Guild Wars 2

Bhawb.7408:

The only big problem I have with Death Shroud is that it fights with your own mechanics. All healing that the Necromancer does should act through DS. If this means some stuff needs to be balanced then fine. I’d also like more life force generation that scales up when you hit multiple opponents, to let it scale AoE a bit.

Agreed. I’d be happy to take some nerfs if it meant some consistency of mechanics and less contradictory effects like Regen + DS.

Gnat.9405:

If F1 is changing, I’m most interested to see what the Necro is capable of without the balance restraints of Death Shroud.

So much this. If we can drop death shroud for some seriously kitten spirit/blood magic with health sacrifice, lifesteal and massive DoTs/Degen etc. I’ll be so happy.

Anything with life sacrifice. I miss that so much from GW1.

I like Occultist or Ritualist- the class could move beyond animating the dead to working with pure spirit energy. (Yes, some of the skill from gw1 rit could be incorporated)

Hi guys,

I’m potentially looking to come back to the game after about a year away. The main thing that made me walk away from the game was how terrible lifesteal was for the Necromancer. I played, or tried to play, a cleric/soldier bruiser type build (neither full tank nor full dmg) w/ Daggers and Staff and it just wasn’t effective both in damage and in health sustain.

Has this playstyle been improved upon?

I left the game just after the tower of nightmares patch. I know it was not too long ago, but thought I’d just check in and see how Necro is performing with any changes since then. I’m particularly interested in pseudo-tanky melee lifesteal builds. Thanks for any updates you might be able to provide.

1) New skills/traits. This could technically be perceived as vertical, but I would say it just gives us new options. Being able to more precisely tune a build to play how we want would be amazing.

2) I’m not interested in the cosmetic aspect of this game because all the high quality skins released for legendaries/ascended items tend to be so over the top bright/shiny/silly. Release some more serious/dark armor and weapon skins and I might be more inclined to pursue the cosmetic rewards. Hardly anything in this game appeals to me as a Norn Necromancer. For example, some higher poly count Godskull weapons or Shadow Armor. Sadly, those are the best looking items if you’re going for a tribal blood shaman look of sorts.

i dont think axe needs a range increase… we just need a valid ranged weapon (600 really is fine) that does respectable damage. i honestly run axe on my build for Unholy Feast chasing in WvW. The main draw is being able to have two offhands with a Dagger as the primary weapon. I feel like I could get by nearly as well with the scepter…

Or buff Staff auto. We desperately need a ranged power weapon. For power builds. Not in DS.

Axe Auto needs work. More damage/faster/added effect/etc.
Dark Pact needs work on dagger. Longer range/faster cast/more damage.

I’ve posted it before, but give 0/20/0/20/30 shroud dancing build a look. Pop in and out of DS to eat hits, use a quick DS skills or two, proc fury/stability, back to normal mode.
D/D + A/WH
Mostly Knights w/ some Celestial
Banshee’s Wail + whatever you want in Curses.
Vampiric Precision + Bloodthirst/Transfusion
Path of Midnight + Near To Death + Foot in the Grave

It has a good mix of damage/tankiness. Its not tied to any particular type of utility skill so feel free to mix and match. Drop Path of Midnight if you wanna run Spectral Mastery for Spectral utilities. Trade Bloodthirsty/Transfusion for the corresponding Vampiric Master/Ritual Mastery if you want to run Minions or Wells. If you’re strictly doing PvE you can even swap Foot in the Grave for Deathly Perception for burst. I personally play it unfocused on any utility type and run Consume Conditions/Well of Power/Flesh Golem and swap out the last two utilities based on situational need. It’s a great build all around. It’s not the best at bunkering or dealing out damage, but very adaptable and unlike pure well siphon/bunker builds isn’t confined to popping cooldowns and keeping enemies in your wells. I like that with Deathly Swarm + Consume Conditions + Well of Power I have great condi removal for PvP. Overall, it gets some great “low hanging” fruit out of both damage and healing.

I have less of a problem with Reanimator. I’m not a fan of it but can see the justification. Protection of the horde, however, clearly panders to minion builds. An extra minion can be useful to a minionless build, but a stat boost based on minions is not. This trait needs to be made a major and a buffed/reworked Dark Armor made a new minor.

Oozo.7856:

With respect to WvW, necro is one of the stronger 1v1 classes and is very good for small group combat if your group is built around supporting the necro both offensively and defensively.

Until most of them say “peace out” and run away. And we can’t catch them or stop them from running.

Blood Frenzy
For 15 seconds gain quickness and stability. During this period your attacks siphon a large amount of health. Allies are healed for a small portion of this amount.

That’s all I could ever hope for as a tanky/power build…

I think the design of the skill is fine, but the damage multiplier should go up, especially for the very close ranges.

spoj.9672:

Im patiently awaiting a cleave weapon. And hopeful anet will develop the class into a spiker type class. Thats something that could easily happen with the addition of cleave and a few minor buffs and alterations in traits. Attrition is far too different to how the necro currently works for it to be the route they continue to follow.

Until then I will be avoiding my necro for the most part. I will however being attempting to break the lupi record once i finish my ascended focus. After that i probably wont have a reason to go back to it until we get some big changes.

Cleave would be nice. Spike damage build no so much, for me personally. I’d like to see something going more for a sustained damage/control/attrition/mild support setup. Pretty much terrible burst/mobility but above average in everything else =D

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Siphoning don’t need buff. You know why? Because MM will be immortal.

So MM should be the only valid option?

Hint: Buffs are needed for non-MM builds. If MM is too strong then adjust accordingly.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

But I would love to see a unique debuff that disables teleports and shadowsteps on the target.

I could definitely see something like this. Rather than a full on daze/stun it could simply suppress all movement skills/effects. Be it teleports, leaps, swiftness, etc. In fact, call it “Suppression” it could be the necro equivilant to stuns. It could have a slightly higher duration than a stun or daze would since you’re still able to move, heal, attack, etc. It might could be worked into Death Shroud, Focus, or MH dagger?

Something like Thresh’s hook from Leaugue of Legends to replace Dark Path. Reach out and drag your target towards you. And/or make Spectral Grasp actually work.

Lheimroo.2947:

Glyphs in WoW have had a weird history, but the aspect of them I like best is how they can change the behaviour of your spells, even to the point of giving you trade-offs that specialize their function.

Of course that’s basically what the trait system does already. What if we could have another tier of traits entirely to work on at max level? It wouldn’t even have to function like the other tiers or be as large. But a bit of work to unlock each trait in the super-grand-master tier, then we get to pick one or two of them to use at any time..

I agree. Maybe a separate trait window for traits that have penalties. You could slot any number of these you like because the balance will come with the associated penalty.

Yes! The idea of prestige classes would be great. Maybe not quite so… deep, but what about Grandmaster traits with a huge bonus, but also negative?

Vampire Lord
You take on the form of a vampire. While in this form your lifesteal and healing effects are amplified. Your attacks heal nearby allies. However, you take increased damage from conditions, particularly burning.

I find both vertical progression as well as any form of cosmetic progression to be lacking. I can certainly understand the draw towards vertical. I was at cutting edge gear for the majority of my six years in WoW. I’ve been there, done that, and just don’t have enough time or drive for it. That being said I don’t have a problem with it existing as long as the power gap is minimal.

Cosmetic progression just isn’t interesting, but I understand the type of casual player that enjoys this is a large portion of the playerbase. I might be slightly more interested if there were legendaries/ascended items that weren’t so dang shiney. The grim faced Norn Necromancer aesthetic doesn’t quite jive with the items your art team is designing.

When I hear progression I am looking for things such new traits, skills, rune sets, sigils, etc. Anything that moves the game a little closer to GW1 or paper/dice AD&D where players can create a more focused type of character, perhaps very good in one area, but rather poor in others. I don’t expect “Build Wars 2”, but moving just a single step in that direction as a form of progression would be most welcome. Especially new elite skills!

I’ve played a tanky powermancer since launch. I’ve tried a variety of builds including combinations of Soldier, Knight, Cleric, and Celestial. Aside from running a straight Well build in SPVP (no doubt this is powerful due to the condensed fighting right on top of the point) the class feels behind the curve. I am perfectly fine with accepting weaknesses such as low mobility and low spike damage, but given those weaknesses we perform poorly at attrition and in keeping enemies from fleeing.

I feel a large contributor is the balancing around SPVP where a fleeing enemy is considered no problem as you keep the point. Likewise, in SPVP, the Wells perform strongly and are lackluster in WvW. Anet needs to eyeball some balance tweaks outside of SPVP.

-Improve lifesteal.
-Improved speed/range on Dark Path.
-Fix all the bugs with Spectral Grasp.
-Increased life force generation.
-Some sort of defense again multiple foes/crowd control.
-Balancing MH Dagger and Axe skills, etc.
Etc.

That being said I’ll continue to chug along. I am leveling a tanky Bomb Engineer which fun and rather strong, but if Necro isn’t in a presentable state when ESO comes out I don’t know if I would bother playing any more, despite the lack of monthly fee.

We were discussing in a similar thread on the Necro forum that some of us would like to see the threshold dropped to 80-85%, but simply make the ele immune to condition damage – in this way power necros (who are, if anything, underpowered) don’t get shafted, and condi necros can at least try to CC you somewhat to avoid damage until an ally can assist. This makes sense as the devs state they balance around team play- It would do an even better job of stopping faceroll condition builds from imploding you guys, and would help more in PvE – but it wouldn’t act as such a hard counter and at least give us some options.

Oozo.7856:

I’m not convinced that the developers have a poor grasp on balance. I actually think they just have a soft spot for trolls and trolling. Stealth mechanics, perplexity, mobility warriors, misting through doors, etc etc.

GW2 is the most troll-friendly game I can think of. Diamond skin is a mechanic designed to troll a specific class and build.

I was going to post something similar to this yesterday, but it came off as too ad-hominem, but I’ll say it anyway. Most of the MMO devs I’ve seen interviews with (GW2 and otherwise) come of as trolls/smartarses who clearly have class/build biases and like abusing rock/paper/scissors design. I get a feeling every dev has their pet classes/builds and acts as a sort of lobbyist for adding buffs/interesting mechanics for their pet build. Does it become a game of inter-office politics where everyone is jockying for very specific buffs, rather than taking a holistic view of the game? This explains why there always seems to be an overpowered class/build. It’s more a case of “who gets their day in the sun” rather than achieving actual balance. Because they don’t want balance.

If this was designed to counter condi builds, fine, but what about power/tanky necros who rely on (non-damaging) conditions such as Chill or Immobilize to even get close to a ranged Ele? Its not like we’re anywhere in the neighborhood of needing nerfs (quite the opposite in certain areas)… it would be one thing if Diamond skin read “you are immune to condition damage when over 90% health” but this is far too much for such a low mobility class running melee to not be able to use these tools to slow our enemies. That’s all we have aside from the easily dodge-able Dark Path.

The Game Slayer.7632:

Tricare.2946:

The Game Slayer.7632:

who are you to say that? im pretty sure the devs knew this, and they put it in the game knowing so. so the dev’s disagree with you. lol.

It’s a sign of horrible balance in a game when one trait can cancel out a whole professions build. This game isn’t suppose to be Rock, Paper, Scissors.

You can say whatever you want, but the dev’s certainly disagree. I agree that this is indeed sort of a rock-paper-scissors set-up, but fortunately its not throwing out entire professions. Run a direct dmg necro to kill d-skin eles, anything else an ele runs, run condi necro. The condi spamming necro will almost always win against a non d-skin ele. ( remember, either way, the ele isnt killing you. ) its a win-win for you. unless you call not killing something a lose. then we can argue about thieves, etc.

We already told you that Diamond skin screws over power necromancers too as we required conditions to get to you due to our terribly (intentionally designed) mobility…

You’re not wrong. But Diamond Skin takes that problem and creates an even worse hard-counter. Not to mention the fact that it ALSO screws over the barely passable power Necros that rely on Chill/Immobilize/Cripple to even reach melee range on an non D/D Ele.

Just a quick idea after the nerf in the patch before last- What if this was instead a scaling bonus based on what health % you’re at? For example, it might be a paltry +5% lifesteal effectiveness if you’re at 90% hp, but if you’re at 20% hp it might be in the +75-100% bonus range. Just a thought, but this would allow recovery in more dire situations, but keep the trait from being too powerful otherwise.

If the theme is supposed to be a more offensive heal, what about allowing the passive to do damage in addition to healing? 1s cooldown per target (if this is possible?)

I feel that would be pretty reasonable. Change “conditions” to “condition damage” and drop the health % to 80-85%

I wish someone would acknowledge this is a problem for dagger (power) Necromancers to even reach the Ele in the first place. We are designed with low mobility. We catch enemies by chilling/crippling/immobilizing them. The only real mobility skill we have is Dark Path and it’s easily dodged, especially when we can’t combo it with Doom (fear) so they can’t dodge when it reaches them. How am I to catch a Scepter Ele in the first place?

Jugglemonkey.8741:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Draehl.2681:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

ITS OUR TURN BABY!
this video can explain to you exactly whats going on.

PS: diamond skin has not shut down the necromancer class, just the necromancer condi builds. (just so that is clear)

Please tell me when was the last time a power Necro killed an Ele.
Especially given the fact we can no longer Chill, Cripple or Fear you to catch up with your mobility.

You’re thinking a little too simple tho darling. Baby you gotta think outside the box. What you’re feeling right now is similar to what i was feeling when eles got nerfed and other professions got buffed. I was forced to think outside the box, and experiment.

There is no “outside the box” here. Necros have no hard CC outside of the three conditions I listed (plus one Immob, which is also a condition). A dagger Necro simply cannot stay on any Ele with a pulse long enough to do damage.\
I don’t care that they nerfed condition damage builds. I care that they nerfed the few skills Necros had that could let them land damage/prevent escapes.

Yea, you shouldve heard me in the forums when eles got nerfed. Its all part of the cycle man. You’re soon going to realize that this is intended, that it’s eles time to shine, and that necros time to shine is coming to a close now. That doesn’t mean that necros are going to be completely useless, cause i stuck it out with ele and in a few weeks i found something half-way decent to carry me through to this patch. If you dont like the type of balancing anet does, that means theyre actually succeeding. Thats just the nature of imperfect balancing.

I’m well aware that Ele’s have suffered. But an eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
I’m not asking for the removal of Diamond Skin. You can keep it – but a version that doesn’t ruin everything Necros are about.

fortunately you have attacks that do damage and damage is what counters diamond skin. if the ele is outhealing you, that means hes full bunker and he cant kill you anyway. if he IS killing you, that means he is zerk spec and you’re power necro builds are going to rip him apart. give the meta some time to shift.

That’s the whole point though. If we can’t catch the Ele, we can’t do any damage. I’m not asking for a removal of the trait – keep your bleed, poison, burning and torment immunity. Condi spam is OP, so that’s valid. But my snares aren’t what kills you, they’re what allows me to actually be able to fight.

think of something. That’s on you. adapt to the gameplay is all i can say. i need to go to bed, ill visit this forum tomorrow to talk some more. peace

Translation: There is no counter – I want your class to be complete trash because mine was.

yup. like i said, eles time to shine. and you’re very right in thinking that im going to enjoy the hell out of steam-rolling every single necro i run into. its going to be a necro-slaughtering for the next few months. i love it, and every second i will cherish it.

Ele’s have every right to their time in the spotlight. But if it comes at the expense of another profession, you may need to re-evaluate your definition of balance.

It counters a very specific build, and one that sorely needed a counter at that. If every necro is using one build as your post implies, then that means one of two things: There’s a lack of build diversity, or the build the necro is using is OP as all sin and needed a counter. Since power necros are definitely a thing, the latter is likely true.

Every build needs a counter. If you don’t want to adapt to this counter to condi tanks, that’s not the developer’s fault.

Again. Dagger (power) Necros struggle to maintain close range enough already. How are we supposed to catch a target that is immune to immobilize/cripple/chill/etc? Scepter Ele is going to have a field day with us.

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

ITS OUR TURN BABY!
this video can explain to you exactly whats going on.

PS: diamond skin has not shut down the necromancer class, just the necromancer condi builds. (just so that is clear)

Please tell me when was the last time a power Necro killed an Ele.
Especially given the fact we can no longer Chill, Cripple or Fear you to catch up with your mobility.

You’re thinking a little too simple tho darling. Baby you gotta think outside the box. What you’re feeling right now is similar to what i was feeling when eles got nerfed and other professions got buffed. I was forced to think outside the box, and experiment.

There is no “outside the box” here. Necros have no hard CC outside of the three conditions I listed (plus one Immob, which is also a condition). A dagger Necro simply cannot stay on any Ele with a pulse long enough to do damage.\
I don’t care that they nerfed condition damage builds. I care that they nerfed the few skills Necros had that could let them land damage/prevent escapes.

Yea, you shouldve heard me in the forums when eles got nerfed. Its all part of the cycle man. You’re soon going to realize that this is intended, that it’s eles time to shine, and that necros time to shine is coming to a close now. That doesn’t mean that necros are going to be completely useless, cause i stuck it out with ele and in a few weeks i found something half-way decent to carry me through to this patch. If you dont like the type of balancing anet does, that means theyre actually succeeding. Thats just the nature of imperfect balancing.

I’m well aware that Ele’s have suffered. But an eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
I’m not asking for the removal of Diamond Skin. You can keep it – but a version that doesn’t ruin everything Necros are about.

fortunately you have attacks that do damage and damage is what counters diamond skin. if the ele is outhealing you, that means hes full bunker and he cant kill you anyway. if he IS killing you, that means he is zerk spec and you’re power necro builds are going to rip him apart. give the meta some time to shift.

That’s the whole point though. If we can’t catch the Ele, we can’t do any damage. I’m not asking for a removal of the trait – keep your bleed, poison, burning and torment immunity. Condi spam is OP, so that’s valid. But my snares aren’t what kills you, they’re what allows me to actually be able to fight.

think of something. That’s on you. adapt to the gameplay is all i can say. i need to go to bed, ill visit this forum tomorrow to talk some more. peace

Translation: There is no counter – I want your class to be complete trash because mine was. I’m a spiteful little troll.

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

Balefire.7592:

The Game Slayer.7632:

ITS OUR TURN BABY!
this video can explain to you exactly whats going on.

PS: diamond skin has not shut down the necromancer class, just the necromancer condi builds. (just so that is clear)

Please tell me when was the last time a power Necro killed an Ele.
Especially given the fact we can no longer Chill, Cripple or Fear you to catch up with your mobility.

You’re thinking a little too simple tho darling. Baby you gotta think outside the box. What you’re feeling right now is similar to what i was feeling when eles got nerfed and other professions got buffed. I was forced to think outside the box, and experiment.

There is no “outside the box” here. Necros have no hard CC outside of the three conditions I listed (plus one Immob, which is also a condition). A dagger Necro simply cannot stay on any Ele with a pulse long enough to do damage.\
I don’t care that they nerfed condition damage builds. I care that they nerfed the few skills Necros had that could let them land damage/prevent escapes.

Yea, you shouldve heard me in the forums when eles got nerfed. Its all part of the cycle man. You’re soon going to realize that this is intended, that it’s eles time to shine, and that necros time to shine is coming to a close now. That doesn’t mean that necros are going to be completely useless, cause i stuck it out with ele and in a few weeks i found something half-way decent to carry me through to this patch. If you dont like the type of balancing anet does, that means theyre actually succeeding. Thats just the nature of imperfect balancing.

I’m well aware that Ele’s have suffered. But an eye for an eye leaves the world blind.
I’m not asking for the removal of Diamond Skin. You can keep it – but a version that doesn’t ruin everything Necros are about.

fortunately you have attacks that do damage and damage is what counters diamond skin. if the ele is outhealing you, that means hes full bunker and he cant kill you anyway. if he IS killing you, that means he is zerk spec and you’re power necro builds are going to rip him apart. give the meta some time to shift.

And if he’s Scepter and I can’t even catch him because of Diamond Skin?

Balefire.7592:

The issue isn’t just 1-Spamming either. Try catching an Ele as a D/D Necro without Chill, Cripple or Fear.

This. As a Dagger Necro I already have a tough enough time staying on target. When I can’t even chill/immobilize/cripple an enemy to catch him how am I suppose to hit him hard enough to get him below 90% in the first place? Maybe the trait is more in line in SPVP, but I can tell you its overpowered as all get out in WvW.

Maybe the larger problem is the devs refuse to see the game outside of their sacred SPVP meta that they blatantly steer what should/shouldn’t be valid from patch to patch. Maybe if they worried more about making other builds actually viable we would see a broader meta that would balance itself with diversity.

What Bhawb said. I’m waiting for the day when Necro can feasibly build for power/attrition and keep enemies from just running away if they start losing. Buff lifesteal/life force generation and our anti-disengage skills and maybe you’ll see Necros shift to other areas of play. Currently Axe does pathetic damage and Dagger (even before Diamond Skin) is too difficult to keep on top of enemies that try to kite and stay alive against other melee builds. Give us some other options and you can throw Dhuumfire out with last week’s casserole.

Vena.8436:

Bhawb.7408:

Hard counters to an entire type of build should not exist. It isn’t an issue of a slight change to a build. Necros can’t just add in a utility skill to deal better direct damage to get them low. Even Flesh Golem makes it painfully obvious how difficult it is to deal with this.

Builds that can murder people with 1-spam condition pressure while wearing tank gear, shouldn’t exist.

Bhawb.7408:

Hard counters should not exist (at all) in game that is supposedly even remotely skill based. If you want counters, go play Pokemon.

One dimensions builds will always have “hard” counters because they have no variety of pressure.

You know… just like MotG.

I play a tanky power build on my Necro. Dagger/WH + Staff. How am I supposed to even catch said Ele if I can’t Chill/Fear/Cripple/Immobilize him at the start of the fight because of Diamond Skin? You forget, we are specifically designed to not have mobility. If the Ele Dodges Dark Path I’m pretty well SoL. Staff auto is too slow to hit anything moving, and Life Blasting does poor damage and drains life force we need to survive when the burst comes.

How do I get to the guy to hit him to get him below 90%?

Bhawb, I take it your possible “line of communication” to the devs didn’t pan out. I seriously want some of what they’re smoking up in Bellevue, if you ever make contact.

Haven’t had a chance to fight an Ele yet. What worries me most isn’t the condition damage. I run a tanky power dagger build on my Necro and in order to deliver any meaningful damage I need to initiate with Immobilize/Fears/Chills. I’m happy that the devs are designing more interesting and meaningful traits, but its frustrating when everyone else gets new toys and we can’t say we’re best at anything.

That is an option… makes tanky builds even less effective though. Getting them sub-90% could be a chore on some of the more evasive builds, especially without conditions to aid in controlling them…

What worries me most is being able to chill/fear/cripple Eles. As a power necro this makes dagger even more unappealing. Do we have to assume all Eles are running this trait and just autoattack them until 90%?

(if we can even catch them)

I don’t have a problem with this trait existing. More traits should be so powerful/unique/niche. But where is the Necro’s equally groundbreaking equivalent? The devs take such baby steps with any buffs we get, yet are clearly more than willing to roll the dice on other professions.

I don’t have a problem with this trait existing. More traits should be so powerful/unique/niche. But where is the Necro’s equally groundbreaking equivalent? The devs take such baby steps with any buffs we get, yet are clearly more than willing to roll the dice on other professions.

I…well… I am not impressed with the changes. More than that I’m flabbergasted by the LACK of changes. So many things need work. I’m certain Anet is scared to death of buffing us out of fear that we will somehow get out of control. I can understand the sentiment, but when you can’t name one thing we can do better than another profession something is wrong. We are clearly only average in attrition situations and even then, most builds can opt to leave the fight if they don’t care to die. Be it in duels or small 3v3 etc type skirmishes.

More than anything I’m just confused. If Anet has some super secret special changes up their sleeves, great, but every time there is “something in the works” it ends up being paltry compared to some of the drastic changes (see diamond skin) that other professions get. I’d really love to see a Necro gameplan/roadmap/etc…

The inherent problem with stealth and disengages is they can fight who they can beat and avoid those they can’t. We have to fight those we can beat AND those we can’t. Generally those we could beat use said disengage. I’m left pretty much smacking around overconfident hammer warriors (foot in the grave) and other Necros. And Baddie Rangers, there’s a lot of them, but those who know the class? Good luck.

I could easily switch to Warrior for a comparable Bunkery/Damage melee build… but won’t out of stubbornness. I played an Affliction Warlock through Black Temple. I can put up with anything =D

The life force → health one sounds interesting. Costs 50% life force, but heals for a large amount.

Mesmer
Thief
Warrior

…of playing a tanky Necro is when you run into certain Thief and Mesmer builds. Not only do they do orders of magnitude more damage running their zerker/rampager builds, but with their evasion/stealth/invis/clone target drop/etc. they can effectively avoid more damage than all the Toughness/Vitality/Lifesteal/Deathshroud could ever hope to mitigate. They get to have their cake and eat it too, and we’re stuck with a picture of a cake from the menu. Why is Anet so reluctant on the Necro buffs?