Guild Wars 2

With all the ho-hum about the Necro, it would be a good idea, I think, for us to take a step to remember what is is that keeps us here. After all, no one’s holding a gun to your head and making you play a Necro, or even Guild Wars 2. We find something about the Necro fun or compelling and that’s why we spill so many words over it.

Now this thread isn’t a place for balance discussions or sarcasm. It’s a place to pause and remember the fun.

Here, I’ll start. In no particular order:

1. I love love love love LOVE jumping off cliffs or mountains and surviving by flashing into Death Shroud at the last moment. It’s a cool escape that no one else in the game has, but I also like doing it sometimes just for fun.

2. Getting off a good Corrupt Boon is one of the most satisfying things in the game for me. Some Guardian or Ele is floating through a fight with a bajillion boons keeping them safe, and the BAM, they’re flat on the ground, no idea what hit them.

3. Though the AI is messed up for PvP purposes, I really enjoy using minions in PvE. Sometimes I’ll get up for some water or a snack and come back finding my minions have helpfully killed a mob or two and left the loot for me to pick up. Makes me glad I hand-raised them.

4. Axe 3’s sound and animation. Say what you will about the Axe but every time I use Unholy Feast, I feel like a total bad***.

5. Conjurer’s Armor. I know that’s light armor that any Mesmer or Ele could wear but I really like how it looks on my Necromancer. She has all these nasty spells manipulating the powers of death and undeath and corruption… and she wears a frilly dress with a poofy skirt and a bunch of bows. The contrast just makes me smile.

Ok, your turn! Remember, please keep it positive.

I love my minions. Honestly, the only reason I picked up GW1 in the first place was because I saw a Necromancer with Bone Fiend when I was watching my cousin play once, and was like “Oh. My. God… MUST HAVE”. As much hate as they get (both deserved and undeserved) I still love using them.

The theorycrafting. I’ve spent a lot of time in game theorycrafting for Necros, and it is a lot of fun. Its also a good way to keep things interesting when you get bored.

The visual effects. They might not be as flashy as other things, but Epidemic looks amazing, and I love the subtlety.

Spectral Grasp. You haven’t had fun in this game until someone has just about escaped you, only to be flung back to you. I’m not ashamed to admit this makes me giggle like a little girl every single time.

Flesh Golem’s Charge. Kind of double dipping with minions here, but Charging can make a highlight reel of its own. Watching him fly into a fight and launch people left and right is always hilarious, and even better when I go back to watch footage and have the time to appreciate the way they flop around helplessly. Oh, and on Khylo, the noticeable feeling of “oh kitten, not this guy again” when I come and kill treb for the third time, and the person doesn’t even attempt to defend it and just runs off, never to repair the treb again.

I shelved my necro and only use him for crafting or if I really need dungeon tokens any other other characters have already got there dailys.
I pretty much leveled him exclusively on crafting because the necro gameplay is so bad and unfun, it was intolerable.

But things I love… Hmm…
1. I love the name Necromancer and everything it implies even if none of it was added into the game.
2. I like how the size of the skeleton hands of Grasping Dead are proportionate to the size of the targets cause you to get some really large arms reaching up, thats funny.

Thats all I got, its really hard to make a list without being sarcastic.

Bhawb.7408:

Spectral Grasp. You haven’t had fun in this game until someone has just about escaped you, only to be flung back to you. I’m not ashamed to admit this makes me giggle like a little girl every single time.

I keep intended to slot this in WvW. I love my Engineer’s Tool Kit for its pull but ever time I use it, I always think “man, wouldn’t this be better if it had a long cripple or chill at the end for an added ‘f-you’?”

XelNigma.6315:

Thats all I got, its really hard to make a list without being sarcastic.

Well, thank you for trying at least!

My list is honestly just an extension of your 1 and a bit of your 2.

1. I love jumping off cliffs.
2. I love jumping off cliffs and living.
3. I love jumping off cliffs and having opponents following me.
4. I love jumping off a cliff and spectral walking behind an opponent who chose not to follow me and fear him off.
5. Corrupting boon machines.

These points probably don’t seem like they deserve their own points, but each one is very satisfying and it’s the only reliable fun I can squeeze out of necromancer.

1.) The way that corrupt boon can ruin so many elite skills.
2.) Plague lets you sit wherever you please, especially in PvE.
3.) The individual symbols for each Well.
4.) How casual 100% uptime on chill is for a Necromancer.
5.) Throwing the conditions you ‘cursed’ yourself with from corruption skills onto your enemies.

1. I like being part of a more unique class (rare), not often chosen by people as their main character. Most of the time I’m the only necromancer in the dungeon party, fractal party etc.

2. I like being underestimated. Many people think Necromancers aren’t very powerful or helpful to a party. I love proving them wrong and putting out more than my fair share in damage and crowd control.

3. I do like a lot of the weapon skills and utility skills like epidemic, ghastly claws and the condition applying scepter/dagger skills.

4. I like being able to stack 25 bleeds and then switch to burst damage with the damage hybrid build. (And apply stacks of vulnerability with the axe while bursting).

5. I like that we’re dark and cosmetically I’m very happy with my characters look. I also like the Reaver of the Mists axe and the Abyssal Scepter because they’re purple and glowy. It adds a nice final touch.

Welp… Necro specific is hard for me…
I like how subtle visuals are and not overblown and mind boggling with a chance of eye bleeding effects. Granted there are some things that can only be described as flocks of rainbow vomiting butterflies ripped out of a junkies best trip ever and the like but they are few and in between.
Artistic style in general so that includes necro art.And a special place for the fact game doesn’t feature shoulderpads of a year pageant.
How detailed the game is in terms of level design. And that does include necros sometimes, some necromancer npcs do get some spotlight. Shame its a rare treat.
Unique take on the ghastly aspect of necromancer summoning habits.

But that’s all. Everything else would only incur spite and detest in form of rambling and criticizing anet on every single step starting with the core mechanics and ending with lore/most accepted take on lore etc.

Oh, Soft’s thing reminded me of one.

Chain fearing people off places, especially other Necromancers that just popped Lich; corrupt stability, fear, fear, fall off ledge, wasted elite.

Overall aesthetics: shroud, scythe staff, green icons etc.

Condition manipulation gameplay: somewhat minor in effect, but one of the few non-passive synergistic uses of abilities in this game

Epidemic: spreading 4-8 conditions to 5 targets on such a short cooldown is so fun

Relatively good trait layouts: Many other classes have ~2 good trait lines that are specced into 95% of the time.

Strong single target dps while not being super squishy: at least when minions aren’t bugged out.

Bhawb.7408:

Oh, Soft’s thing reminded me of one.

Chain fearing people off places, especially other Necromancers that just popped Lich; corrupt stability, fear, fear, fall off ledge, wasted elite.

I want to do this so much right now but I can’t play because of extreme travel exhaustion. X_X

Speaking of 5+, I also really love my Necro’s name: The Lady of Pain. I snagged it day 1 of GW1 and carried it over to GW2 after linking my accounts. It makes me so happy.

1. Consume condition (echi blech you kitten mobs and condi players, i just healed off your condis)
2. Green black blob of tentacle grape that can glomp you (DS Dark Path)
3. Marks
4. Spectral Grasp (KRAIT POWAH!)
5. Lich MOTHA FRIGGN BOSS form.

1. Lich Form/Plague Form
2. Chain Fears off ledges or back into your team after a DS#2.
3. Landing the super rare Epidemics on someone loaded with conditions
4. The way a Necro plays as either Power/Hybrid/Condi always feels so unique compared to all the other classes.
5. My favorite thing has to be the trait lines by far. We have some useless traits just like every other class but we have so many options and different builds that actually work and are effective unlike so many other classes that go down the same 2 lines every time.

1. The unique playstyle: I took a break from my necro in favor of my guard but its gameplay gets boring after a while (wvw-wise), i find our lack of in combat mobility is less forgiving and so more challenging and fun.
2. Epidemic: definitely my favorite skill in whole game. Cast it on minions or pets and laugh. I also found that jumping while casting it helps avoid “obstructed” message.
3. Being underestimated: sometimes people engage us expecting a quick victory, but they get a quick defeat instead.
4. Fear: no one should ever engage us near a cliff.
5. Last but not least, our access to chill: enough said.

1. Running after people in plague form and pretend I’m a fart.
2. Switch to the Necro & use him as bait in WvW diversion tactic
3. Challenge people to fall contests.
4. Doing /Dance in Lich form.
5. Laugh hard at how I can take all my minions for a swim but leave back the mightiest one of them all.

1. Consume Conditions
2. Switching to Lich and 2 shotting a Thief
3. Fearing someone off a cliff
4. Leaping off a cliff in Deathshroud and watch some idiot invader chase you and kill themselves.
5. Going full Zerker and still having 20K+ hitpoints

1. the variety of possible play-styles and builds.
2. the concept of a second on demand health bar with a separate skill-set.
3. Minions, I love the idea, I like the variety.
4. Luring people looking for an easy necro kill whilst WvW roaming and killing them with my norn wolf and snow leopard forms.
5. Finding fun ways to make the most of the wurm teleport.

1. Most fun and interesting class mechanic
2. Well bombing aoe
3. Spectral grasp to troll people
4. Immune to fall damage
5. Playing an “underdog” class and completely smashing people anyway

1. Being able to permanently apply weakness AoE style. I know precision builds laugh it off but it is epic when used in PvE to shrug off a ton of damage. I make my entire adventure parties life much easier. Also significantly boosts the effectiveness of all my vampirism traits food and sigils.

2. Laughing at thieves in WvW who attempted to gank my thinking I was a D/D ele just to see their burst wiff on the wisps of DS and then watch my team decend upon the poor glass kitten.

3. Picking up 20 stacks of bleeds or a bunch of stacks of confusion (mesmer) just to dump it back on to the source with Dagger 4 (love this skill). Nobody ever sees it coming.

4. Jumping off of stupid high places to DS shrug the damage.

5. DS, as kitteny as it is sometimes, it is a really handy overcloak that can be tricked out with lots of utility outside of just omnom burst or cover my kitten while I am knocked down or stun locked.

I love the enthusiasm, people, keep ’em coming! Feel free to add more than 5, if you want!

1. Spectral grasp – great for all the reasons here and more!
2. Spinal shivers – got boons? Here have a chill instead!
3. 2+1 = fun!
4. 2 second fears when traited. ’Spesh when you catch some near a cliff and bags appear.
5. Well of corruption. Watch all those boon monsters screech and scatter or tip toe around the edge.

Spectral/Shroud diving is a really nice perk I take for granted now.

Terror & Master of Terror…Watching foe HP drop while under Fear…I miss Vanilla Warlock!

1. Well of Suffering – I will never roll without this. Just all around good.
2. Well of Blood – I only avoid it when I am solo
3. Deathshroud jump/spectral walk jump – the only place I feel completely OP
4. Plague form in zerg vs. zerg battles – epic
5. 5 second deathshroud cooldown/heal when you leave deathshroud – love it
6. Build variety – only toon where I have like 4-5 different sets of armor. I generally stick to one build but its great to know that each is viable in its own way depending on the setting

1.) Consume conditions
Having a condi thief try to spam you down with dagger 3 only to run away after having all of his damage completely overwritten.

2.) The subtle “whomf” of putrid mark when it lands
lol churning earth

3.) Golem charge
Giant rampaging zombie chicken

4.) Guardians and corrupt boon (no offense to guards)
Once had a guard pop “save yourselves!” and jump down onto Gate only to get corrupt booned and land on a 100b warrior on frenzy

5.) Lich form dance
dont mind me just waiting for Shadow Behemoth to spawn

I’ll mention just 1 I can run around for a half hour and be the only necro out there. That we see on and server lol.

1. Trolling rallies with wells : being able to drop marks, and well of suffering on a downed player, whilst his team are trying to rally him.
2. Our easy application of fears and chills in various forms.
3. I love the green and black shades while in deathshroud.
4. Axe. I love the idea of a caster class carrying around an axe to sever heads with.
5. Gameplay diversity. Alot of other classes feel very one dimensonal. Necro has been challenging but fun since beta weekend 1.

1 – Clumping up a group of enemies and landing the perfect Epidemic. Love mass conditions. Also using Life Transfer in place of Epidemic.

2 – Death Shroud saving me so many times when my heal is about to come off cool down.

3 – Being able to play support, cc, and damage all in the same build.

4 – Spectral Grasp / Spectral Wall combo – being able to stack vulnerability quickly is nice.

5 – Landing big critical hits in Death Shroud and/or Lich Form.

Is it okay just to list 5 minions? Haha

Bas.7406:

Is it okay just to list 5 minions? Haha

Absolutely! As long as you’re being serious, please list anything you’d like.

the thing I like the most its that Necromancer doesn’t have an OP build. I mean, no build is way better than the others so there is a lot of room for creativity.

1- By far we have the coolest elite in all of the game, LICH FORM!
2- The way the wells and marks glow are unique
3- Jumping into a group of enemies, throw all my AOE, and come out alive using DS.
4- Locust Swarm (warhorn 5)
5- The idea of a Necromancer!

Ok, this took me alot to answer as Ive been playing other classes (mesmer mostly), but if it was even more evident today while pvping on Mesmer:

1) Counterplay. Im sorry, but honestly, after playing my 80 mesmer in WvW I feel like that some of the mechanics around the class simply isn’t interesting for players to fight. Phantasms, invisibility and reflect may be interesting but skills like Staff 2 which teleports you back on a 5-8s CD simply isn’t. I honestly don’t feel I am ever able to be punished while using the skill, and It doesn’t really offer much choice to the player who is fighting me that is interesting in such a way.

Both on and against necro, however, many of the choices you make, from weapons to skills, feel like they offer a interesting change in gameplay for both you and the opponent. Biggest example of this is corrupt boon, epidemic, and well of suffering (the other wells would be listed, but I still feel the duration, CD, and pulse idea of them don’t offer much outside WvW).

2) I love dagger/warhorn combo. It may not be the best option when it comes PvP but It is the one combo that feels like it was thought out correctly. high damage for high risk but offers you the most out of your main class mechanics, which is siphoning, Death shroud and also being a class that is hard to get away from (which of course doesn’t actually happen with thieves, but their design philosophy counters ours anyway).

3) Spectral skills outside Spectral armor. Spectral armor is sadly waste, while all the others are interesting and fun to play with.

4) Terror. Good god, this was done so right.

5)Blood is Power. While it is always hard to find on the bar, I appreciate the direction of the skill. It offers all playstyles something that can be worth using.

Just 3 for me…

1) DS off Cliffs.

2) General survivability with Soldier gear/well of darkness/well of power/DS/plague/etc. Build I’m using allows for good bunker with decent sustained dmg.

3) I’m big into black metal and my Norn Necromancer with blood red and bone white colored racial armor and skull mask just embodies the imagery of the music so much. Dark northern heathenry.

1.) AoE Blinds spam

2.) Massive amount of regeneration due to Vampiric trait / wells siphon / focus regen

3.) Excellent survivability in PvE because of 1&2

4.) Minions! Admittedly lacking in responsiveness, they are great damage soaks / sources of damage when they do work

5.) Chain CC on a single target: Dagger #3, Warhorn #4, flesh golem charge, DS #3, staff #5

I have way too much fun in sPvP with this class.

XelNigma.6315:

1. I love the name Necromancer and everything it implies even if none of it was added into the game.

Would you prefer playing with a ouija board?

1: i liek bleeds
2: Corrupt boon > guardian
3: Deliciously fitting SFXs for skills, such as epidemic.
4: It’s considered UP.
5: The ability to bring otherwise dead and buried forum threads back to life, however briefly.

1. The bugs
2. My minions.
3. The bugs that my minions have.
4. The bugs on the new backpice (Fertid Censur?)
5. The giant grub bugs.

this is from a WvW spec Necro (spend 99% of my time on him)

1.) fighting an enemy while they are near a cliff then dropping mark of fear on them and they all run off and i am surrounded in bags.

2.) Corrupt booning a ele/guardian when they think they are invincible then epidemic their entire group.

3.) Siege with staff (mark that whole wall!)

4.) when enemy is trying to hold a choke point and you just fly in with plague form and bleed everyone.

1. Her look. She looks totally awesome, and command’s dominance.

2. The way she talks. Again, commanding Dominance.

3. The look of her moves. Many of them look rather dark and from a visual stand point, capture what it is to be a necromancer.

4. She has my GW1 necromancer’s Name.

5. Jumping off cliffs and living.

1. fear with terror(pvp)
2. condition transfers(pvp)
3.good dps without being too squishy(pve)
4.perma chill(pve)
5.epidemic(pve)

I seperated between pve and pvp cuz(for example) fears arent as effective in pve thnx to defiant.

1. Plague (especially Plague of Darkness)
2. Chilling Darkness Trait
3. Terror (and Fear in general … just need better base duration, imho.)
4. Corrupt Booning a Bunker Ele or Guard, frigging priceless
5. Consume Conditions, and the laughter resulting from a well-timed usage of it.

1. Large amounts of chilled
2. Ease of shaking off conditions
3. Look and feel

Can’t think of more.

1. Being a liability in fractals.

1. She is my favorite character, appearance wise. She really looks like a Necromancer!
2. I love RP, and again she is my favorite character in personality, history, and story.
3. The Necromancer is actually a lot of fun to play compared to other classes. I’d rank Guardian second in terms of just fun, for me.
4. I love the rarity of the class… In upper level zones, there’s a good chance I’m one of the only Necromancers roaming around. Makes me feel pretty unique!
5. And of course, DS while jumping off of cliffs to avoid enemies.

1. Using Death shroud as both a shield and ranged 1k hit
2. Using Death Shroud to drop from high spots and not dying
3. Munching conditions for health XD
4. Survivablity in a zerker build
5. Surprising a group by destroying the CoF gate controller in mere moments.

I’ve constantly made my Necro over and over because of how much the idea of Necro itself appeals to me. I have an Engineer, Mesmer, and a Ranger at along with the Necro I recently maxed out and geared up. I love my Necro more than any of the other class

Death shroud and everything about it, i remember back when i was reading necro skills on wiki before game was released i thought it will be amazing and it is imo coolest class ability there is, to break it down:

1. Shroudstomps
2. DS animation
3. Dark path.
4. Fear
5. Life Transfer