Guild Wars 2

so alongside mesmer I am leveling a necromancer.

i’m wondering what kind of talents should I go for? right now i’m level 21 and using minions which is working surprisingly well (man this is a ton better then the absolute crap they used to be when I was playing the game a year and a half ago). i’m wondering what talents I should go with?

I was thinking of death to help the minions be more awesome but at the same time blood seems good because i’m using dagger and rocking pretty hard with it i’m sorta skimped for skill points so I could use some advice lol.

also how is scepter and axe now I remember it used to be go dagger or go home but it seemed to have gotten some buffs

I have a lvl 68 warrior and a lvl 80 necromancer. I’m pretty new to the game and I’ll be honest trying to find good Necro tutorials was difficult for me. There’s so much misinformation and you have people who will just say “kill yourself” when you tell them you’re running a necro. I just don’t think they understand how awesome this profession is.

Ok, so what type of leveling are you doing? I leveled to around 40 on my own and then a friend helped me level in an area that was way higher than my own. Also when I hit level 60 I went and did WvW (by the way we ROCK at Wvw) so depending on what you’re trying to do would kind of change the build a little.

I’ve tried condition, minion master, and currently am trying power necromancer. I enjoyed all 3 and see where they have their places. The easiest to level in pve in my opinion is minion master just because you can kite/escape fights easily. I don’t think it’s the most damage or anything just easy to stay alive and that’s always a good thing.

If you do go minion master make sure to select the top 3 traits in the Death Magic.
Other skills would just depend on your weapons/overall.

Condition builds are a blast but I felt like it was a lot harder to manage overall and had a slightly steeper learning curve. Others may feel different but I found myself having to hit a lot more buttons and pay attention to everything. The curses tree is the one to focus on here. And there I would go middle/middle/bottom. Definitely make sure you equip a scepter as it’s the better weapon for condition builds.

Power, I kept trying to avoid this for some reason because I just felt like everyone was doing it and I like to be different. At the moment I’m running a power build a friend gave me that utilizes wells. I’m still playing around with lich form vs plague (plague is just so tanky kind of another OH CRAP button).

My biggest thing is just play what feels good to you. Do you like to have a bunch of little minions running around eating things? Do you like going into DeathShroud(power)? Do you like seeing a ridiculous amount of little numbers flash across your screen(condition)?

Disclaimer: I’m a newb. This is my first post. Sorry if it’s all over the place. Also I didn’t go into full builds because by the time you unlock the other trees you should have an idea of what you want and also because I hate looking at someone else’s build and saying “I must have the same thing”.

Death Magic is indeed really nice for Minions and leveling in general. In early levels, the bonuses can make you pretty beefy. At end game, less so, but it’s still decent. Death nova is much stronger than it used to be with the changes to lich form making you able to summon 5 jagged horrors that will explode into poison fields on death for a poison spike.

If you’re riding high on dagger then trait up blood magic for life leeching on those minions. It’s a good trait line to have under your belt, and most survivable builds these days incorporate it.

Third trait line can be Spite if you want to crank your damage up, Curses if you wanna go for condi and/or “flash” shroud for fury/other effects, or Soul Reaping if you find yourself wanting more time in shroud.

For me, personally, I’d go Death magic, blood magic, and Spite with traits for minions in death magic, the dagger trait and life drain traits in blood magic, and spite with spiteful talisman, chill of death, and closer to death for a rounded build with solid DPS and survivability. Dagger/Focus main weapons with Staff off (mark of blood can heal pets through regen and debuff enemies to help them kill more safely) and a horn on the side for when you want it.

Scepter is really nice for condi damage. Great for bleeds and torments. Use curses with scepter. The added duration is lovely. Pairs well with offhand dagger for more bleedy goodness and focus if you want to add chill and vuln into the condi mix.

Axe is good for throwing around retaliion, giving some retaliation, and building life force more than it is for actual damage. Not horrible, but not great for DPS. Axe/Focus is nice for stacking Vuln, and axe/horn is nice for running from combat in exploration with its dual cripples.

Hopefully this helps somewhat.

The Minion Necromancer is honestly the easiest open-world PvE leveling experience in the game. Your minions do such a good job of taking aggro that you don’t usually have to think too hard about positioning, kiting, or damage avoidance of any kind. It’s hard to go wrong with this kind of build, whether you go Blood or Death.

For weapons, Dagger/Warhorn + Staff is currently in the meta for Power builds, mostly because the Dagger’s autoattack chain has incredibly high damage and Warhorn 5 gives a lot of damage and Life Force. Axe’s recent buffs have made it a much more respectable weapon, though it’s still not as strong as the Dagger in most circumstances. I prefer D/W+A/F these days when I’m running power.

Captain Inzane.4756:

Also when I hit level 60 I went and did WvW (by the way we ROCK at Wvw)…

What build do you usually run with when you WvW to rock it? I’m also new at Necro.

When I was in WvW I was leveling from 60 to 80 (btw this is EXTREMELY FAST if you have an awesome group) I didn’t really have a build. If I had to compare it to anything I’d say it was closest to the power build. I like the 1v1 aspect and having the wells/staff to do any aoe with DS 3/4 helps build just high dmg.

I’d probably do something like this and see what you need to tweak. I’m sure others would do something different. I’d try and not use DS when you’re extremely low as if someone strips the boon off of you you’re screwed. I normally use it toward the beginning of a fight at far range. Get a few 1’s on them then I use 2 and switch to dagger and just spam 1/wells/3/more 1.

If that doesn’t kill them then just go at it. Maybe switch to staff and throw some aoe’s down I normally use staff to kite people/hit thief/mesmer invisible. Then if I get low DS is available again and I can go into that typically with full life force.

My character name is “necro inzane” I normally play from 12:30-3am EST and just whenever on the weekends. I’m no expert but I’m trying to learn as much as I can.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQJBIhNSSDt0YNN4TDc44AXomFRTUF0zoNeWYbGAtAA-w

Blaine Tog.8304:

I prefer D/W+A/F these days when I’m running power.

Very valid. Out of habit, I normall go d/f because I like how Reaper’s Touch works in melee with its regen and then a warhorn or staff in the other, I should try to mix axe in more.

Mercurias.1826:

Blaine Tog.8304:

I prefer D/W+A/F these days when I’m running power.

Very valid. Out of habit, I normall go d/f because I like how Reaper’s Touch works in melee with its regen and then a warhorn or staff in the other, I should try to mix axe in more.

I actually prefer the Focus to Warhorn, but Warhorn is just so darn strong and totally useless outside of melee range. That 1v1 burst on Focus 4 is bananas.

TBH if its just leveling then your goal is to hit that magical number 80 and considering how you get stronger just with leveling (stats attached to level instead of talent tree)…
Anything will work really.

How ever conditions are poor choice for leveling this is extremely obvious on necro so i’d say avoid scepter, axe got some buffs but its still just filler weapon when your other stuff is on cooldown or if you need bit of range (dagger main hand case).

So yeah dagger/staff is still more or less the thing.
As for trees them self i’d say that spite is the most useful one and if its really minion build blood ain’t bad with all that leeching(and extra dmg from leeching), death is so-so but i’d suggest to try that one once you hit l80.

And Signet of loctus as most useful skill for leveling its one of first things that anyone should get and slot.

Signet of the Locust IS very nice for leveling, exploration, and travel.

I kind of dispute your claim on conditions being bad leveling, though. When I first leveled my first Necro to 80, I did it with a funky condition/minion build that worked quite well. I just opened with Blood is Power, which sent out the minions, and then I transferred off my bleeding from blood is power to the opponent with deathly swarm from the dagger offhand before slapping on both enfeebling blood and grasping dead, then three pops with the scepter auto and epidemic if farming. The minions served as added DPS and condition removal. I think it was Death Magic, Spite, and Curses? Or it could be made that way today. Heck, minions and corruptions could still work decently that way.

Minions all the way! Most efficient way to level through pve. If you doing WvW for lvl up then power/wells.

First thing you want to do is get far enough into blood to take the first trait, quickening thirst. This frees up a utility slot.

Try out both minions and wells. Maybe do minions up until you are able to use grandmaster traits at which point you have vampiric rituals and using wells will become more efficient.

Easy task- go pvp and grab some tomes of knowledge
But really, go dagger+warhorn obviously and as a first trait line take blood magic. I went with full wellomancer and i love the aoe (warhorn #5, well of suffering, DS #5 and then #4). Kill everything that is still standing with dagger aa.
Later on you can take whatever you like really. I especially like combination of Blood magic/death magic/curses for map completion. Nothing can kill you and you just steamroll through the world.

For a build. I think both a power oriented build and a minion oriented build works great for leveling.

Personally, whichever you chose. I would probably go into blood magic first. Reason for that is that the adept tier gives you 25% run speed while wielding a dagger. And, although dagger might be boring, its really fast at killing stuff with the auto attack.
Movement speed is a huge QoL and leveling speed increase if you’re doing open world PvE.

If you aim for a power build, you should probably continue in blood magic to reach the grandmaster tier, this gives you shorter duration on wells.
Run with Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption, your 3rd utility skill can be anything. I prefer Spectral Walk for some extra swiftness.
For your weapons; I would either go with D/W + Staff or D/F + Staff. The former gives you better AoE/Swiftness and an Interrupt. The latter gives Reaper’s Touch, which gives nice burst. I prefer the former myself. If you take Warhorn, the master trait for horn is probably better than the vampiric presence in most cases. Staff is great for opening from range, and you do more damage in shroud with staff; but you can go D/W+D/F as well; or mix in an axe.

After that I would probably go into Soul Reaping first. Unyielding Blast is great if you line 2+ opponents up in DS. Vital Persistence gives shroud a ton of sustain, enough that you can kill multiple groups while staying in shroud. Death Perception gives your shroud a ton of dps at lower level as well.

After that Spite is a good one for more damage. 5% more damage on targets without boon (= everything pretty much, your Well of Corruption takes care of those with boons); Spinal Shivers at 50% is a pretty big burst at lower level and last 20% extra damage below 50%.

For a minion build, it’s a toss up between Death magic and Blood Magic first. I’d probably take the former for the damage.
But dipping into Blood Magic first for the dagger run speed isn’t a bad idea. Like I said before, the QoL of constant 25% run speed is massive.

Either way, take the other next. And I would probably go into Soul Reaping last. SR is just a great way to make you both beefy and incredibly strong while in open world PvE. The potential to solo veterans with ease, elites and even solo some champions is massive due to shroud.

For weapons with minions. I’m still a big fan of getting a staff. It allows you to open up from range with a high damage AoE combo (2→3→4→2); staff gives a ton of life force and synergises pretty well with minions.
Axe / Focus is a pretty good combo as well, especially with minions since the focus #4 can bounce off them. And both Axe and Focus stack a lot of vulnerability, which is basically the best/only way to make your minions more powerful.
In the end I generally end up with Dagger/WH or Dagger/Focus though, since the run speed increase is too good and I don’t really want to run with a Signet of the Locust in PvE.

Just finished grinding my Necro to 80 today.

For Open World PvE minion master is everything you need. Really.
Story missions are a joke when you have your own personal army.

For the rest tough, I’ve grinded from lvl 30 to 80 on PvP tough. Power Necro is easy as hell to use on PvP. Can’t say I won all arenasm but you get enough tomes from prizes and dailys to go by.

Power and minions with D/? and Staff for range. Don’t use conditions in PvE because some of the hearts require you to break stuff and conditions don’t help there.

Every single guide here is trash.

Simply put. TO level fast, use food and EXP boost.

Pow/Fur/Per (Berserker) in that order Pow/Fur with two stat gear. Buy gear every ten levels, stick to odd numbers, 51 level/53/57 ect, but only buy gear every ten levels, never before. You are leveling not competing. Save you money.

Cond damage is complete trash, as are pets before mastery 80. You only need elite pet and healing pet. Take blood/death/spite.

Wep dag/warhorn or dag/foc. Dagger AOEs on hit, its faster and hits harder than axe. Axe is slow, crap and has massive down times for #2 which is the ONLY useful attack on axe. Anyone that said axe is good is a bad necro. Staff is crap. Dont bother. You arent going con and the aoes are easily side stepped by most mobs and thusly are a waste. Your entire intent is to kill fast and level fast.

Do all starter zones, even when out levels. then do all the next teir zones. By the time you hit 35-45 areas youll be around 60+. Have fun, and dont listen to suckers and theory craft bs. Take it from experience since Beta in both GW games.

Only 7 months. Not necro enough