Guild Wars 2

Bzzt, this thread is old and needs to be severely updated. I didn’t know people still looked at this, and honestly I haven’t played the game at all this season due to the fact that ques are so unbelievably long. I will update this guide today, and as for matchups with Necromancer I will also add to that. Cheers!

Seriously? Are you serious?

So ArenaNet is kind enough and puts PvE Gear into a scene that may I remind you DOES NOT NEED IT AT ALL, and they don’t even make it hard to get as well. Even if you lost a match, you would STILL get access to chests that had Ascended Shards that are needed to buy Ascended Gear.

ArenaNet probably had reasoning to cut back on this, and that reason is people have always said that PvE Gear is needed as rewards to grow the PvP in this game. Let’s all be honest with ourselves right now and right here, let’s take a person who has never done a PvP game at all in their entire time playing Guild Wars 2 or they just hate PvP, go into PvP to just get Ascended Gear because they see how easy it is to get. The moment they finish and get the gear they need, do you REALLY THINK they’ll stick around and try to climb the rest of the season? Yeah, it grows the PvP community without a doubt, but it’s a one time hitter. Once they get what they needed, they leave. Now is every player that wants only Ascended Gear like this? No not at all. I’m not saying every single one is like this, but the majority are.

To me personally? I’d love for them to bring back SKINS ONLY as League Rewards and not PvE Gear, because I knew from the start when they added Ascended Gear into PvP that this exact thing would happen. The hate for PvE’ers would grow because they would rush into Ranked without knowing a single clue how to play just to farm Ascended Gear, toxicity would grow, and just all out anarchy would set loose.

And guess what? I was completely right! Do the PvE’ers who just want gear deserve the hate they are getting? Now you might think im an elitist pvper and im going to say yes, but its actually the opposite, no the PvE’ers do not need the toxicity and hate coming from us PvP’ers. The reason is, lets switch the sides, let the PvP’ers be the PvE’ers and the PvE’ers be the PvP’ers (i don’t know too much about pve so excuse me if i get a lot of this wrong lul) from what I hear Ascended Gear is hard to get in PvE, now if people found out a way to get it easier and lessen the grind, what do they do? Oh that’s completely 100% right, they go for the easiest way! Don’t even lie, you would too! That’s just what the PvE’ers did. They found an easier way to bypass the grind, every single player that has ever played a game has done this.

Now to a PvE player stand point, I can see why you are hating this, because they took out an easy grind for you, but you have to understand as well, to really grow a community you need something that players work hard for. If you didn’t gain any progression toward a chest whenever you lost, that would be something, but because you still do gain progression toward a chest even though you lost, you get Ascended Gear very easily in PvP, and that’s the reason why ArenaNet cut back on it, because of the fact that as much as we love to have easy grind in the game, it’s not a good way to grow a community.

The state of Necromancer in this upcoming season is filled with doubts and questions. A lot of people have strayed away from Necromancer because of the complain and crying about it’s sustain and how it’s easily vulnerable in sPvP.

This is true, I’m not going to deny that Necromancer is a tanky class and has a lot of sustain, because I’d be lying if I said it was. With that being said, YOU WILL get focused, you will probably go down more than once in a PvP match if you solo que and there will be some days that you can do absolutely nothing about it.

So what does that mean? Necromancer is bad in PvP? Should solo que Necromancers just stop because there’s absolutely no hope?

The answer is simple, no. Not at all. If you can’t handle yourself getting focused, then yes please go find another class because this class is clearly not for you. People need to understand that Necromancer’s sustain relies on a lot of factors, from team mates, luck, what abilities it has taken and what amulet/rune combination it has, and most importantly, the one behind the screen controlling the class.

Before the season starts, I will be updating the Necromancer PvP Guide in my signature, and making a brand new one that will explain more thoroughly and more in detail on how to survive better, and other tricks you can do on Necromancer.

But for now, YOU as the player playing Necromancer every single game you get into in PvP, you need to do your research. See what team comp the enemy team is running, and try to predict what they might be running as a build. Either power or condi, or even a hybrid. (Mostly 99% of the time classes run the meta build in ranked, so be sure to keep up to date what’s the metabuild.)

Let me give you some words of wisdom. This is how these 2 stats work in PvP.

Vitality=Very good for reducing Condition Damage
Toughness=Very good for reducing Power Damage

Plan accordingly, on what amulet you will be taking and what rune you’ll be taking. Don’t be afraid to change up your build to try and survive better against either a power comp on the other side or a condi comp on the other side. Most of the time, if there’s only 2 condi class on the other side but 3 power, pick a toughness amulet and a toughness rune. The reason? Because Necromancer has many condition cleanses on fairly low cool down. Use the abilities/amulet/rune/sigils/traits to your advantage to try and survive longer.

Remember, always and when I mean always I MEAN ALWAYS expect to be focused and be prepared to get focused every single game you step into. That’s the team strategy around Necromancer, you get focused a lot because you are squishy, but also very dangerous.

I’ve been talking about why Necromancer is weak, and because of its lack of sustain, but the biggest advantage that Necromancer has is it is the king of teamfighting. No other class has the DPS teamfighting capability of a Necromancer. Necromancer has both a ton of AoE damage and Single Target damage to do its killing, but even though it is the greatest teamfighter, you will die and explore the wonders of down state A LOT if you are not prepared to be focused.

I’ll be going more in depth about Necromancer soon, when my new guide hits the forums, if you guys are still having trouble on Necromancer, go check that out when it gets posted by me, as I can tell you right now, it will be fully in depth and thorough about what to do and what not to do on Necromancer.

Long story short, is necromancer viable this upcoming season? Absolutely. Is it an easy class to play and learn? Absolutely. Is it an easy class to survive and position on? No, not at all. Always remember, Necromancer is the king and god of teamfighting dps, but it suffers the major blow back of being taken down easily into downstate, if the one using necromancer is not prepared to take the focus.

Hey there axl, for PvP necromancer help I’m going to message you in-game for this as telling you here would take too much time. Also, if you want, check out the Necromancer PvP Guide that I created on my signature. Also, to Silv saying that Necromancers can’t take any 1v1’s, you are completely wrong. Necro can take several 1v1’s, but there’s no point in taking them as Necro is a teamfighter.

Also, I’d like to list a couple of 1v1s that Necromancer can take and potentially win, keep in mind player skill and the builds that players are running is taken to account as well. If you want to get in depth and ask questions and call me an idiot and say, “LOL NO WAY NECRO CAN WIN THAT MATCHUP YOU IDIOT” or the exact opposite “LOL NO WAY NECRO CAN’T WIN THAT MATCHUP YOU IDIOT” I will do thorough explanations of the matchup if you guys want.

Necromancer vs Engineer= Condi wins this very easily

Necromancer vs Condi Warrior= Depends on player skill and build. Necro can win this tho

Necromancer vs Mesmer= No just no just run don’t bother don’t be an idiot

Necromancer vs Revenant= Depends on player skill, and build Necro can win this tho

Necromancer vs Druid= No just no just run don’t bother don’t be an idiot

Necromancer vs Power Warrior= No just no just run don’t bother don’t be an idiot

Necromancer vs Dragonhunter= Depends on player skill and AWARENESS cough dont step on traps cough Necro can win this tho

Necromancer vs Burn Guard= Condi wins this very easily if player skill is high

Necromancer vs Necromancer= Depends on player skill and build, either way a necro wins lol

Necromancer vs Thief= Depends on Life Force, player skill, and build. Necro can win

Necromancer vs Elementalist= Don’t ever take this 1v1, as it’s never ending.

Sigh,

As someone who has mained Necromancer since launch at PvP, I know what a change Necromancer has taken from being a tanky bruiser class to a now squishy one.

Let me start off by saying, Necromancer IS THE BEST teamfighter in this game. Do NOT even argue with this statement as that is the truth and nothing BUT the truth. With that being said, Necromancer’s DPS potential is off the roof. Yes, I am fairly aware that people tunnel focus you at the first mid fight and with Necromancer being squishy as it is, it will kill a lot of unexperienced Necromancers. But there are counters to this.

Kite correctly, know map layout and know where Steal can’t work on you (against thieves)

With Thief Comps I take Shout Heal and Flesh Wurm for the Life Force so Shroud can save you

Coordinate with the support on you’re team

Always stay in ranged if you are low on Life Force, this is the #1 mistake that most necromancers make

If you are focused, use Spectral Armor to gain Life Force as damage you take is converted into LF

Rise even with it’s nerf state, can still overwhelmingly do Damage Mitigation out from you and trigger traps from Dragonhunters

If you are Solo Qued I highly recommend taking the Power Build with Paladin’s as THIS WILL help you.

Flesh Wurm can be used for vertical mobility to disengage immediately and it’s a stun breaker. Also, to prevent your Wurm from being killed before you use it be smart and don’t be putting it to the most obvious of spots.

Reaper’s Mark is an underrated mark for Necromancer. My most favorite use of it is against thieves, I lay the mark directly where I am standing while I’m ranging down other marks or Scepter/Axe skills.

Yes, I am quite aware that Necromancer can’t take many 1v1 matchups (except for Engineer, we eat Engineer’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 1v1’s well condi necros that is) And yes I am completely aware that the class has turned into Downstate 9000. But this does not mean AT ALL that Necromancer is in a terrible spot. Do not think that going down all the time or not being able to 1v1 a lot of classes makes Necromancer automatically terrible and need a buff instantly. An experienced veteran Necromancer with the right build and even better, a good support on the team can inflict a lot of pain in teamfights, and I mean A LOT OF PAIN. Especially an Elementalist/Necromancer Duo can do A TON of damage to people in teamfights.

Would I wanna see Necromancer being able to 1v1 again or at least have its damage reduced a bit while buffing its sustain so it can survive longer? Maybe, but the identity of Necromancer right now is a very high damage teamfighter with the drawback of being squishy if in the hands of people not prepared to take the focus they will be getting.

DrDivine.5378:

Could you or someone link me a build using what you think works best? I’m trying to find a solid reaper build.

Hello fellow Reaper! My name’s Dustin and I have mained necromancer in pvp since launch and would be more than happy to help you

Before I can give you a build though, are you planning on solo queing or duo queing? Also do you prefer Direct Damage or Condition Damage? Please answer so I can give you the right build to work with!

So ArenaNet decided to be great lads and have a poll about whether or not they should remove the ability to class stack in games. To be completely honest, I thought that the Yes side was going to annihilate and be a landslide victory, but its the oppsite. No side is actually winning. So I’ve gathered some thoughts as to why the poll is so close, with either one at almost 50-50

To be honest with you, class locking professions would be amazing. If ArenaNet can actually make it work. First off, they need to remove the ready bar, as people in lower divisions need to understand not to insta-ready and put some time and thought into their team composition and roles. Secondly, give each team the usual 1 minute and 15 seconds (i think) before the match starts to reroll into classes and change some things up in their builds. THEN after the timer is gone, and match starts, deny players from switching classes while the game is still going on. Lock them into the class they’re playing only until the game ends. This system would work tremendously well in my complete honest opinion and would put sPvP in the right direction.

BUT, even though with all those following things said, there is one flaw that players fear with class locking, and that is que times. Also not to mention, there are meta classes that have more population than any other class, and there are players that only have one character and they can’t multi-class any other classes. So this makes que times especially hard. I can’t imagine what legend/platinum que times will look like if this is implemented.

Like I said, this is a great idea in my honest opinion from ArenaNet, but they need to find a way to class lock while not having que times over 10+ minutes. Tell me what you’re thoughts are as well, as this is truly a close debate between the PvP community.

With the season almost at an end, I would like to say thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread. Hopefully we can get some more great ideas on this thread about what classes to buff/nerf, also I would like to yell out

Please, any ArenaNet developer, come take a look at this thread and get some ideas off of the community that plays PvP. Thank you!

Arfilion.2645:

I want to start playing the power reaper build from metabattle that nowadays we see everywhere but im totally new at necro and the page doesnt explain it. Can someone detail me our role and how to play this? Thank you guys

Hey there Arfilion! My name is Divine, I’m the original creator of the Necromancer PvP Guide here in the forums. As for the Power Boonstrip spec, it’s quite easy to play.

Start the game of going to the starting midfight. NEVER go far or capture close. Stay in ranged with staff and build your life force using your marks. NEVER spam your marks in one place at a time and make sure to not use the #4 mark on staff unless you have conditions on you that you need to transfer, as #4 mark is one of your very few condition cleanses.

Swap to your Axe/Warhorn and use the #2 ability on Axe on a enemy that is low on health or that is a squishy class. Before going into Reaper’s Shroud, cast Chill to the Bone and Locust Swarm and try to squeeze in Axe’s #3 ability in there for a double Unholy Feast (another one procs when entering Shroud)

Corrupt Boon is a great boon corrupt to any enemy like a Dragonhunter as its unblockable.

Just keep playing the spec, and you will gradually get better at it. Have fun m8!

Supreme.3164:

Divine.3279:

Supreme.3164:

Divine.3279:

r

Y

You keep insulting people saying :" if you’re a good player you could make it work", if you’re that much better than us….PROVE IT WITH A LINK NO EMPTY TALK ‘cause that’s all you’re been using so far…empty talk

Elementalist: Another class that’s in a great spot right now in the meta. People thought it would die due to Cleric’s Amulet being taken out, but Elementalist is still the king of team support. Can think of 0 changes to Elementalist as well as of right now.

Loads of crap..eles have been using the same set up for the last 1.5 year, all it changed is the amulet and the class got noticeably weaker..to a point where nobody consider you a threat anymore…merely an annoyance

P.S stupid me XD I keep forgetting the main rule of MMOs : what can’t kill me or endanger me is in a good spot and it’s balanced how could I possibly forget that?

Ceimash was able to get to legend just by using core necromancer without Reaper.
I can do the same thing on Necro as well. Sure, it requires a lot more skill and is harder but it isn’t impossible and it is DOABLE. S/F Fresh Air Eles on EU have gotten to Legend. Sizer who plays S/D thief and not meta HAS GOTTEN TO LEGEND. Maygi on NA who plays D/D condi thief HAS GOTTEN TO LEGEND. Core LB power rangers have gotten to legend, burn guardians have gotten to legend, Revenants who run Mallyx instead of Shiro have gotten to legend. Do I need to list anymore for you to get the point? And i’m not insulting anyone, it is a FACT not an OPINION its a FACT that if you are highly skilled enough you can make a build that you created work. As for elementalist, the support build is only RECOMMENDED to be ran, does it mean you are mandatory to run it? Absolutely not. Stop with your Q.Qing and putting salt on this thread that I made so that ArenaNet can get ideas off to balance their classes. Unless you have something informative to say rather than Q.Q all day then say it, but if you don’t leave.

Divine.3279:

Ranger: With Celestial Avatar getting nerfed and having that 15 second cooldown time, I really have found no problems with Rangers, they have an excellent spot in the meta. Well, except for one tiny thing. The Signet of the Wild glitch. If you don’t know, when you activate Signet of the Wild, it does unblockable damage for a time. It’s a bug/glitch because ArenaNet never officially put it in their balance patch notes, and it’s been a glitch for a while now. I’m hoping ArenaNet fixes that bug or glitch, unless they actually intended to implement that into the game.

I would actually like for a developer to answer this question. I’m really curious if the Signet of the Wild glitch is going to be in the game now permanently or is it a thing that developers still haven’t fixed?

Highlie.7641:

If it where up to me i would just remove PI from the trait list and add it onto certain abilities.

Like swords steath attack
staff stealth attack
IP daggers (if you rupt)
Bandits defense (kick, if you interuppt)
S wire, again if you rupt
s/p 3 is debatable i guess (i can see arguments for both sides)

it would not work on headshot, B/v or Steal.

A bit harder to use, while it would be a bit less spammable, and if the thief is spamming PI abilities at least they all have diffrent animations (easier to dodge)

The problem is AOE healing + far to many boon’s. the Rips are working great for thieves but the sheer amount of aoe healing is making it hard for other set’s to become meta. alot of thieves are using PI to give the extra kick vs these specs.

(tired of typing so if you want to see what i’m talking about roll s/d staff and go to a team fight)

I already discussed which I honestly think is a great counter to pulmonary. Add an internal cooldown to the trait that gives Pulmonary in the Daredevil tree which is Impacting Disruption. This way, thieves cant spam headshot or interrupt abilities and get spam PI.

Rodzynald.5897:

Divine.3279:

Engineer: Don’t know about you guys, but Engineer has no problems with me at all, can’t think of anything that would be nerfed/buffed. In my honest opinion, it’s in a very great spot at the moment with high damage and high support with that amazing Rezz power.

Well you said it. Great DPS along with defensive capabilities and support. Let’s not forget scrapper’s hammer that has both damage and a secondary strong effects that are used in defense or mobility, very versatile and bunkerish. This seems quite a bit over the top.
+ a passive life-saver.

Maybe nerf it’s sustain a tad bit then, but overall Engineers really don’t cause any balance problems in the current meta. If focused hard in a teamfight they can go down and be killed.

Supreme.3164:

Divine.3279:

@Alex Shatter

Not all builds work, but it doesn’t mean you can’t make your own build that fits your play style. You have to remember, 90% of it is on the person behind the screen, and builds are only 10% of it.

Yes! yes yes yes!…and where are your videos showing this build variety?
You keep shouting from distance..but nothing to back up your arguments

I made this thread for people to talk about class balancing, not for people to Q.Q. over build variety. I won’t lie and try to argue, yes almost the entire player base runs meta because of metabattle.com but that doesn’t mean you can’t create your own build that you can run as well. It will require you a little bit more skill to do this, but it is doable. Remember, much of it is in skill level of the player not the build itself. If you are a good player, I’m sure you can make a build that you created work.

@Alex Shatter

Not all builds work, but it doesn’t mean you can’t make your own build that fits your play style. You have to remember, 90% of it is on the person behind the screen, and builds are only 10% of it.

Zenith.7301:

Divine.3279:

Zenith.7301:

Xillllix.3485:

The history of Tempest in 2 sentences:

Concept artists make a epic image of an elementalist summoning a huge storm.

Developer takes that concept and turns it into a heal-bot profession, ruining the class gameplay variety and betraying the no-trinity element of the launch manifesto in the process.

Same with druid. Turn the ranger from a huntsman/warden into a healbot.

Nerf all their heal coefficients so they can’t run offensive builds and have to stack healing power gear.

You don’t need gear in PvP. Also, Druid isn’t a healbot in PvP, it can do massive damage in the PvP scene. You guys need to understand YOU ARE NOT FORCED TO RUN THE META, NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO RUN META. You can run a build that suits to your preference. I REPEAT, NO ONE FORCES YOU TO RUN META. Now please, enough of these replies I want to see people’s opinions on what should be nerfed/buffed around classes.

The gear exists in pvp, it’s just that the stats are condensed into an amulet.

Just because it’s SPVP doesn’t mean the coefficients changed to not need as much healing power.

And druid does jackkitten damage. Druid specialization is a DPS loss from core ranger. I don’t even know how you can bother arguing this.

What big damage are you talking about, LB2, a reflectable 100b that can be negated by one dodge frame?

Power druid/ranger sustained damage is garbage, its weapons have abysmal autoattack DPS. The burst is slow and heavily telegraphed.

The most potent and persistent builds for ranger have always been condi bunker builds because rangers don’t pay a pet tax on condition damage.

Conditions do the same damage for ranger as they do other classes.

Ranger power weapons outside longbow all have incredibly low power and base damage coefficients due to the existence of the pet, even though it has been shown in ample testing that the pets are a minuscule, poorly scaling portion of ranger damage that doesn’t compensate for the coefficient/base value deficits.

Rangers have tons of damage that they can dish out with their weapons and pets. You don’t have to run meta. How many times do I have to say it, YOU DONT HAVE TO RUN THE kittenING META. Jesus guys get that through your head, ITS NOT A REQUIREMENT TO RUN THE META. If you want to roll a damage dealing ranger/druid go ahead and do it, you don’t need to run meta.

Zenith.7301:

Xillllix.3485:

The history of Tempest in 2 sentences:

Concept artists make a epic image of an elementalist summoning a huge storm.

Developer takes that concept and turns it into a heal-bot profession, ruining the class gameplay variety and betraying the no-trinity element of the launch manifesto in the process.

Same with druid. Turn the ranger from a huntsman/warden into a healbot.

Nerf all their heal coefficients so they can’t run offensive builds and have to stack healing power gear.

You don’t need gear in PvP. Also, Druid isn’t a healbot in PvP, it can do massive damage in the PvP scene. You guys need to understand YOU ARE NOT FORCED TO RUN THE META, NO ONE IS FORCING YOU TO RUN META. You can run a build that suits to your preference. I REPEAT, NO ONE FORCES YOU TO RUN META. Now please, enough of these replies I want to see people’s opinions on what should be nerfed/buffed around classes.

Ross Biddle.2367:

XxsdgxX.8109:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Exedore.6320:

Celtus.8456:

Gw2 PvP in 2017 is like: “Guys if everyone is broken that means the game is balanced right?!?!”

Pretty much.

OP’s list is funny. Builds which “play themselves” like DH and warrior are fine, but revenant, which requires actual thought and decision making, is underpowered.

FrostDraco.8306:

Because getting stab on dodge and a dps rotation consisting of auto attack and precision strike whenever its up is hard to master how?

Lol XD

Yes so loool, so now why dont you plz get to Legendary with a Rev and show me how many more Revs than warriors (and to any other class really) are in it.

What, like the last few seasons when everybody and their dog was playing them because of how broken and faceroll they are?

Interesting that, the moment they dont have their full bag of bullkitten to make them an easy spam one button do it all class with a super easy ride over every bodies grave they evaporate, hmm. Nothing’s changed about Rev’s design. It’s simply been neutered for the moment to take it from the scene.

This has actually been healthy for the game this season.

Revenant has never been a easy one spam button class. What are you talking about? Revenant requires a lot of mechanical skill to play and is one of the harder classes to play because you have to manage a lot of things to play Revenant.

Vague Memory.2817:

I disagree with almost everything the OP says. In his opinion most classes are in a great position. I’ll comment on a few.

Warr. Yes way over the top at the moment, I often see a lot of players just trying to get away from them because of ridiculous high damage, blocks, invulns, condi negation, and more importantly extreme mobility in combat which means they travel faster than most of of your skill cast times. When people say the way to beat warrior is to kite them, I think that is a strong indication that they don’t have many effective counters to their skills. This is akin to breaking LoS, another indication of class strength or class weakness depending on whether you are the one doing this or not.

Herald needs too little skill for too much reward. Traps have no cast time and can be laid instantly all in one go. On a key macro guards can teleport to you and burst you down with traps and burns instantly. They need to give cast times to the traps, so that they are used tactically and can be interrupted. Cap domination with traps is an unfair advantage as most classes cannot fight on cap with them for too long without dying.

Reaper shroud is a cheap low skill I win button.

Mesmer is not in a good place. About 95% of mes play condi builds, not because it is so good, but because compared to other classes power builds are so relatively bad at damage, condi removal with virtually no access to stability.

Some of the problems are not inherent in the classes, but to do with skills that require little skill for a lot of effect (damage, healing, cc – or even worse combinations of these in one skill) or need no skill at all such as passive effects. Very large damage aoe fields should be reduced in diameter so you have to use skill to be rewarded and also be non-spammable. No class should hard counter another (that is is just terrible PvP design). Stop balancing classes around Esports when virtually no one is interested in it and will never be playing at that level.

So let me get this straight. You consider Herald aka Revenant needs little skill for too much reward? This absolutely makes no sense whatsoever as Revenant already got nerfed both on its Boon sharing and its damage, and Revenant requires mechanical skill to play the class correctly. Reaper Shroud a cheap button to win? Without Reaper Shroud necro would be unplayable and would be in the downstate 99% of the time so there’s a 2nd thing you got wrong. Mesmer not being in a good place because people run the meta build for it? This absolutely makes no sense whatsoever so that’s the 3rd thing you got wrong. Also, no mmo has ever gotten balance right, there will always be classes that hard counter other classes because of they’re builds and roles. Of course a roamer like thief are going to get hard countered by a bunker like druid/guardian.

Just a friendly bump to my guide so that people who want to try necromancer in pvp can see ^^

Nikkinella.8254:

Divine.3279:

Xillllix.3485:

Divine.3279:

Would like to point out that this meta in my honest opinion has been one of the greatest we’ve had so far.

Unless you’re an elementalist and can only heal others with the 1 viable build while dodging like a monkey.

You know there’s other viable builds for elementalist? No one forces you to run meta. Meta just means the most popular and flavor of the month, and the elementalist meta is mainly run because IT IS THE BEST support as of right now. But no one absolutely forces you to run it.

Viable below gold/plat where you can fight bad players that dont know when to dodge. If you are playing anything besides healbot on ele, you’re a free kill to any player with a fraction of skill on any other class. Try getting to legendary on s/f fresh air ele, let me know how that goes for you.

People have actually got on legendary on s/f fresh air ele or some other weird builds. You have to remember about 45% of winning is your build, the other 55% is the person behind the screen’s skill.

Crowley.8761:

I think the current meta is fine compared to HoT in general (although I’ve been maining Rev which I’ve retired out of frustration now), but HoT kinda blew the game apart so that’s not saying much.

The reason I think that is that the elite speccs are a requirement, not a choice. Hence build diversity went out the window and you pretty much know exactly what you’re gonna be up against just by looking at classes.

Elite specs aren’t a requirement for some builds and some classes actually can be played without elite spec. It truly depends on the person behind the screen though to make them work.

Also, you have to remember they made Elite Specs powerful because if they were the same as core specs, no one would buy the expansion. It was a marketing standpoint.

Please everyone, I made this thread for everyone to discuss their own opinions on what should be buffed or nerfed for the next balance patch. I’m trying to make this thread a Suggestion Thread for ArenaNet to look at and hopefully get ideas from us for the next balance patch. If you are just going to Q.Q and put salt on this thread and complain how this meta is bad and not give actual opinions on how classes should be balanced please leave.

Exedore.6320:

Celtus.8456:

Gw2 PvP in 2017 is like: “Guys if everyone is broken that means the game is balanced right?!?!”

Pretty much.

OP’s list is funny. Builds which “play themselves” like DH and warrior are fine, but revenant, which requires actual thought and decision making, is underpowered.

Rev is underpowered. Hopefully ArenaNet buffs it, because it’s pretty trash how it got destroyed by the nerf to PS and SoTm

Xillllix.3485:

Divine.3279:

Would like to point out that this meta in my honest opinion has been one of the greatest we’ve had so far.

Unless you’re an elementalist and can only heal others with the 1 viable build while dodging like a monkey.

You know there’s other viable builds for elementalist? No one forces you to run meta. Meta just means the most popular and flavor of the month, and the elementalist meta is mainly run because IT IS THE BEST support as of right now. But no one absolutely forces you to run it.

Menyus.4610:

10 sec cd a"small nerf " i dont now what to say…..

I mean, I don’t know what to tell you buddy. If you have a better a suggestion type it down because the entire Pulmonary Impact nerf discussion has been a salt mine for a very long time.

Would like to point out that this meta in my honest opinion has been one of the greatest we’ve had so far.

Engineer: Don’t know about you guys, but Engineer has no problems with me at all, can’t think of anything that would be nerfed/buffed. In my honest opinion, it’s in a very great spot at the moment with high damage and high support with that amazing Rezz power.

Ranger: With Celestial Avatar getting nerfed and having that 15 second cooldown time, I really have found no problems with Rangers, they have an excellent spot in the meta. Well, except for one tiny thing. The Signet of the Wild glitch. If you don’t know, when you activate Signet of the Wild, it does unblockable damage for a time. It’s a bug/glitch because ArenaNet never officially put it in their balance patch notes, and it’s been a glitch for a while now. I’m hoping ArenaNet fixes that bug or glitch, unless they actually intended to implement that into the game.

Thief: Oh boy here comes the fun class to talk about balancing. There has been A LOT of salt and crying about thief. 99% of thief abilities are fine, except for the 1% that stood out this meta. Pulmonary Impact. Honestly, I don’t see what’s the point of crying about Pulmonary Impact, as in my honest opinion it’s not really that overpowered and Thief being squishy as all hell as it is already really don’t need another nerf, but if I don’t mention some kind of nerf to PI, this thread will become a salt mine in a second so here’s my 2 cents on how they should change Pulmonary. Impacting Disruption is the trait in the Daredevil tree that states “enemies suffer a pulmonary impact when interrupted.” Just give the trait a 10 second cooldown or something. If you guys don’t know, traits CAN HAVE cooldowns set on them. Why not do the same to Impacting Disruption so you can’t spam Headshot and expect to get Pulmonary every time

Necromancer: This is my master class. I’ve played Necromancer for a very long time in sPvP so I’m going to try my absolute best and hardest to be unbiased. Necromancer is the greatest team fighter in the game right now. Whenever you go into Reaper Shroud in team fights, it almost always guarantees a kill. Honestly, Necromancer right now needs absolutely 0 changes, as even though it has absolute insane damage, it doesn’t have any good sustain at all like Warrior. Or, it could use 1 change, and that change is nerfing Necromancer’s damage while buffing its sustain. That’s really the only change I can think of, as like I said Necromancer is in a very great spot at the moment, having the throne and title of being the best team fighter right now.

Mesmer: In a great spot right now in the meta in my honest opinion. Can provide massive team movement with Portal and can do high shatter damage and team plays with Moa. Can honestly think of 0 changes to Mesmer as of right now.

Elementalist: Another class that’s in a great spot right now in the meta. People thought it would die due to Cleric’s Amulet being taken out, but Elementalist is still the king of team support. Can think of 0 changes to Elementalist as well as of right now.

That’s my honest opinions on what should be changed in the new balance patch. Like I said, discuss your opinions on this thread on what should be changed and hopefully, just HOPEFULLY ArenaNet looks at this thread and receives the feedback we are trying to give them of the balance.

This thread will mainly be a list of the current state of all the 9 classes in PvP. As the season is near ending, a new balance patch will surely come out, so I have made this thread so that people can discuss things that can be nerfed/buffed. Hopefully, ArenaNet considers some of the ideas said in this thread.

PLEASE TRY TO KEEP THE SALT LEVEL TO LOW! TOO MUCH SODIUM IS BAD FOR YOU! Respect other people’s opinions on what they think should be buffed or nerfed and debate using facts, if possible that is.

I’ll start of with what I think is the current state of classes in PvP.

Warrior: Warrior is in a very good spot in PvP, a lot of people are running it right now. Honestly, my opinion on Warrior is that it has good sustain with double Endures, and Resistance stacks while doing insane damage. My personal opinion is to either nerf warrior’s damage, or nerf it’s sustain. (Mainly nerf it’s damage, as it’s sustain really is fine, but being immune to both power damage and condition damage (resistance) while being able to do a lot of damage is a tad bit overpowered)

Guardian: A lot of people always, ALWAYS complain about Guardian in PvP. In my complete honest unbiased opinion, Guardian needs absolutely no changes as of right now. Except for maybe reduce trap damage just a tiny bit, not too much maybe 5-8%. People always complain about Guardians because of traps that they put, but honestly if you are dumb enough to walk into mid and expecting there to not be traps with guardians on the other team, you really do deserve to get killed by traps. Guardian’s are not anywhere near the level of overpowered. Be smart and don’t walk in traps and bind dodge.

Revenant: Rest in peace. You will be remembered Revenant. In all seriousness, Revenant got hit pretty hard in the last balance patch. The nerf to PS and SoTM really set this class to the bottom of the meta. It can still do good damage and party boonshare, but these days Revenants die very fast and very easily. I have 2 suggestions on how to fix Revenant and put it back into the meta. Make the Mallyx/Glint version of Revenant great again (there has been a lack of condition damage builds in this meta so far. 6 metas are power damage, only Mesmer being Condition Damage.) or turn Revenant into a full support class by buffing/reworking Ventari heals and combo that with Glint. We’ll just have to wait and see what awaits Revenant, hopefully no more nerfs, as the class can use some buffs at this point in time.

I’m fine with daze/stuns staying in PvP, as they are essential to some classes in order for them to play well. If they are taken out, then classes like Warrior will lose most of their viability in PvP. What I honestly think ArenaNet should do is to implement a system (got this off from another MMO which is Star Wars the Old Republic) is to add a bar somewhere in your interface where that bars fills up every time you are stunned. When that bar is full, you can’t get stunned anymore until the bar decreases back down. So this can ensure that spamming of stuns/dazes isn’t a problem.

As a person that has mained Necromancer in PvP since launch, I won’t deny that Necromancer is in a awkward spot when it comes to solo que. As most Necromancers do die A LOT because we are very squishy.

But this does not account for all Necromancers. I’m currently in Legend on Europe and I’ve solo qued all the way up there as a Necromancer. Yes ,you will get focused, but with the combinations of some excellent kiting and Rise, you can mitigate some damage coming onto you as a Necromancer. Also, the meta build for Necromancer right now which is the Power build can do fairly decent in 1v1’s (although you shouldn’t really take a 1v1 as a Necromancer unless it’s an Engineer) and it can do a ton of damage in teamfights. Don’t mistake Necromancer for being useless, as if a good one is on your team, even without a support they are a force to be threatened with as they can always almost guarantee a kill if they go into Reaper’s Shroud during a teamfight.

Bio Flame.4276:

What I struggle with is that sometimes the matchmaking is so awful and terrible that even though I win, I still feel disgusted with it

Don’t tell me you’ve never felt like that.

No, I’ve never felt that feeling before. I hate bringing it up, but I play on Europe (where games are a little bit closer and people tend to be less idiots.) So, I’ve never felt bad about winning because mostly all games I play are either really close or just intense because the enemy team is playing a lot better than ours.

North America is not anywhere near the skill level of Europe. That’s just the cold hard fact.

Are there good players on North America? Of course there are, but they are lacking compared to the amount of good players in Europe. Europe has been dominant in PvP for quite awhile now. NA Gold is like EU Bronze, that’s how much more skilled Europe is PvP based wise.

Hey man you never know, maybe he just ate his breakfast this morning and got a boost to his abilities :P

Archon.6480:

Divine.3279:

Archon.6480:

Divine.3279:

That’s people for you my friend. Even in Platinum 3 where I am at the moment I still see people sitting on a node and leaving the team at a 4v5, still see idiots rushing to far and dying, still see people playing classes they have 0 clue how to play because of the stupid PvE backpiece ArenaNet implemented.

…or they have a clue how to play and are farming you.

So, you’re telling me when there’s someone sitting on a home node the entire game the other team has a “clue how to play and are farming you.” When a teammate of mine plays lets say Druid for the first time ever in ranked and gets killed over and over the enemy team has “clue how to play and are farming you.” What are you even trying to say here? Please clarify because I really don’t understand.

He has friends on the other team and is helping them farm you. If he stood in home base, it would be obvious. So instead, he runs around being a rally bot and does dumb things the whole match.

Or do you really think that is how he always plays and magically got into Platinum?

Yeah, okay so matchmaking is rigged and people “win-trade.” And this Guardian wasn’t in Platinum, he was in Gold and got matchmaked into Platinum for some odd reason. Before you start spouting out nonsense like this, first let’s be clear that I play in Europe. Do incidents like people paying the other team to do stupid kitten happen in Europe? Probably, but very rarely does it happen up on Platinum. North America is far worse with this kind of problems so I’m guessing that’s the server you play on, and also yes, some people are just that terrible because they get carried in their placement matches and get placed very high up even though they are terrible.

Mushin.3928:

Thanks for the constructive feedback. I can see why the gw2 pvp player base is so very, very small.

very, very small huh? The PvP player base I can assure you is healthy and alive, unless you play on North America then that might be the problem as that region typically has less players to the flood of NA players transferring to Europe. PvP was better off without PvE reward gear, and it always will be better off without it. Like I said, why are you complaining about this? What did you expect to happen when you complained about not getting enough shards for your precious PvE gear on the PvP section of the forums? The hate that PvP’ers have for PvE based players are at an all time high right now due to a lot of PvE’ers queing for Ranked just for Ascended Gear and dragging people down because they just rush into Ranked without a clue what to do. Just be thankful that ArenaNet gives you Ascended Gear in PvP, because trust me if PvP’ers had it their way, we would vote for Ascended Gear to be taken out immediately from PvP as it is useless utter garbage to mostly the entire PvP community.

Archon.6480:

Divine.3279:

That’s people for you my friend. Even in Platinum 3 where I am at the moment I still see people sitting on a node and leaving the team at a 4v5, still see idiots rushing to far and dying, still see people playing classes they have 0 clue how to play because of the stupid PvE backpiece ArenaNet implemented.

…or they have a clue how to play and are farming you.

So, you’re telling me when there’s someone sitting on a home node the entire game the other team has a “clue how to play and are farming you.” When a teammate of mine plays lets say Druid for the first time ever in ranked and gets killed over and over the enemy team has “clue how to play and are farming you.” What are you even trying to say here? Please clarify because I really don’t understand.

You should even honestly be lucky that ArenaNet decided to implement new awards. Awarding PvE Gear to a scene that doesn’t even need it at all was plenty generous enough.

VoidNard.7206:

I mean….. why am I forced to play a healing/support class to be viable in pvp. When it.comes to pve, anything is possible. For pvp I’m stuck with a healing I don’t want to play. Unless I’m in a group of 5 other players and everything is coordinated, it’s freaking boring to heal….. but I have to because elite spec is much much stronger than core builds. Honestly, screw you Anet. Also, Im not bored out of my mind with this game and trying new build. I’m kittened that I’m stuck playing only one viable build until the next expansion. I don’t play pvp for this reason.

There is a thing called other classes you know. Just saying, don’t wanna sound mean but that is a thing these days. Also, you’re not forced by ANYONE to play this or that kind of build to be viable in PvP, you can always create a new one. (just make sure it actually works) You saying “screw Anet” for making Elite specializations much more powerful than Core specializations isn’t going to change anything. If Elite specializations were underpowered, no one would buy the expansion (if they are mainly a pvp player) meaning ArenaNet loses money.

Archon.6480:

Divine, nice story but it doesn’t matter what you are doing when there is someone on your team throwing the match on purpose. It’s very obvious for those of us who have been around a while.

I see this a lot in T3 gold and have no reason to believe it is any better in platinum. It’s that or the matchmaker somehow put a player into high levels that runs into a 1v4 and insta-Gibbs repeatedly.

Without a grind based component, people will mess up ranked with alternate accounts. I feel bad for all the plebs that don’t understand how this is working. They think it is all about the matchmaker, they rage into chat with disbelief at how bad their teammates are, not understanding they are being farmed for rank.

This is the worst system yet. Easily exploited.

“around a while.” When Guild Wars 1 first came out, I was there at that game when it launched and the only thing I did was PvP. The same story goes for Guild Wars 2. Don’t think that I don’t know about people trying to throw matches, because I have seen that and I have been there. Yes, you will lose matches because of people like that, but there are ways YOU can avoid getting them like blocking them and just que dodging. No mmo is perfect at systems, and I mean none. If you think the Pip system was better, you are clearly wrong as it allowed people that weren’t even NEAR legendary to get into it just by grinding. Yes, this ranking system has it’s problems, but there’s always things you can do to try and at least find solutions. As for the alternate accounts, the only incidents i’ve been seeing recently of that is on North America. I play on Europe so I don’t see too many smurf accounts that much. You have to take in account, sometimes your region DOES matter where you are going to be at the end of the season, because some regions have significantly better players than others.

VoidNard.7206:

I know i’m not the only one who thinks this, but it has to be said: Elite spec ruined spvp. To be able to perform relatively well in pvp now, you have to use elite specs otherwise you are going to get stomped. Not only are they abilities that are really strong, the elite specs are way overloaded. Because of this, anybody with a build that doesn’t have an elite spec will get stomped. Its disgusting…. I used to be able to make up any build in my head, jump into a game and still do okay. Now, Everyone is forced to be a meta slave. I used to pretty much only play pvp, but I now avoid it like the plague. I Know im not the greatest player, but there are obvious problems in pvp right now, and to me the biggest one is elite spec balance. If anet revolves the game around elite specs again…. I doubt ill be back to play this game. If I ever bring this up in chat, people always say : go back to WoW! I dont want to make this about wow, but it has much better balancing. Obviously, there are issues (item level difference isnt one anymore), but wow had an aspect of counter play and if you didn’t completely suck, you couldn’t get one shotted. The whole counterplay thing is a WHOLE different issue.

Elite specs are overloaded and are too strong. Yeah it’s fun to give thieves infinite evades, but playing versus one isnt fun. The Anet dev’s mentality on pvp is brutal. Look at League of legends for example. Their philosophy is that they make champions that are fun AND fun to play against. Gw2 does not do that. Just look at guardians, their ability cooldowns are so low for a lot of weapons. If i fight a guardian with an elite spec build as a ranger or necro, not only do guardians have a lot of utility (which they should since they are supposed to buff and help allies), but they also have a lot of burst, and movement. As a necro, my weapons are mostly for dps. That’s alright, but how it is imbalance is that one can do so much more than the other. Im just using necro as an example here, but its the same for rangers (from what ive experienced). Weapon utility, plus trait utility, plus elite specs make up for some overloaded classes.

Yes, I understand most people play Pve content and it makes sense that class balance should be primarily tuned for Pve, but the devs should try harder next time. If the anet’s only selling point are BRAND NEW OVERPOWERED ELITE SPECS, then the game itself is definitely not worth getting in my opinion.
I used to pretty much only play pvp. I remember exactly when it turned to kitten, it was during the summer when they introduced the new trait system into the game before the release of Hots.

If you’re going to reply to this post in any way, try to make it only about league or WoW. It was just make a comparison with popular games that a lot of people have played before.

While I am all for build variety, you have to remember they are called “Elite” specializations for a reason. Also, if the Elite specializations were underpowered and they were at the same level as core specializations then new players trying out the core game would just run builds that they would craft without every buying the expansions that Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns offers hurting the revenue of the game. So you saying sPvP is garbage because of Elite’s is honestly pretty stupid.

You have to remember, the Elite Specializations (and so was the revenant class) were the reason why Heart of Thorns was able to sell, so of course ArenaNet had to make the Elite Specializations well, Elite. Does it suck that you can barely run anymore Vanilla builds in sPvP without getting destroyed? Yeah it does as I was part of the pvp scene since launch and I do miss the vanilla game balance, but every game goes through changes. Yes, Elite specializations need balance, but the game also has to evolve so that new players can enter and veteran PvP’ers aren’t just stuck in the same scenario of the same core specializations without anything new.

NekoNoKoi.9137:

I completely agree with you in regards to players preferring to blame matchmaking/bad team mates or whatever instead of looking at themselves. I’d love to be able to record my own games and look over them but I’m too much of a scrub to figure out how to make OBS record without lagging out for 2s at a time. (Also, before going into this I feel like I need to emphasise that I accept that I make mistakes too, sometimes really stupid mistakes. I know when I play badly or when I lose focus. If I screw up in a fight I’ll apologise or give myself a mental kick to wake up and start playing properly.)

Unfortunately I can also completely empathise with people who are angry about the matchmaking system and who do rage at their team mates. I’m usually not the type of person to call my team mates imbeciles, but I’m afraid sometimes the matches I get are just too kitten stupid.

Last night I had a particularly crappy experience and lost almost a tier, so now I’m just above gold tier 2. In one of my matches we had 2 necros, me being one of them. I asked the other necro if he could switch and he said no, he needed necro wins for the PvP wings and had apparently only played 1-2 games on necro. I explained he could switch back to necro if we were winning, he said “cool, thanks, I didn’t know that” and proceeded to spend the game accomplishing nothing.
Another match, their team has a condi zerker on close to stop our thief decapping, our druid decided to camp close to stop the enemy thief decapping. Except he didn’t, he either died or was too busy afk auto attacking mid with lb to notice.
One game was a complete throw when the only person who came to help defend lord was a kittening s/d thief who just so happens to advertise himself as best thief EU.
Oh, of course, who can forget the game where we won mid so our ele afk’d there whilst the enemy team played sides and we had no support. I’m not exaggerating when I say this, this guy just stood on mid, blissfully content at his supremacy in stoically holding a 1cap whilst his team tried to 4v5.

This isn’t bronze, this is T3 gold. Whilst I appreciate that gold isn’t exactly ESL, surely the players that I’m getting matched with should know better than this.
It’s not that I complain about idiots on forums and don’t try to change the tide of the game, but there’s only so much I can say in /t to try and direct people, or even do. I can’t stop a hero DH rushing far after winning mid and dying to 2-3 respawns. I can’t stop 4 people going close after winning mid to kill that 1 guy that respawned the earliest and decapped far, leaving me wide open to getting ganked on mid, no matter how hard I kite and stall. I can only ask them not to, but it seems the people I get matched with do not give a kitten .

That’s people for you my friend. Even in Platinum 3 where I am at the moment I still see people sitting on a node and leaving the team at a 4v5, still see idiots rushing to far and dying, still see people playing classes they have 0 clue how to play because of the stupid PvE backpiece ArenaNet implemented. (that was really dumb on ArenaNet’s part to put PvE Gear in a PvP scene) If you play Necromancer like you said, all I can tell you is to just try and survive while killing people in teamfights. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do knowing how squishy our class has become, but that’s literally the only way I carry as a Necromancer is by surviving while killing bunkers like dragonhunter, engineer, elementalist, etc. Hope your ques get better mate!

Xca.9721:

Well, I didn´t get lucky with 3-7 (+ one game my pc crashed) and ended up at 600 rating (lowest bronze lul). Everyone who played in bronze knows whats going on there. People capping points in a threesome, dying to svanir, don´t know their roles, go afk for easy ascended gear farming etc.. But since players on both teams are kitten I was able to carry many games (not all though of course). Meanwhile I climbed from 600 to about 1200 with roughly 70 % winratio playing solo. I didn´t play many games though since I get constantly frustrated by kittenty teammates. It´s just not fun at this rating. Players in Silver are not really better than in Bronze.

Yeah, like I said before you will get que trolled, I’ve been in that end multiple times over the years that I’ve played sPvP. The only advice I can give you is to keep on trying, and block any afkers/idiotic teammates and que dodge them.

Scykosix.7836:

Divine.3279:

I got lucky, and got placed into Platinum 2.

Hope you are not one of those guys with 15-4 score in plat 2. Also previous seasons, doesnt matter what rank u were tbh because it was a grind.

Nah, I have almost 200 games played in platinum 3 atm. As for previous seasons I was able to get Legendary fairly early into the season and not in the very last seconds. Whether it was a grind or not, I’m still proud of myself for being able to get into Legendary for Season 2, 3, and 4 and improving from my Season 1 hell nightmare of being stuck in Emerald :P

I’ve been quite passive in the forums, just here or there lurking around in my Reaper Shroud to see what people have been talking about.

And I’m starting to see a common pattern honestly,

People complaining about the matchmaking this season and why the kitten they can’t climb.

Now by any means, I’m not a pro player and I don’t consider myself great at any class. I’m just a gamer who fell in love with the Necromancer class and have been playing pvp with it for a long time. When Heart of Thorns came out, and the official seasons of ranked pvp came with it, I was stuck in Emerald for the entire season. Yeah thats how bad I was lmao.

I kept blaming teammates and lag and just stacking up mounds of excuses and excuses as to why I couldn’t kittening get out of Emerald. So, one day I decided to tryhard and record an entire game that I played. I kept analyzing the footage to see what my teammates were doing wrong.

And then while I was watching the footage of the match, it hit me like a truck. I was the one playing like an idiot and playing garbage and rotating like a random carousel. Just from that one footage I realized for myself that it wasn’t my teammates fault, it was basically me.

So I worked on it, and by the time Season 2 came dodge rolling around I was able to make it into Legendary. Same for season 3, and season 4.

“Oh thats nice, raise your horn and ego even more you elitist prick.”

No no no, that’s not what this thread is about. I make it sound so easy to get into Legendary, but trust me it was still a struggle.

Yes, you will get unfair matchmaking. Yes, you will face against duo que’d players on voice, yes you will get people on your team that have let’s just say “unique” builds that clearly don’t work in ranked. Yes, you will lose 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10+ in a row, and you will rage indefinitely and you will definitely want to punch or destroy something. Yes, you’ll get people on your team that have absolutely 0 idea about Conquest or Ranked mechanics, and definitely hell yes there are problems in the new matchmaking that ArenaNet has made.

But, it’s only been out for ONE, not FOUR, one season. Now, before you go raise your meta builds up on me and torture me while calling me a white knight for ArenaNet, let me assure you I’m nowhere near that border lmao.

Remember what I said about me being stuck in Emerald in season 1? Yeah, I wanted to go in the forums and blame everything on the matchmaking system and yell at ArenaNet for making sPvP trash and terrible in Guild Wars 2. Then, after I watched the footage of me backpedaling, clicking abilities, (even clicking the yellow bar to dodge cuz I didn’t have it bound) and spamming my marks on staff all in one place like the kitten I was. After I fixed all of that and Season 2 came rolling by, I dragged and carried myself to Legendary. By no means was it easy, because like I said before, you will get que trolled. It happens to everyone, and it will always happen to everyone. That’s just how it is.

I got lucky, and got placed into Platinum 2. I’m slowly but surely climbing my way to Legendary, but getting +5 for every win and losing -24 for every loss is making me want to go into HULK SMASH mode.

So what’s the actual point of this thread? Well my actual point is, before you blame anyone of your teammates, before you blame any of ArenaNet’s matchmaking algorithms, look at carefully and analyze how you play out in the field first. I’m not saying the good old quote “git gud and carry pleb” I’m simply saying maybe there are a few things YOU as a player can improve on before you go flame your teammates or ArenaNet, cuz believe me I needed some major improvements. If any of you ever need help with general sPvP questions like mechanics, and how to rotate properly you can certainly ask. As for class related questions, I’m afraid I can only answer Necromancer/some Engineer class questions as I suck at multiclassing at the other classes.

That’s all I wanted to say, now you can reply down below and call me a white knight elitist kitten prick. :P

To the original poster, here is a in-depth guide I made about Necromancer going through its roles and what it can do in solo que:

Necromancer Guide

Some builds have been changed and some errors and some tips I missed now is written into the guide.

TimeTower.3952:

I have a small question, in your corruptionmancer you take master of corruption buy only your heal is a corruption skill. It also makes it so it gives blind (for 4 seconds). I was wondering if this isn’t to big of a downside since you run rune of scavenging and this pretty much negates the (4) bones as far is i know. Or can you transfer the blind with plague signet or something? Sorry but im pretty new to pvp.

The Corruptionmancer build has been revised, Rise is no longer taken now Corrupt Boon is (another corruption skill so it’s cooldown is reduced) As for your question about the healing skill, I completely overlooked that and I’m terribly sorry that I didn’t include it in this guide. The way that I personally use consume conditions when I run this build is that I transfer the self-blind off, or kite around and wait for it to disappear. Yes, you can transfer the self blind off by putrid mark, the 2nd plague signet you have on the Curses tree, or the regular Plague Signet.

Dirame.8521:

KrHome.1920:

This is surely a viable build. But:

You have 4 condition transfers and clears on low cooldowns to mitigate condition damage. Direct damage bursts will be a bigger issue for your build. This is the reason why I would prefer Wanderer Amulet and Rune of the Undead.

He’s got Rise to mitigate direct damage but, just like you said Wanderer’s is still a better amulet for necros since we have large base health pool, Rune of the Undead is nice too.

The large base health pool isn’t the problem, the only reason why I took Deadshot is because of the fact that it increases the amount of Life Force you can obtain for Reaper. With Wanderer’s you can only get 15k+ max Shroud, while Deadshot gives you 19k+ Shroud. Since Shroud is a very important mechanic to Necromancer’s I decided to go with Vitality as the most important stat. For Direct Damage, like I said if you know how to Kite and stay in Range you should be able to counter a lot of classes that run power builds (not all classes, but many of them). Am I saying that Kiting will make you invincible to Power Damage? No, not at all. I’m just saying if you know how to Kite wonderfully, you should be able to survive Power Damage until either your cooldowns are off, or you can burst them with Shroud.