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[Video] Methane's Mobile Necro in Group

in Necromancer

Posted by: MethaneGas.8357

MethaneGas.8357

Ignoring the running from a zerg until you managed to pull away enough people to overwhelm, which I think of as a really awful way to fight on a necro, I would tend to focus on the other fights.

The poking and pulling of zergs and large groups is how our guild fights, and it’s really quite fun. For example, it also occurred at this time stamp: http://youtu.be/upKfsaZkqKU?t=14m17s . There was a zerg in Rogue’s, we poked and pulled. There’s nothing like slowly thinning out a large force. Situations like that are not easy as a Necro but that’s one of the areas where the build shines. I know I was helped by my team in the very first clip of the vid, but that is why I also took more risks. If I took Spectral Wall in that scenario though, I’m certain the outcome would be a lot better because not only would it do damage to the group multiple times, but we would have time to focus on throwing ranged attacks while they are getting feared.

Can you take a 40+ second defensive utility in place of a 15 second offensive multiplier? Surely you can, but is it worth it?

I do have 20% spectral cooldowns, which brings Spectral Wall down to 36 seconds. Spectral wall isn’t entirely defensive. Sure, it’s not nearly as offensive as Epidemic, but it can do quite a bit of damage if it is well-placed and if you can bait people into walking into it (5.6k damage easily). For example, in this clip (http://youtu.be/upKfsaZkqKU?t=13m21s ) the warrior guy wasn’t a bad player at all, but in the chaos, people can walk into the wall repeatedly. As a result, I took no damage from the enemies and tanked em easily – if you watch carefully, I gain quite a bit of lifeforce from the wall alone. This effect is even greater if there’s more people, and works great when you are in a pickle. (As a side note, the guy got hit with Reaper’s Protection, as well as 2-3 times by the wall).

I am sure there are situations where you can find walk AND worm keep you alive where epidemic plus one or the other does not, but I would think it would be hard to prove that a well timed epidemic would not have been just as valuable, or more valuable.

There is no arguing that epidemic is an excellent skill (in fact, I could pump out 12 stacks of torment if I took it), but there is more in the game than just that one skill. Just because one thing works well, doesn’t mean other things don’t work just as well, but in a different context. Perhaps my role isn’t meant to be the primary glassy damage condi bomb, or perhaps a glassy condi bomb Necro wouldn’t work in the situations that often arise when we roam (large outnumbered fights where one can easily die. If you die, you do no damage no matter how bursty you are). Sitting in the back throwing spells is nice and can cause havoc, but I like action, and I like to live to tell the tale. This means taking the role of the damage dealer in one situation, and taking the role of a tank/support in another. For example, in the second clip I swapped my 3rd utility skill to Corrupt Boon because my role shifted more towards a damage dealer. Would epidemic work? Sure. But we tend to focus target by target, and Corrupt boon absolutely wrecks boon-heavy targets.
-I always come back to this… but why are Necros supposed to be the ones that go so deep into the damage path? Sure, we are good at it, but that’s not the only thing we are good at. Elementalists, warriors, engis, mesmers ALL have to invest utilities into defense (sometimes all 3) and yet that’s perfectly fine…except Necros (a class with no vigor and weird stability).
-I’d say the value of a skill comes in different forms. For example, value can be seen in terms of raw damage, in terms of CC, in terms of support and in terms of allowing you to to tank a large group of enemies or surviving. Wall does all of those things and I see it as a very versatile skill. When thinking of Epidemic, it is valuable in only one of the above ways – damage (it can provide soft CC by spreading slows/chills tho).

Necro, Ele, Mesmer, Guardian and Warrior, DR[OHai]
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(edited by MethaneGas.8357)