesome!

Almost non-existent defensive boon access, low burst, focus on attrition, and the way DS scales made it a balanced thing. Like how guardians have pretty small health pools because they have incredibly accessible defensive boons.

Bhawb.7408:

EzRemake.1860:

Also, 19K health for a glass cannon. I’m not sure why Anet made Necros have some of the highest based HP next to Warrior, but it’s awesome!

Almost non-existent defensive boon access, low burst, focus on attrition, and the way DS scales made it a balanced thing. Like how guardians have pretty small health pools because they have incredibly accessible defensive boons.

I suppose that would be a pretty valid reason! But honestly, their burst is not as bad as people think when utilizing proper gear and traits.

If it’s worth anything I like the HybridMancer you get a really nice blend of AoE conditions/with some single target burst making you fairly well suited for any environment.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-ultimate-necromancer-dmg-hybrid-tutorial/first

EzRemake.1860:

I suppose that would be a pretty valid reason! But honestly, their burst is not as bad as people think when utilizing proper gear and traits.

Its definitely not bad, you can burst for a decent amount of HP, but its still pretty tame compared to actual burst classes like thief/ele. Not saying its bad, just comparatively.

Conditions were more fun. But I wasn’t getting many badges in small groups to zergs until I switced to powermancer.

For wvw it will be powermancer. Conditions gets removed way too fast in zergs. Not to mention players can retreat behind their zerg and recover if you cannot kill them right there and then.

To be honest ive tried both routes for PVE, WvW and Dungeon runs and its more a preference of play styles.

Conditionmancer is slow but wears multiple opponents down over a period of time. In PVE conditions tend to last longer in WvW you tend to find they don’t last as long, so longer duration tickups was a waste.

Powermancer is more burst damage and depending on your build you may have to get into the thick of it. I find area wise it doesn’t hit as many as conditionmancer can but what it does hit does more burst damage. If your running with a zerg in WvW things tend to last seconds anyway, there is a rare occurrence that they stand up for longer.

For that reason I chose Powermancer in WvW I wanted to do as much damage in a quicker period of time to drop the enemy faster. Mainly for 2 reasons…the quicker the enemy go down the less damage they do to me and also for badges, enemy go down that quick you want to make sure you get as much damage done as quickly as possible before they drop. Altho defending and attacking a keep I miss having my condition build as its alot easier. But as i said both builds are viable it just depends on your style of play, Slower more methodical playstyle is Conditions, quicker burst is Power but your more at risk.

Bhawb.7408:

Conditions have a weakness in wvw when you go up against coordinated guilds. However if you aren’t on a tier 1 wvw server, those won’t be an issue. Conditions, imo, are a much better option in wvw because they have strong AoE damage/support without putting yourself in danger, and can be used from/on walls to defend and attack much better.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Servers in all tiers have very good soloers and 5 man gank groups, and organized guild teams. In fact many people have left the upper tiers in order to avoid ques and to get great small scale wvw action. Trying to equate a server’s tier with individual player skill is, for lack of a better word, pure arrogence.

I switched from a full exotic conditionmancer to a full exotic powermancer. Both have their place in WvW, however, I prefer the powermancer playstyle.

Fraeg.9837:

Nothing could be further from the truth. Servers in all tiers have very good soloers and 5 man gank groups, and organized guild teams. In fact many people have left the upper tiers in order to avoid ques and to get great small scale wvw action. Trying to equate a server’s tier with individual player skill is, for lack of a better word, pure arrogence.

I switched from a full exotic conditionmancer to a full exotic powermancer. Both have their place in WvW, however, I prefer the powermancer playstyle.

No one can cleanse enough conditions in 1v1 to bother condition builds.
Any 5v5 group that CAN cleanse those conditions is going to have much lower damage output (they will need at least one person on full defensive duties to have the AoE cleanse necessary, which means less DPS overall)
And if you aren’t on a tier 1 server, there is a very good chance that, overall, that server has a lower concentration of coordinated guilds in WvW; high tier servers are high tier for a reason. Even if there are a few great wvw guilds in a tier 3 server, you are much less likely to run into one than if you were tier 1. Therefore if you aren’t tier 1, there is a smaller chance to run into a zerg that can cleanse conditions to negate your damage, and you are fine running conditions. Run into a lot of these guilds and you will want to change your build instead of being constantly useless.

As someone already stated, Conditions can potentially do more damage but consistency is an issue, particularly against skilled players or when in sPvP where condition removal is insane. Personally, I actually play a Supportmancer. When I look at the Necromancer I cannot help but conclude that in the current meta, Necromancers can do more for their team as a support player. You have healing wells, you can spec into a trait that allows your Life Transfer to heal other players, you can remove conditions and turn them into boons, you have fears, etc.

Whenever I run into a team fight where another Necromancer is running straight condition damage it’s just hilarious when I turn all his conditions into boons =]

If you want consistency as far as damage is concerned you can always trait into power.

I’ve determined that initially, I’ll run powermancer and then gain gear over time for a condimancer. The reason being is that overall, powermancers can provide a ton of dps out, great survivability, and some CC, all in berserker gear.

I look forward to getting some rabid/carrion armor for small group stuff.

Definately powermancer. Why? because conditions are easily removed in zerg fights in wvwvw and you end up doing nothing. Also I find powermancers easier for smaller fights as well.

Powermancer, I had a hard time stacking condition in WvW. No one lets you get within 1200 distance to stack conditions for 10+ seconds. With powermance, I run in drop marks/wells and run back out.

How about powermancer with 30 in spite and then 20 in curses for fury on DS and targettable wells? Drop marks and wells on a zerg from a distance and then switch to dagger/x to pick off stragglers?

I went the juggermancer route with 20 curses, 20 death magic, 30 blood magic. Get all abilities to buff staff and wells, mark of evasion, and weakening shroud. Drop marks/wells, then charge into zerg mob with an evasive roll to drop a mark of blood. Pop into DS to trigger enfeebling blood and fury boon before casting life transfer. Then pop plague form to run back out to drop more marks/wells. It works well for me and most of the time I make it out.

Leadfoot.9071:

How about powermancer with 30 in spite and then 20 in curses for fury on DS and targettable wells? Drop marks and wells on a zerg from a distance and then switch to dagger/x to pick off stragglers?

Don’t bother investing in Curses, the precision is nice but that condition damage is useless. You get more out of the Blood magic & Soul reaping tree’s (lower cd on wells, free spectral armor, stronger DS etc) and you’ll be harder to kill while still doing crazy direct damage.

Ninein.4782:

Powermancer, I had a hard time stacking condition in WvW. No one lets you get within 1200 distance to stack conditions for 10+ seconds. With powermance, I run in drop marks/wells and run back out.

I have a hard time accepting the rationale that people don’t stay still long enough for conditions but wells are effective at taking people down, considering they are a dodge roll from being avoided.

I would say that both have their place and can be effective, but that the conditionmancer is more versatile. I could have this opinion because I think a powermancer has some movement issues in the open world, or that the conditionmancer fits my playstyle a little more.

Vex.7486:

Leadfoot.9071:

How about powermancer with 30 in spite and then 20 in curses for fury on DS and targettable wells? Drop marks and wells on a zerg from a distance and then switch to dagger/x to pick off stragglers?

Don’t bother investing in Curses, the precision is nice but that condition damage is useless. You get more out of the Blood magic & Soul reaping tree’s (lower cd on wells, free spectral armor, stronger DS etc) and you’ll be harder to kill while still doing crazy direct damage.

Really? But targetable wells and Fury in DS is the primary reason to go there and I feel like targetable wells could be huge in zergs?