Guild Wars 2

I want to play a staff profession but i cant pick between a necromancer or elementalist i have been looking and all i can find is people saying necro’s staffs are not good is this right or not if any one can help it would be thankful

For a Necro Staff is a necessity. A build without a Staff is really bad, there is no reason to go without one.

It depends what you want.

I only played the Ele until around level 30 or so but from my experience (in PvE) you can kill things very quickly, but you can also die in literally 2 or 3 hits from regular enemies of your level. Taking on more than 2 or 3 enemies at once is pretty risky. It is a very fast paced class especially if you’re playing double daggers, and attunement swapping a lot. It offers a lot of combo fields, support, and pretty good damage. In fights be prepared to use your utilities for shields and protection almost every fight.

Necro’s on the other hand are very capable of taking out 5-10 enemies at once and come out barely scratched. Our damage is slower than most other professions unless you go with the dagger as your MH weapon and get a lot of power and crit, but you make up for it with survivability. We rely on our utilities for a large chunk of our damage (well of suffering).

Don’t pay attention to the negative things you hear. Chances are it won’t affect you much (unless you play minion master). All in all the necro is a very fun class to play and I just can’t get into any other classes now.

Ele staff build is primarily support based though you can kick out some decent combos and aoe dmg. They struggle against melee burst though as they can’t swap weapons to adjust play style to something more effective against melee. Ele’s have the most survivability and mobility of the three.

Staff Necro isn’t quite as all-inclusive but is definitely one of the stronger Necro weapons. Unlike Ele’s though, Necros have the option to swap weapons giving them the ability to change play styles on the fly or reinforce the staff with scepter conditions. DS adds quite a bit of survivability in the right hands, though mobility is not a necro’s strong suit.

you might also consider…

Staff Mesmer. They offer some interesting build options and playstyles and also have a good melee build (Sword/Pistol or Sword/Sword) to compliment the staff. They’re elusive as all hell and have arguably some of the best group utilities in the game. They’re also the best 1v1 class in PvP.

Just some food for thought. Have fun!

Swadow.6213:

For a Necro Staff is a necessity. A build without a Staff is really bad, there is no reason to go without one.

I was trying to prove this wrong last night

I failed….

Swadow.6213:

For a Necro Staff is a necessity. A build without a Staff is really bad, there is no reason to go without one.

This is wrong. I run a dagger/warhorn axe/focus well build and it works extremely well in both PVE and PVP. I only use staves during tower/keep sieges in WvW, but this is no different than a warrior needing to swap out his off weapon for a longbow/rifle during tower/keep sieges. In PVE there hasn’t been a single instance of me needing to use a staff.

Kravick.4906:

Swadow.6213:

For a Necro Staff is a necessity. A build without a Staff is really bad, there is no reason to go without one.

This is wrong. I run a dagger/warhorn axe/focus well build and it works extremely well in both PVE and PVP. I only use staves during tower/keep sieges in WvW, but this is no different than a warrior needing to swap out his off weapon for a longbow/rifle during tower/keep sieges. In PVE there hasn’t been a single instance of me needing to use a staff.

I made another attempt at using axe/focus + dagger/warhorn last night in PvP and while I was devastating at close range I was complete fodder if they could keep me at range. I just don’t feel like Necros have the mobility (such as leaps and gap closers) to make this build work except in niche roles in a group such as point defense where mobility isn’t as important.

hackks.3687:

Kravick.4906:

Swadow.6213:

For a Necro Staff is a necessity. A build without a Staff is really bad, there is no reason to go without one.

This is wrong. I run a dagger/warhorn axe/focus well build and it works extremely well in both PVE and PVP. I only use staves during tower/keep sieges in WvW, but this is no different than a warrior needing to swap out his off weapon for a longbow/rifle during tower/keep sieges. In PVE there hasn’t been a single instance of me needing to use a staff.

I made another attempt at using axe/focus + dagger/warhorn last night in PvP and while I was devastating at close range I was complete fodder if they could keep me at range. I just don’t feel like Necros have the mobility (such as leaps and gap closers) to make this build work except in niche roles in a group such as point defense where mobility isn’t as important.

Dark Path and Spectral Grasp are your friends. When I get home from work, I will post my build and describe how I make it all work. Your millage may vary, of course.

Kravick.4906:

hackks.3687:

Kravick.4906:

Swadow.6213:

For a Necro Staff is a necessity. A build without a Staff is really bad, there is no reason to go without one.

This is wrong. I run a dagger/warhorn axe/focus well build and it works extremely well in both PVE and PVP. I only use staves during tower/keep sieges in WvW, but this is no different than a warrior needing to swap out his off weapon for a longbow/rifle during tower/keep sieges. In PVE there hasn’t been a single instance of me needing to use a staff.

I made another attempt at using axe/focus + dagger/warhorn last night in PvP and while I was devastating at close range I was complete fodder if they could keep me at range. I just don’t feel like Necros have the mobility (such as leaps and gap closers) to make this build work except in niche roles in a group such as point defense where mobility isn’t as important.

Dark Path and Spectral Grasp are your friends. When I get home from work, I will post my build and describe how I make it all work. Your millage may vary, of course.

Please do post the build. Curious to see what other necros are doing with the Axe. The #2 and #3 skills are killer IMO and it works so nice with the focus. I’d like to get a solid axe build going and I sorta feel like I’m on the right track. It’s a big deviation from my normal play style though so I need to give it a day or two to really iron out the kinks.

I was initially drawn to the Necro because I’ve liked Necro-like classes (Wow Warlock, etc) in the past, but some very loud complainers in these forums made me think maybe it wasn’t the best idea. I took an Engineer to around 20, then a Mesmer to around 20, then an Elementalist to 50, then a Thief to around 30. I am sure I’ll continue the Elementalist and Thief, but I finally decided to take the Necro plunge, and my Necro will be my first to 80.

Elementalist is a super-flexible class in my mind. Depending on your build you can have the greatest mobility in the game, or you can throw down the most fields in the game. Most classes need to learn to swap between their two equipped weapon sets but Elementalists can only equip one set. On the other hand, Elementalists have four attunements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) and need to swap between them which translates into twice as many weapon skills as the other professions.

On the other hand, Necros feel a lot tougher and faster casting. (Marks, for example, are like traps and can be pre-placed before a fight or dropped onto a mob so that they trigger instantly.) Necro minions currently have problems, though I’m beginning to suspect that mainly occurs for those that have more than two or three out at once.

This is all PvE, of course. If it truly is the Staff that you like, Guardians can equip them, too.

There’s a lot of negative comments for elementalists, too, so I don’t think people should pick one over the other based on that.

I don’t know much about the necro, but as an elem. player, I warn you that the profession takes hard work to play with and master, because you must play keyboard with your piano. Some people love the added difficulty, but others lose motivations because of that. Pick it if you really enjoy that style or a crazy key-pressing playstyle.

Kravick.4906:

Swadow.6213:

For a Necro Staff is a necessity. A build without a Staff is really bad, there is no reason to go without one.

This is wrong. I run a dagger/warhorn axe/focus well build and it works extremely well in both PVE and PVP. I only use staves during tower/keep sieges in WvW, but this is no different than a warrior needing to swap out his off weapon for a longbow/rifle during tower/keep sieges. In PVE there hasn’t been a single instance of me needing to use a staff.

When I see a Longbow Warrior I start chanting:

LONGBOW

WARRIOR

in public channels. I can’t stop until Arena Net forces me to stop. I don’t know why this happens to me. The same thing happens when I see Legolas the Roleplaying Bowtard ( LET’S GO BOWTARD) or Minion Master Necro (MINION — MASTER) in tournaments.

Something just overwhelms me.

hackks.3687:

Please do post the build. Curious to see what other necros are doing with the Axe. The #2 and #3 skills are killer IMO and it works so nice with the focus. I’d like to get a solid axe build going and I sorta feel like I’m on the right track. It’s a big deviation from my normal play style though so I need to give it a day or two to really iron out the kinks.

First off, I want to admit something. Two weeks ago I would have said necromancers are a horrible class that everyone should stay far, far away from. I cannot say that now. In fact I cannot see myself playing any other class at all at this point. I had a very long conversation with a few people about necromancers in game that prompted me to try a few things. Turns out, they worked, and they worked extremely well. So well in fact, that its become something of an obsession. I’d say that the dev was absolutely right about fearing necromancers would become OP if they got buffed. Its true that necromancers do not have the burst other classes do, and necromancers have the most horrible trait tree I have ever seen in any game that has a “talent” system. Its also true that necromancers boast the biggest bug list I’ve seen for any class in an MMO. However, they’re not the de-clawed kittens I once thought they were. I honestly believe that necromancers are just as strong as any other class right now, and that once we do have our bugs fixed, we’ll be outright feared like thieves.

Now, on to the build I use as promised. Wall of text incoming. You may have to copy and paste the link into your browser.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQIQRBIhdu1IjW1emmlG/eCA6Ru46cUhipe4e5nD;TkAKbM2IsxZj0mFBDC2UMpA

Armor: Invaders (Power/vit/toughness)
Jewelry: All Berserker’s
Weapons: All Berserker’s
Runes: 5 Dolyak/1 Emerald Orb
Sigils: Superior Air/Superior Accuracy on both weapon sets
During Siege: Swap Dagger/Warhorn for Staff. Staff has Superior Rune of Fire. Change Chill of Death trait to Spiteful Marks.

The original build belongs to Oozo. Mine is a slightly modified version of his build to suit my play style. He has a video of himself in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3y3GzVb43X4 I have no idea what stats Oozo runs. The original build is located here: http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=;04-8c;0kHkH0G4wJkJ0;9;4T9;0T19B3;626A4BG0I;1OZG5OZG55Bk I wish I could make my own videos but I don’t know the first thing about making PVP videos. With my current stat configuration I do similar damage to him and have roughly the same HP as him. If I had to guess, I’d say I win about 85-90% of my 1v1s. “Win” is subjective as I consider my opponents running away as a victory for me.

Some key information that should also be noted. When traveling in WvW, I will swap out Spectal Grasp for Spectral Walk. When I know I’m about to enter a combat situation I will switch it back to Spectral Grasp if its off cooldown. That said, I do find myself in a lot of situations where I do not have Spectral Grasp on my bar. As far as not having a stun removal when I do have Spectral Grasp, Plague can be used while stunned/knocked down. Plague also grants you a huge health pool over your normal health pool. If I ever find myself face planted by a knockdown, I’ll pop Plague and use blind.

I originally ran all berserker’s, but found that to be way to squishy for my taste. Now I run Invaders armor (Power/tough/vit, easily obtained with WvW tokens or AC tokens) and found my survivability increased 10 fold with only a small sacrifice to damage. As for only using 5 Dolyak runes instead of 6, Dolyak runes are expensive and I don’t feel the extra cost of a 6th rune is justified for the pitiful amount of regeneration it gives.

With this build your crit rate is only going to be 37% (32% + 5% from sigil), which is still nice, but a lot of people I’ve talked too seem put off by anything that doesn’t have at least 40+ crit in WvW. I want to say that you’re not losing killing power by sacrificing a small amount of crit for toughness/vit. Your survivability goes through the roof just by having those stats over an extra bit of crit and crit damage. I can easily survive 2v1 and even some 3v1 encounters and still come out on top.

There are very few 1v1 situations that I outright lose. Though I will say that elementalists, and especially thieves tend to give me a run for my money. They also will run away from me once they see I’ve gained the upper hand. While its technically a draw since no one died, it feels like a victory since they’re the ones running away and I’ve stood my ground. You cannot chase dagger/dagger elementalists and thieves down, so don’t even bother. When they want to disengage, there is nothing you can do to stop them. Necromancers simply do not have the tools to do anything about it. Spectral Grasp is for everyone else that tries to run away from you.

Skill usage. This is where the magic happens. Since PVP is chaotic, and things change very quickly, there is no real hard rotation. Dark Path is your gap closer. If you do use Dark Path, follow it with Life Transfer to put pressure on your opponent. Using Doom before a Life Transfer is dependent on what class you’re fighting and how the fight has played out up to that point. I cannot give pointers for when to use Doom. Its something that you must get a feel for and is extremely subjective. Different people will find one ability worth interrupting while others will see it as a waste of a cool down. Never stay in DS long. Remember, you need more than 50% Life Force to gain the extra 5% damage from 25 in Soul Reaping. You also have to get a feel for when to activate each ability at the right time. This is especially true for Spectral Grasp since it is very prone to missing. My only advice at this point is practice until you get a general idea of when to use your abilities. In all fights you want to try and force your opponent to use up their dodges and blow their condition removal skill. This is so you can land Dagger 3 and drop a well bomb on them. Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption plus dagger 1 spam is ridiculous damage. When you are able to successfully immobilize your target, STAND BEHIND THEM. When immobilized, you cannot turn your character. This means you have a chance at free damage.

SAVE YOUR DODGES. Never dodge towards an enemy that is running away. Thats what Spectral Grasp and Dark Path are for. I see so many people make this mistake. If you cannot catch them because Warhorn 5 is on cooldown, and you’ve already used your Spectral Grasp/Dark Path, let them go. You can’t catch them at this point. You will never catch them by dodging towards them and all it does is waste your time. There is one exception to this rule, however. Since I trait for Chilling Darkness, every time I blind someone, I am also chilling them. If they dodge away from you to get out of your blind radius, “dodge follow” them to keep them in it.

Tips and tricks for fighting other classes.

Mesmers: If you are fighting mesmers, fear them and use Life Transfer to kill all of their clones/phantasms. NEVER IGNORE PHANTASMS. Phantasms are the transparent purple clones. They must die ASAP as they can hit like a Mack truck going 60 MPH towards your face. The non transparent clones aren’t as bad, but still worth getting rid of, but only if you can do so while also keeping pressure on the mesmer. Don’t focus the non transparent ones though. Kill the real one and the Phantasms. Phantasms and clones have next to no HP and a single dagger auto attack chain will kill them. A full use of Life Transfer will clear the entire battlefield of all clones and phantasms. Mesmers can be extremely difficult to moderately easy to deal with depending on their level of skill and trait set up.

Warriors: When you hear “Shake it off!” bust them with a well bomb. When they start flailing their greatsword around, do NOT stand in it. Greatsword warriors are 1 pump chumps. Once they blow Hundred Blades you can mop them up pretty easily. Be careful of axe warriors. They can out DPS your dagger 1 with their axe 1. You need to kite these guys until they “Shake it off!”. Then drop the well bomb. If they switch to rifle, you switch to axe. Dodge their rapid fire move. You can easily out DPS rifle warriors with just your axe and DS abilities if you play your cards right. Hammer warriors are all about dodging their knockdowns. If you have a warrior friend, have him show you his hammer moves so you can familiarize yourself with what to look for. DODGE the knockdown abilities.

Guardians: These guys are laughably easy with Well of Corruption. They also have no way to catch you if you decide to disengage. If the guardian is using a greatsword, you won’t even need to immobilize them to drop a well bomb. They will usually stand right in it if you let them hit you. Turning their boons into conditions will destroy them. Guardians have the lowest HP in the game right next to thieves. Without their boons, they’re nothing more than a wet paper bag. However, guardians have a ton of ways to remove conditions depending on how they’re traited. You can still easily outlast them in a battle of attrition though.

Thieves: Oozo’s build is actually better than mine at killing thieves since he runs Well of Darkness instead of Well of Corruption. However, I compensate by using Plague blind until they dump all their initiative trying to heartseeker spam me. Once they’ve blown their initiative, they’re extremely easy to kill. A single axe 2 eats half their HP all by itself. If they catch you off guard, go into Plague blind or DS if Plague is on cool down, and let it eat as many heartseekers as you can. DO NOT let them get you to under 50% HP if you can help it. The easiest way to kill a fleeing thief is to understand how Shadow Refuge works. When a thief enters the circle, they go invisible. If they stay in the circle for its entire duration, they will remain invisible for an additional 6 seconds after the circle expires. If they leave the circle before then, they will become visible instantly and will not go invisible again if they re-enter the circle. When the thief drops his Shadow Refuge, drop all your wells on it. This will drop him into downed state if he doesn’t run out of it. Most thieves will not move out Refuge until it expires, however. Even while downed the thief will remain invisible for up to 6 seconds if they’ve stayed inside its full duration. NEVER stop moving when thieves are around. Even if you think you’ve downed them inside of a refuge.

Elementalists: These guys are probably your toughest enemies. Most elementalists these days are bunker build. You cannot well bomb these guys, so don’t bother trying. Bunker eles have a million ways to remove conditions. Your best bet is to simply survive, which is easy to do with a combination of DS and Plague blind (Ele bunker builds are always dagger/dagger, so this means they must melee you). Once they’ve blown all their cool downs, they’ll run away. Theres nothing you can do to catch them either. They have more escapes than you have gap closers. They can clear all your chills and your immobilize faster than you can apply them. Non bunker builds are just like thieves though and will rip like tissue paper under any kind of pressure.

Rangers: The new kitten class. I don’t even know what to say about these guys. Just well bomb them. No, seriously, thats all you have to do. Run up to them, drop an immobilize, and bomb them. Just pretend their pet isn’t even there. It won’t do anything to you anyway.

Engineers: These guys can actually hurt you pretty bad if they’re grenade traited, and most are. My only advice is to simply never stop moving. Be unpredictable. Zig and zag like your life depends on it, because it does. Those grenades will melt your face. Fortunately, engineers are very rare. So rare in fact that I have never found myself in a 1v1 situation with them. I cannot give reliable information on how to deal with this class as a result.

Necromancers: At the risk of sounding elitest, I will not publicly post this information. While necromancers aren’t as common as most classes, I do not wish to give out any tactics that might be used against myself. I have found myself in 1v1 situations with other necromancers on more than a few occasions, and I certainly don’t want other classes that read this board to learn how to counter what little builds we already have. However, if you really would like information on fighting other necromancers as power/well build, just send me a PM and I’ll give you a few tips.

My god, what a wall of text that was. This was only supposed to be a single post about gear and traits and it somehow turned into a lecture. If you’ve read this far, then congratulations, you have some serious dedication to this class and I’d say you’re very serious about making the most out of the necromancer. One more tip for those that read this far. DS and Doom both work while knocked down. Use this to your advantage. I’m open to any discussions via in game chat if anyone has more questions. My username is to the left.

Thx Kravick ! big wall of text but really interesting !
Nice videos too !

If you’re going staff for aesthetics, you will probably be using a staff always on a necro, regardless of build, which is not the case for ele.
If you’re going staff for playstyle, then ele as ele has 20 staff abilities vs 5 for necro. The ele will be in staff all the time and range dpsing and the necro will just switch to staff occasionally and spend more time in dagger/sceptre.