Guild Wars 2

hello all i am thinking of making a necro commander but not too sure what skills/traits/weapons to use and what armor and runes to use

any suggestions appreciated

I’ve never seen any Necro Commanders, but you’d probably be best off using a Tanky Wellomancer build like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBHhZakjmibbpxmG+bTMMISvKVmJvFMyARA-TVCBABppEEgTAgXK/84IAI0+DU8AAyU9nNOEA6pPgUAMJMC-w

Spectral Walk + Locust Swarm should help make up for the Necros lack of mobility, but you’ll still be lacking in anti CC so you will need to be careful not to get focused down. I’m still not sure what the best combination for equipment would be since you need good survivability as a commander while maintaining decent damage for wells.

I would go for something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBHhZakjmib7txmG+bTULUSWE1A01ZAMDUOHhBA-TVCBABV8AAOTJIWK/A4EAYp6PecEAKa/hNOEA6pPgUAMJMC-w

It’s basically boonstripping mayhem, with enough CC to disengage and get to safety. You primary defensive tool is shroud, while you can dish out heavy hits with lifeblast. Keep in mind, that your enemy is CC, and ask guardians to give you stability.

Most important thing in WvW is perma swiftness. Runes, Warhorn and Spectralwalk will help a lot with that.

Full Dire with Superior Runes Of Speed, 2 wells and Spectral Wall (lay infront of your zerg to grant everyone protection which can make a big difference in a ZvZ) and you should be fine.
Necromancers are naturally tanky and personally I think behind Guardian and Warrior they would be the next best choice. I have a pin on my Necromancer and commanding on it is fine. Although, depending on how competent you are, commanding on any profession is viable. Just some slightly more so than others.

My best advice would be; Make sure you have some kind of movement buff. If not speed runes, Signet Of The Locust, if not Signet Of The Locust, warhorn and Spectral Walk. Necro’s are slow and you cannot be slow if you’re commanding or you’ll always be one step behind the enemy.

Theres a necromancer commander on my server, and he’s not very well liked by the WvW guilds, but thats not because hes a necro, but rather because hes annoying.

Anyway, you can be a good driver as a necromancer, as death shroud can make you nearly as tanky as heavy class, although you will be inhibited by being unable to leap up into a group, and to a lesser extent, pretty much unable to blast water fields, but thats okay. You also have to know when to anticipate the enemy’s bomb and be able dodge it yourself and tell your group how to dodge it. You need to be able to stand at the edge of the enemy AoE and call for wells right in front of you. It is totally doable on a necromancer, however you’ll just want to build as tanky as possible since you won’t be the usual peripheral damage dealer.

Quenta of the Black Talons [BT] was the only Necro commander I’ve ever seen. One of the better commanders period. I think [BT] disbanded. They started on FA, moved to BG and I think ended up on Mag.

BT used to post weekly WvW videos. You might still be able to find some of them.

He was the only one who posted regular videos, he was hardly the only one commanding well on one. As I’m completely out of the meta and builds, I can’t offer any advice other than as a commander you need to survive. Your job as a commander has nothing to do with dps, and all about driving. Mobility and the ability to survive are far more important than anything else. How you specialize depends on what you are commanding and how hardcore you and your guild are. Most likely you are going to want to be debuffing with weakness and blasting dark fields to reduce incoming dps, but ymmv.

Commanding as a necro would likely be best with full soldiers gear, wells, an axe and staff, and the actual traits could probably vary. Ascii’s build could probably still apply here.

i ran full dire with dolyak runes for more survivability. traited max lifeforce line with stability and full Vitality line and healing. did not survive well.
necros prob cant be good survivalists.

If your going to try it I would not suggest dire and dolyak. soldiers, melandru, and lemongrass. I like to think of necros as pseudo frontline, if you have a good guild that knows to stay with the hammer train even if you break off it can work. Necros go in and out of the train depending on cooldowns.

Two of the more famous necro commanders I’ve had the pleasure to be around are Indo and Dekar. I have a war and necro with cmdr tags… I would rather command on my necro 99% of the time. Way easier and way more bags.