Guild Wars 2

Honestly, the thief is a prime example of a “Selfish” class design that works…

When people say that Necro is a selfish class – I think about all the boons it can apply to itself… being 90% might and maybe sometimes fury, ret, prot, swiftness or stab if you spec into it – but nothing to the degree other classes can buff themselves or others and sometimes both. No access to quickness… No access to block/invuln/evade/reflect… General lack of combo fields and finishers…

The design philosophy just falls short for Necro. It seems like an excuse more than a reason every time it’s brought up. What things Necro does bring to the table (Life Steal, Minions, Condition/Boon Control, Fears) No one wants or cares about.

What it can do – it doesn’t do well enough that people think to bring one over any other class.

I saw a trait on the scourge tree which allows you to steal a boon every time you rip or corrupt one. Why isn’t this a base Necro GM trait? It felt good to finally have access to boons and not get push-pulled/stunned into oblivion. It also falls under the “selfish” design philosophy, and it worked really well imo. It’s a shame that a trait like that has been relegated to an elite – severely limiting options for the class overall.

Very well thought out post, Lily. Really couldn’t have said it better myself. It’s a bit disheartening to see that after 4 years – Anet still haven’t fixed the prevalent issues that have plagued this class since launch.

Barrier would be better if it pulsed it’s total amount instead of being frontloaded like it currently is. This would also extend the lifespan of barrier, as pulses refresh the duration. (Eg. Ele’s Molten Armor) 5k over 2sec, would be easier to work with than 5k that decays rather quick – as a good chunk of the effect is lost almost instantaneously. The alternative is to decrease decay time/amount as others have suggested.

Absorption effects are best used as a proactive device instead of reactive like standard heals are. If you can anticipate incoming damage, absorption effects can be very strong – and make for good support.

my bad, i must have skimmed over that vital word. SOLO. But you’re probably right, it’s not a solo build really (more along hybrid). taking on multiple foes I find it lacks bursting power to take some foes down(say if you’re fighting 4 or so) which is why I took the dagger, it helps when foes close in to hammer them down. what it is good at is surviving against multiple foes so if you have a buddy closeby or run back to zerg…, but then I had more support in mind when i posted.

I’ll have to think a bit about what I would use to solo roam.

edit: looking back I still feel the same way about playing in WvW (I’ve never had much luck soloing), and so my comments have been a bit misplaced, but for what it’s worth, fear is a great utility condition that works as an interrupt, with this build it more or less plays like a condi build, but you have a more powerful CC. You can clear(and transfer) your conditions with staff 4 and your healing skill. It is possible to kill 2-3 easily people, with some careful placement of your skills. As your fear when you go down (fear of death) (and fear on being disabled) will fear everyone around you for 3 seconds (the latter is single target i think), or a hefty 6 with all runes/buffs in place. that’s 6k damage they can’t do anything about. The trick is applying pressure steadily, condition damage, stuns, fears, jumping into DS to absorb attacks… and putting the hurt on when they are running) these are some examples of the application of fear and I would still recommend giving a fear build (maybe not the one I had suggested…) a shot for soloing. best of luck out there! Also, if you really want to have fun, corrupt boon when they have stability on and watch as their life runs out. (stability corrupts to fear)

flow.6043:

CHIPS.6018:

As a necro please stay with your local friendly zerg and do not roam in hostile lands. Even Nemesis agrees. ^^

Boooooring :/

helmino.4138:

So you have no problem to solo roam in rabid? how is facing more than one enemy in that way?

The problem with many opponents is that you’ll have to fight to the death every time. There is no stealth or Ride the Lightning for you, so you’ll literally have to fight all of your opponents at the same time instead of picking them off one by one.
The choice of armor doesn’t improve your chances here, except maybe get some vitality in there as well. More opponents usually means more conditions on you, and with that pure rabid doesn’t help.

I’ll add that with every set-up, there’s an appropriate counter for any build… I have fun with my build, it’s not boring. No, I don’t have stealth or ride the lightning, those are skills on, you guessed it! other classes i’m not playing.

This set up is meant to play with a team, not solo, and if you’re soloing as a necro in WvW you’re dead, we just can’t pick off people quite like a thief.

honestly? let I let my kills come to me, they think i’m easy picking because of the standard excuse “I’m a necrooooo i can’t play like an ele wah wah this class is kitten”

if you’re not controlling the fight you’re not doing it right.

helmino.4138:

Going full rabid for roam is strong? you wont suffer the lack of power?

Yeah, I could use more power for the dagger but I find crit damage balances nicely with precision.

I have tried a lot of builds and I just like the way this one works, more CCs and the fear tick is stupidly strong when you stack your con damage. people don’t expect a necro to be able to lash out a total of 12khp in fear alone. I haven’t dumped the 2k hours in the game I could have but I enjoy the hours I do put in. I don’t ever feel like my class is kitten and if I get bored I always have a new build to try.

People are always saying… necro can’t do this, can’t do that…. seriously?
try a different strategy? Necros excel in having a variety of options…

I’ve been having lots of success with a terror/condi build, full rabid gear.
1h rabid staff of corruption (stack condition damage on kill) and the other a
berserker’s dag/horn with hydromancy (chill on swap) and rage (10% quickness on crit) respectively.

30 curses with III (Chilling Darkness) , VI (Terror) & XII (Weakening Precision)
20 Death Magic with II (Greater Marks) & VIII (Reaper’s Protection)
20 Soul Reaping with I (Fear of Death) & VIII (Master of Terror)

I tend to agree with Panhauramix, we have a high base health pool which let’s us soak up a bit (not a whole ton) of damage and toughness really helps dampen the blow against strong bursting classes, but if you play your cards right in this build you can see a lot of ways to disable your opponents. It has tons of effective CCs.
I’ve pulled in 100 badges in a couple hours with this build.

Fear is really powerful! I’ve seen this tick for easily 1k. With a full condi duration build and necromancer runes, you can double those ticks, very effective. don’t forget your food buffs tho, you’ll be downing super veggie pizzas like no tomorrow.

like I said, hadn’t put much thought into it. , but I mean sure, put it on a 90 sec cooldown and change the conversion to w/e works, i’m not a programmer, just an enthusiast.

I’ve been playing necro since launch, and I’m very happy with it.

Bull Zooker.1672:

why dont we all stop trying to figure out how effective and worth while the new condition will be and focus that energy into helping A NET come up with something effective and worth while.
we dont know what it is yet, how can we already be complaining?

I know right? people are just slamming the idea instead of trying to turn it into something that might actually benefit them.

bumpity

This explains a lot, I had never noticed because I almost always play my necro…

My first 80 and my main character. Cyparissia, Necromancer

The armor sets are a bit mismatched but I’m going for a “death dryad”
Reminds me of a venomous wasp or preying mantis.