Guild Wars 2

What stats and weapons? Zerk, Sword+Shield and Hammer?

Mainhand Dagger for your killing needs, Warhorn offhand for Swiftness. I’m not sure how specialization acquisition works post-patch but a Spite + Blood combo works wonders to give you enough self-sustain along with Wells for AoE.
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V50;4IVB0E43KVJ0;9;469A;0147156047;5R;9;1NBGSVHP7;2V1-60B1G2LZR_6Z-870HV8aNX8ag

I use something close to that for my world completion but honestly, any power build with Wells and a stacking Bloodlust sigil (buy a cheap green one every 5-10 levels) is pretty much 99% of the build. You really can’t screw up while levelling and I’d encourage you to use that time to experiment.

Don’t let the negativity floating around this board get you down but at the same time, be a realist about your goals for this profession and know that some tiers of play will be barred from you. If you can keep your expectations low, you might just enjoy yourself.

Edit: if you are dead-set on the pet nature of the class, drop Soul Reaping for Death Magic and use the Golem for your Elite and drop BiP for a pet of your choice. Once you’re frustrated by their AI (or the lack thereof) you can experiment with other specializations or utilities. Again, you really can’t go wrong while levelling.

spoj.9672:

I was hoping one of the shouts would reflect projectiles. At the moment they are lackluster.

They were all woefully weak in comparison to what we have currently. I feel like the playstyle only really suits WvW skirmishes leaving Wells and Spectral skills as the de facto Reaper (and Power by extension) utilities in PVE and sPvP.

Rym.1469:

And honorable mention – We lose our only source of Torment as a Reaper.

That totally slipped past me. Certainly feels like Reaper is cemented into Power only and the possibility of Celestial or even Rampager builds are out the window.

We’re still missing core defense mechanics which are mandatory to the design vision of the class where we’re hulk-like tanky beings that strive off of attrition. Without projectile destruction/defense, vigor for evades, active evades tied to skills, and blocks we’re by and large far behind other classes when it comes to being “tanky”.

In regards to group utility, is chill, vulnerability and miniscule and oftentimes forgettable (esp. against single target) healing truly the extent of our group utility? I can’t help but feel Necro-green with envy when I play my Engineer who has two out of those three things done well on top of adding might, projectile defense, blasts, vigor, condi cleansing and regeneration.

When Robert Gee mentioned that Thieves and Mesmers were the classes that should get mobility, I couldn’t help but picture Warriors leaping and spinning from point to point, Guardians teleporting and leaping, Engineers with permanent swiftness and access to leaps, Elementalists blasting left and right at mach speeds, and rangers leaping dodging and weaving. New shroud’s second skill is a great first step but I can’t help but feel singled out compared to the other 7 (8 upcoming) classes.

Today was a huge let down and it only echoes my feelings I’ve had for the class as a whole for three years now. It’s a cute flavorful class but I just don’t see myself playing it over my alts who are starting to creep up on the time I spent on this class.

Gyler.8150:

Rym.1469:

-No blast finisher
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-Heal that still will be outclassed by Consume Conditions. Hard.
-No stun breaker on shouts
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-No projectile defense, focus defense
-Still soaks the damage, now reduced by 15% if you manage to keep Chill on all attackers
-No alternative way to spend the Life Force
-No really interesting traits
-No direct boon support to allies, not even with might.
-Long cast times.
-No new Conditions on the Condition-based profession. No slow, no taunt

I think this about sums it up, still lot of useless utilities and skills and traits. And those shouts, my god…

The shouts as a whole felt incredibly underwhelming. Don’t think my Power Necro is changing utilities at all and is still going to run wells, lich and consume conditions.

Knighthonor.4061:

Warcry.8914:

-
-Extend the 15% damage reduction from chilled targets to the entire party

All off the top of my head

No way… that takes away the uniqueness of this for Reapers…

Its there for us to compensate for the lack of mitigation that other melee classes get…

It’s an incentive to bring along a Necromancer in the first place – something that we’re struggling to come up with currently.

-We still need a blast, preferably tied to Nightfall’s final pulse.
-Shouts don’t promote team synergy. Consider the 20 might shout to give you and your party 5-10 stacks of might determined by enemies hit.
-DS2’s charge could benefit from projectile destruction.
-Extend the 15% damage reduction from chilled targets to the entire party

All off the top of my head

Even if it’s a projectile defense similar to smoke screen it’d be better than what was shown.

Go figure that the Necromancer is in such dire straits that it manages to destroy streams

Avigrus.2871:

They need to increase the cleave on dagger – i don’t get the restriction.

Between piercing life blast, life transfer and wells, I’m not all too concerned with aoe on my power Necro. Sure it’d be nice to hit about 3 enemies on say the last attack but it’s not exactly a huge dealbreaker for me.

Nick.9572:

Necros today bring group support. Traited wells grant protection, and they have quite a bit that cleanse conditions. You don’t have to run minion builds, you know.

What you mean is that they bring nothing for might stacking.

Or blast finishers. Or projectile defense. Or vigor. Or fury. Or stealth. Or good combo fields.

the noobiniser.7465:

just saying:

We have lots of skills that do chill, lot’s of cool stuff to build around it, and now a specialisation that focusses on it!

just saying:
bitter chill : 5 vuln for every chill
main hand dagger + OH Focus (vuln stack + chill (= vuln stack))
+ GS ( chills and more chills)
+ fear = chill = vuln stacks
+ chill based gear (sigils)
+ prolly more chills in the new reapers shroud + vuln stacks from skill 1
+ more play around chill in the reapers talents

= one kitten NICE group support under the form of insane vuln appliances (and chill)

OH, and prolly some epic melee play

Engineers and Elementalists already do that while providing much more to the party. We need a class specific buff/debuff in order to begin to compete on top of that vuln stacking.

LughLongArm.5460:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Trooper
Boom, You guys have support

Condi clears are a dime a dozen. In PVE we have Mesmers, Guards and Engineers with easy access to condi clears via glamours/mantras, consecrations/shouts and elixir gun / healing turret. In PVP? It’s even worse when you’re practically guaranteed a shoutbow Warrior and a Guardian in every group.

I just don’t see it, especially with Chronomancers on the horizon. On one hand you have fears – a condition that makes enemies run off in random directions and on the other you have stuns which leave enemies in place. Wouldn’t you rather have an enemy rooted to the ground and unable to attack rather than chasing someone especially as melee?

Don’t get me wrong, having extra CC is always great but without providing much else, Necros will still have to fight for their spots in premade parties.

But is it enough when Engineers can spew out tons of knockbacks to go through that break bar while providing might and lots of blast finishers? What about Mesmers that can lob interrupt and stuns back to back all the while providing quickness and reflects?

What’s your definition of support?

I notice you play a thief and are able to support your party via stealth fields, interrupts, projectile defense and blinds. Would asking for something along those lines really be too much for you?

Shadelang.3012:

Necros are pretty kitten good in open world PvE

What do you mean, world completion? I ask because you could literally bring a 2/3/3/3/3 build with any stats and with any weapon and with any utility on any class and still do zerg content – content that has the most awards for non-dungeon/fractal based PVE.

Shiki.7148:

Yes.. HoT content. However, there has been 0 info on whether or not HoT gives us a new dungeon. And old dungeons were said to not get reworked, the bosse smight not even get the defiance bars, or it will be something extremely generic.

I’d like to echo this. Just because the expansion is coming out, we’re not going to suddenly stop running CoF and Fractals overnight. I for one would love to play a Necromancer in that content and feel like I’m adding more to the party beyond my personal dps.

For all intents and purposes we could assume that the autoattack is stronger. In this situation we’d mirror Guardians who use their leap→spin→symbol→AA→spin swap Sword autoattack and repeat.

In this situation we could just as easily use our gap closer, use our burst damage attacks and swap to Dagger + Horn/Focus instead of just camping Greatsword

As was all of the condition/boon manipulation minus the drawbacks of the Necromancer chasis.

I’m just stating that if we suddenly had tools to address our mobility, survivability and group utility I’m sure that’d be the highlight of the preview rather than what we got today. I’d love to be proven wrong and have Reaper suddenly become the answer to all of Necromancer’s problems but I’m not willing to act like some sort of battered housewife thinking that Arenanet will suddenly change it’s ways after three years.

Darwec.3784:

The problem with a vuln stacking necro is that every class already applies a little vuln, so a normal group holds 10-ish stacks by themselves. If i remember correctly, necros are getting more vuln traits, and traits that to increased damage to targets with vulnerability. So yes, we can single handedly maintain 25 our selves, but other classes together could maintain 10-20, and deal more damage than we could (not counting the spec that was released today, that i am just now reading!)

And provide Might, Fury, banners, spotter/spirits, reflects, vigor, stealth and blast finishers.

Bhawb.7408:

We’ll see how much damage/vuln it is after they release the tooltips, we could potentially push Engi out if we can deal more damage and comparable vuln.

You’d have to do a crazy amount more damage than we do currently to outdamage Engineers currently yet that’s discounting projectile defense, fire fields, water fields, the most blast finishers in the game, damage blocks and access to vigor and/or endurance regeneration that Engineers bring. It’s quite a hurdle to overcome to even remotely consider taking Necromancers as an Engineer alternative.

Edit: oh and Engineers are pretty nifty at providing groupwide might and stealth. Just saying.

This change would put us in direct competition with Engineers yet Engineers have the most blast finishers in the game, access to blocks, easy access to vigor and swiftness and access to the best combo fields in the game.

Simply providing 25 stacks of Vulnerability isn’t enough, however, if we’re given access to a unique damage buff similar to Spotter or something similar then we might finally get placed in the “okay” tier of play. Here’s hoping!

Dinks.2478:

People keep crying about Reaper when Reaper is going to be part of the new Meta because of this spec. While Guardian got nothing. You all need to calm the hell down.

Oh?

Necromancers finally get projectile defense like Wall of Reflection? Damage blocks and Aegis? Access to vigor – and the ability give it to other people? Stability and the ability to give it to allies? Mobility via teleports on two skills and a utility?

C’mon man, share with us your reasoning why melee damage + chill (Glacial Heart anyone?) is suddenly meta for ANY game mode.

I honestly can’t see it being used in in WvW and PVE, and even in sPvP unless we’re part of some teamfight attack group (but I’d rather take a shoutbow War or medi Guardian).

Regarding WvW, we’re fine for the most part and the ability to wade into melee isn’t really a big factor for us or enticing enough to pull us from a ranged Death Shroud and our staff/wells build. There will probably be some solo situations where it won’t be too bad but I feel like “But you do aoe melee damage!” doesn’t do much compared to the stock Necro chasis to warrant a striking need to change to Reaper.

In PVE, we still provide no useful fields (water, fire, and smoke), no projectile defense/reflects, no combo finishers worth a kitten , no groupwide might stacking, no group fury, blinds outclassed by thieves and guardians to an extent, and vulnerability outclassed by elementalists and especially engineers. Besides damage, we literally offer nothing to the table that at least two other classes can do better. Seeing chill as the premiere flavor feature of the specialization, I’m not hopeful for any of these issues being addressed. Sure, conditions might become suddenly viable without the bleed cap, but then again a stock Necro already has access to Epidemic.

This leaves us with sPvP where we’re led to believe that Reapers will be teamfight specialists – something that Necromancers already excel at between plague form, epidemic and aoe condi pressure or power-based spike damage. However, the chief hindrances from allowing Necros to truly shine in this role are still present: no reliable stability, life force generation early in a match, no blocks, no mobility beyond 2 swiftness skills and the flesh wurm, and limited vigor and endurance regeneration. Chill certainly helps us chase people who were previously free to disengage whenever they wanted but it doesn’t help solve our many issues.

“But Warcry, we don’t know everything about the specialization yet”
Of course not. However, if we were given any shred of hope to having any of these issues addressed I’d hope that Arenanet would have led with “by the way your _ blocks 1 attack now” or a “changes _ to give Fury to x amount of allies in y range” rather than “Oh, you do melee damage now, chill more often and have shouts that damage people”.

Again, I won’t pretend that we know even a quarter of the class yet and it could just be me venting my disapproval at how underwhelming the preview was but I’m just frustrated that Arenanet is intent on having Necromancers embrace their shortcomings as features and flavor rather than giving Necromancers the Guardian treatment by offering Necromancers a specialization option that covers a core weakness and a niche previously impossible with the stock Guardian chassis.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be proven wrong but we have three years of precedent here leaving me less than optimistic.

Rym.1469:

As long as they don’t use “Banshee” name, I’m okay with anything they show us.
Although I’d prefer ritualist-type spec.

I don’t mind it as long as we don’t get the Guardian treatment of being called a “Dragon Noun”.

I don’t see why so many people are against shouts – especially if they do no damage. Necromancers have tons of problems but damage isn’t one of them. If anything, shouts adding party-wide utility covers Necromancer’s biggest glaring flaw.

A blast finisher and a leap finisher. I honestly don’t really care what else it gets but GS NEEDS to get a blast finisher.

Name: Artheya, Mithika, Cassarin and Oakenfell
Class: Engineer, Mesmer, Guardian and Necromancer
Armor: Berserker Power builds in all my characters.
Experience: I know path 2 like the back of my hand, have done 1 and 3 a solid amount of times. Never done 4.
Server: NA, Tarnished Coast
Time: Mostly weekdays, Pacific Time
Other: I’m mostly playing on my Guardian and Engineer but I have no qualms with swapping characters to fit the group make-up.

Only in specialized wvw builds. Standard PVE is Sword+Warhorn, Roaming and sPvP uses one handed weapons with offhands, sometimes shortbows but mostly condi stacking one hands though that might change with the Greatsword adding Vulnerability now.

Couple month old video on the playstyle

Attrition? Roll a Ranger.

Instead of focusing on the top (Rangers), I’m more curious about the bottom of these brackets. Warriors have all sorts of PVP problems due to their strength in PVE or whatever, but I’m more interested in why people are ranking Necros, Thieves, Engineers and Guardians usually just above Warriors rather than higher on the list.

Is it mostly some class flaw? Better options higher on the list at different roles? Class ability ease? What would make the bottom half jump higher on the list?

Some input would be interesting.