Guild Wars 2

Hi there,

I really appreciate every help you can give fighting condition Necros. I often roam solo with this build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fMAQNAnYVjAVd1lV+VgWBi2DNZeM5eUKSdqCW1A-jkyAoOBRKAA5JiZyioxWwCSNLslvopkFkVUYK2kKFAM7BA-w. I sometimes swap the shortbow to sword/torch or axe/torch. I know I’m still not full equiped but right now I win 90% of all 1v1 encounters. The hardest class to face is – for me – the Necro right now. I win against most power builds, but it’s hard. Today I faced a s/d+staff Necro and he totally shred me. I melted like butter within 5 seconds. I invited him into my group and did some duelling with him. I didn’t win a single one. He mostly won with about 80% hp. He attacked me, dropped a well, went into deathshroud, feared me, suddenly I lost 1/3 of my hp within 1 second and I was downed. He played mostly rabid and told me his build is “op”.

So can anyone provide me with tactics against condition Necros or is it something a condi ranger can’t win due to utilities like http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Corrupt_Boon, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Plague_Signet, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_spite, http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Well_of_Corruption or http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Well_of_Power ?

spray and pray …. honestly

A well played necro is very difficult to kill as a ranger, but :

1) Melandru runes gives you -25% condi duration and stun duration.
2) spray
3) Lemon grass poultry soup ( – 40% condi duration )

Necros are always hard simply because rangers most effective builds are condition builds, which are all mid-range setups and often lack condition removal. Necros can bomb conditions at longer range, and have better condition removal than us meaning its just one long uphill struggle.

Your best bet is to try bait them into using CDs whilst staying far enough away that they cant hit you with everything at once, and once thats done you can move in, but even then its hit and miss.

Really you need a GS and/or LB to fight them properly, to either quickly close the distance to them or to stay at long range, but very few builds run those for 1v1.

You’re running a spirit build which is extremely passive to start with. You have no reliable condi removal either, literally 4 every 10 seconds. Those 4 could be vulnerability, weakness, immobilise and crippled. Rangers active condi removal is pretty slacking anyway, you need to burst him down but you’re in dire gear with 2 spirits and axe. That’s not enough condi burst or power burst to get him down.

If you’re a human consider Prayer to Kormir, it cleanses 3 conditions every 40 seconds which is on par with Elementalists own cleansing fire. Healing spring removes conditions every pulse also. Necros are possibly our hardest opponents, not much I can say to you as it depends on the fight.

Necros are not very mobile, so you can simply leave if you realize you can’t beat him. Literally just using your sword 2 twice should get you completely out of harms way with a necro.

Necros are also often unable to get out of entangle in a timely manner.

That said, I’m not loving spirits for a WvW roaming build. It would be fine with a small group, but on your own I think you need more options. Also you have ZERO mobility in your linked build.

Watch Xsorus’s videos, notice how he watche’s his distance until the necro use heal.

Ho ya, forgot the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIxvZ0LnTNg

@LughLongArm: Thanks buddy, I’ll give it a try.

@Fluffball: Well, I’m used to spirits now and I really enjoy them, also solo. Yeah the mobility is another story, uuurgh.

LughLongArm.5460:

Watch Xsorus’s videos, notice how he watche’s his distance until the necro use heal.

This. Rangers really shouldn’t lose to Necros if you know what you are doing. Sorry, but once you make them pop their heal and if you bring adequate condition removal you should be able to maintain more pressure than them and be able to bring them down. Just watch out for their condition bombs (what I mean is you don’t want to soak everything they have, play defensive at first but keep constant pressure) and then dump everything you have. They have trouble evading skills and entangle is quite effective against them, especially if you use it after their heal.

Indoles.1467:

This. Rangers really shouldn’t lose to Necros if you know what you are doing. Sorry, but once you make them pop their heal and if you bring adequate condition removal you should be able to maintain more pressure than them and be able to bring them down. Just watch out for their condition bombs (what I mean is you don’t want to soak everything they have, play defensive at first but keep constant pressure) and then dump everything you have. They have trouble evading skills and entangle is quite effective against them, especially if you use it after their heal.

Lol same is true on a Necro… trust me on my necro fighting a ranger is a battle very much slanted in my favor having played both sides of the fence.

The best advice Ive seen here is to run away, since a necro cant chase effectively. Kiting can work if the necro doesnt know good anti-kiting mark use. Get within 600 and your going to eat a LOT of damage at no benefit to yourself. Entangle is only useful if the necro has his heal, teleport and transfers on cooldown and honestly does take moderately more skill than the average necro has to easily sidestep.

edit: I say this about good necros, I notice playing on my ranger majority dont seem to have a clue how to play to the classes benefits, but a good one is a roaming black hole of destruction, get too close and you will be destroyed … :P

Not much to advice. You’re playing semi-,ranged build which doesn’t have the advantage of range. But I’ll try to help you because I’ve been playing necro for a long time :
-Bait him. Don’t charge in, play to your strenghts. You have 3 up to 4 condition removals every 10 seconds, try to avoid being hit buy multiple of them at all costs. As others said, send your pet and start kiting. Pet may harass Necromancers and lower him a bit.
-Use range. It isn’t as simple as with other classes, but. You have two range weapons, each has one soft CC as cripple or chill. These two will help you maintaining maximum possible range. Enter the fight at max possible (900) range for your weapons. You can buy yourself some time with Concussive Shot or pet KDs/Fear to apply some pressure as Necromancers have poor access to stability in most popular faceroll builds, which are meant “op”.
-Never, ever get close to Necromancer outside of stomping or chasing him. He can turn the tide of the fight in seconds and keep you in his range (900, same as your with Scepter and Dagger, 1200 for staff which is not as dangerous, but may chill you, but couple dot on you and transfer up to 3 conditions on considerable cd). Be aware of Dark Path which may be used by better ones to get close to you. Whenever Necromancers hops into Death Shroud and you see a dark hand slowly coming at you, dodge it. If you won’t Necro will chill you, put some conditions and teleport straight to you. It has 1200 range, so be careful.
-Necromancer has a heal, which cleanses all conditions and heals him for each one removed for little extra. There’s nothing really you can do about it. It has long animation, when he raises his hand up and you can interrupt it with Concussive Shot. It may put some pressure on him and force him into defense, but be careful and be ready to play with range. If you can’t pressure him quickly, Necromancer won’t turn defensive, but ofensive instead, which is bad.
-Your main goal with Condition build is to watch for his heal. Once he uses it, you have 25 second window when he’s vunerable to conditions. Put some bleeds, send pet, burn him, put dots and instantly disengage. Let your conditions eat him alive. Do this till he gets very low, start panic/running around etc. or get downed.
-Necromancer can transfer his conditions to you or your pet with two skills. One is previously described for staff (1200 range) and transfers 3 conditions, dealing decent power damage. There’s little room for counterplaying it, watch out for his staff. Second is slowly moving, swarmy-like, dark and slow projectile with 900 range which also transfers 3 conditions, bounces and blinds, but can be easily dodged.
-If you see he’s using Signet of Spite, watch out for it with your Signet of Renewal. His cd is one of most powerful condition cooldowns in game and it shares cd with SoR. If he uses it, save your signet for cleansing it. It’s just massive condition overload at once, with various condis.

Now for dueling more advanced players. Not many of them on WvWvW, but you mind find some.

-Keep distance from your pet. Many of Necromancer’s skills will affect both of you and pet, making it possible to getting rid of your condition removal.
-Which leads to another point – look after your pet. It’s your only condition removal. Once it dies, you’re dead also. Swap it if it’s slow or you’ve recently transfered some condibomb.
-Be careful for Epidemic. Very small population of new fotm necros knows this trick, but they may spread all conditions from your pet to you with full duration if you’re within 600 range from pet. Good ones will use it after you use your SoR to transfer condibomb or after EB tick. Very deadly when properly used.
-Watch if you have a way back. Some Necromancers like to put Spectral Wall behind you to prevent you from escaping backwards. It has shorter range than your bow, but if you get closer, you may be tricked.
-You may consider switching one of your spirits to L.Reflex. Will give you vigor to evade more attacks as break fear, saving your SoR for greater danger.

That may be all. I have more specific advices, but it’s not the place to type it. Hope it will help!

Thanks to all of your for your input, great ideas so far, really appreciate it! I try to duel the Necro again when he’s online, with feedback, ofc. I really have to say – our class is the most broken but our community is the best working one

Wait till you get REALLY condi loaded before you use signet of renewal and use it immediately when you get hit by signet of spite. Once you use it make sure you swap pets so your pet doesn’t die or get hit by epidemic. Also, shared anguish is GREAT against necros. With all the evades and the natural vigor you don’t really need the vigor plus, it stop a fear which is actually huge in keeping you alive. The spirit elite heals like a boss so that should help you, its a self rez, and can be used as a condi clear so keep that in mind. The only thing I would suggest changing is picking up shared anquish and think about dropping stone spirit for storm spirit. Storm spirit currently hits for 3k base damage which is a lot and gives you swiftness which helps more than you think. It can be hard to land but since necros aren’t very mobile if you dodge through the necro and hit the active it should drop the active right on top of where the necro was and the aoe should hit wherever the necro gets to a second later. Besides that, hyena, spider, river drake might help you more than drakehound. But a lot of that is personal preference that I’ve found to be most helpful.