Guild Wars 2

this is my thoughts on the necromancer from other mmos and how they all stack up compared to the necro in gw2

everquest 1
the necromancer in eq1 was considered at best medium in need for pve content but were considered the 2nd best class in pvp due to its control for , it’s over all dots , and life siphoning , it’s pet also made necros pretty decent for control over match , shadowknights were considered 1st among pvp classes only because of harm touch , without harm touch necros could defeat shadowknights also .

everquest online adventures
the necromancers in eqoa was considered in the same manner in pve as in eq1 and considered 2nd among pvp classes , but where it stood apart from the early version of necros was it’s lack of cc being not included but relied on heavy amounts of dots and life siphon .

dark age of camelot
in daoc there were 2 classes that had the chime of the crowds on what they prefer as their " necromancer " the first was the albion necromancer being immune to damage while in spirit form and only being able to be damaged when the pet was damaged , when thus pet was dead the albion necromancers life was cut very short and was in danger of dying , it focused on high dots , and life siphons , along side spells that weaken its opponent . the second version of the necromancer was for the midgard known as the bone dancer , it had it’s main general as the pet and it’s side pets be either archers , healers , dps , or a mixture of any , it’s damage was from the minions itself , its core was instant life siphon , major life siphon , dots , and cc was root . many people saw this as the real necromancer in daoc .

city of villains
in cov the character you could make could be a necromancer, you had your choice for minions to go on full attack leaving you more than likely to get destroyed to not having full armor when your minions were by your side left on guard to absorb damage you would take . this version being a mastermind dark dark gave you skills to use dots , snares and minions for your over all damage , they were your weapons of choice to win the majority of your battles in that game since even their attacks brought on more procs with their attack as the fight went on , they were considered 3rd best pvp in the game

grand fantasia
the necromancer in that game was considered among all classes a must need in pve but were considered very weak in pvp due to underpowered attacks, some would say it was fine , others would say that it was better than most classes, it carried most of it’s damaged through its dots since it could stack so many and such a short amount of time . it had a choice of 3 pets to choose from tank , dps , and caster , most used each pet based on their play style though most would say this is where necros shined for pve due to it’s choice in selecting a pet to play a certain role for the pve group or solo content .

everquest 2
the necromancer in eq2 was in the very same boat as it was to begin with in eq1 , but in eq2 necros were considered great for pve content , necros in pvp however were only great when they were using master spells instead of adapt or lower tiers , if when using masterline spells for their pets , roots , snares, fear , dots, weakens, they were thought of to be the best at pvp . but in order for them to be considered best they would have to invest in a lot of time to get the gear , abilities mastered and level cap .

age of conan
the necromancer was a weakened down version of other "minion based classes " and was subpar in pve , subpar in pvp , and was only thought of as a aoe spammer , nothing more .

guild wars 1
the necromancer in it’s early days was considered the best class in game for pve and pvp , due to its boon stripping , minion master role and over all damage dealer , then anet nerfed it into oblivion forcing it to be considered decent class but with just only short comings . most would say the necro is still a great class but is now just not as cheese , they still are great in some aspects of the game just not as great as they once were .

rift
the necromancer was good for pve content and excellent in pvp combat , its dots were it’s bread and butter for it’s overall damage , and pet choice made the necro stand out as a top of the line choice when going into pvp . some would say it was the most balanced class in of all mmos for it’s class design , i would disagree but thats just me

and to finish it all off , i will not include world of warcraft , warhammer online , due to the fact that the necromancer was never put in the games .

Sorry for butting in but err…

I am not that interested per se in how other MMO’s side GW1 did Necromancers… Really, I am not, this game is different from all of them, and design choices are always different in terms of balancing… That aside, now to my main point:

Please, learn to format your messages better =/

You made walls of text with not much appeal to them… Simple things like using capitals for titles like “Age of Conan” and “Guild Wars 1” makes it a much better read…
Then you got the option to use some more formatting options – they are here for a reason… Simply bolding something like a title puts emphasis on the topic, which people will notice, and thus enable them to browse through text better… The same thing counts for italics and underlining text...

Not just that, but if you want to save space so that people do not get disencouraged by walls of text, use spoilers… You can even give a title to a spoiler like so:

So yea… just a heads up – this piece of text you put effort in is simply not as enjoyable to read =/

GoogleBrandon.5073:

Sorry for butting in but err…

I am not that interested per se in how other MMO’s side GW1 did Necromancers… Really, I am not, this game is different from all of them, and design choices are always different in terms of balancing… That aside, now to my main point:

Please, learn to format your messages better =/

You made walls of text with not much appeal to them… Simple things like using capitals for titles like “Age of Conan” and “Guild Wars 1” makes it a much better read…
Then you got the option to use some more formatting options – they are here for a reason… Simply bolding something like a title puts emphasis on the topic, which people will notice, and thus enable them to browse through text better… The same thing counts for italics and underlining text...

Not just that, but if you want to save space so that people do not get disencouraged by walls of text, use spoilers… You can even give a title to a spoiler like so:

This is an attractive spoiler tag, so click me

hide spoiler

And there is not much here, but you still clicked it

So yea… just a heads up – this piece of text you put effort in is simply not as enjoyable to read =/

im glad it is not enjoyable to you . that made my day , and the same resentment goes to anyone else that has a "problem " with how i type things out . im not going to format for people who can’t just take it as it is !

… so I gave you advise and you decided to be an kitten about it =/

Good grief…

GoogleBrandon.5073:

… so I gave you advise and you decided to be an kitten about it =/

Good grief…

i have a topic talking about the necromancer and my problem with it for this game on the profession balance page that has 2726 views . getting peoples attention is not a problem for me when it comes to talking about something that people should have no problem in reading . this is not some newspaper in writing , this is just a thread off the internet . and because of that there is no need to make it artsy fartsy

While I do not enjoy the constant bumping of this thread I don’t mind having the OP writing his responses in single posts. That said please don’t let this evolve into a flame war guys.

I’ve never played an MMO before GW2 so it’s interesting to see how other MMOs designed their necromancer class. My first takeaway is that many of those designs included having minions with different purposes that mirrored the games trinity.
With GW2 trying to push their own trinity I feel that they had good ideas for the minions but like so many other things it just fell flat.

We have solid minions (Blood Fiend (healing), Bone Minion/Flesh Golem (CC) and Flesh Wurm (mobility)) which serve a purpose that reflects the trinity. Then we have minions that by definition should fall into the damage category but this is where it gets hard to balance as every minion does damage either way. Still Jagged Horrors (for all their shortcomings) fit this category perfectly as they are nothing but disposable small DPS increases (which they deliver in Condition Damage, again thematically appropirate). Bone Minions are quite solid in this regard but not quite there yet. If Putrid Explosion acted more like a high burst skill they would have a distinct utility that could help with an innate weakness of the necro (lacking high burst).

I’m no experienced MM myself so take my assumptions with a grain of salt but Shadow Fiend is borderline useless in my eyes (leaving out the damage component as every other minion does damage also). I feel if Anet had decided to give ALL skills in the game more utility and less damage, minions could have been absolutely awesome.

Now that I think of it if this game could move away from ‘moar dmg, moar dmg!’ to more utility based combat/encounters it would ascend to a higher plane of awesomeness.

please format…

As long time Rallos Zek player in EQ1, never saw necros as some huge insurmountable threat, they wre good in pvp, but what I feared more was well played bards or well set up wizards. But, yes greatest fear… a well played Sk who could drop you to 1/3 your health in a single button press. Good rogues were the same as that archetype is in every game, OP. Necros were just the attrition masters. Solid but nothing super special or unbeatable.

The niche Necro had in EQ was the solo experts as far as PVE was concerned. The reason I always ended up stopping playing my necros was because it was just so easy to play optimally in the PVE side, just kite, fear kite, agro kite, whatever, can’t kite something, pet tank, can’t do that, lifetap tank, just my god they were so powerful.