First off, I’d like to state that necros are not “broken”.
We are not just a “DoT Class”
We are not “Useless” or “Weak”
We are not completely outperformed by other classes.
We are not squishy.
We are not lacking synergy.
Death shroud is not “a useless power build tool”
We are not unwanted in dungeons.
We are not limited by the bleed cap. (unless you build to rely on it. your loss)
A lot of players will disagree and flame on this specific thread for any one of the statements I have listed above. I mean every one of them.
How can I say this?
My first character was the Necromancer. I have played it to 80, geared it with 5 different exotic armor sets, went through 14 different builds that were either popular on the forums, self-made with lots of prep, or made with contribution from guildies giving insight on their own classes and their weaknesses that the necro can exploit.
My other characters i have made and played to at least level 45, or practiced with in s/tPvP successfully have been Guardian, Thief, Warrior, and Mesmer. (Although I have had more experience with Warrior and Thief)
First off, we are not broken. We have bugs like every other class. just because a couple traits don’t behave as expected or because our minions suck doesn’t mean the class is unplayable. we have strong Power, Bunker, and Condition based potential.
We are not just a DoT Class. If you look into our most commonly used skills, they deal both solid gray-typed (Power influenced) damage and Bleed damage. Sometimes we even have poison in our combos, which lowers our target’s healing efficiency. If you play to stack Condition Damage, you’ll get just that. Condition damage.
Bleeds take a long time for damage to fully run its course. Power based attacks do not. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have a balance of both, because we deal both at the same time. What a concept, right? Min/maxing ftl. Even with 0 condition damage, i can still deal 5k bleed off of BiP and 1.3k bleed from staff2. Does it make sense? It doesn’t have to be the center of your necro.
We are not weak. for example, in my Juggermancer build thread, We can achieve up to 30k hp, 3000 Armor, or 3500 attack, while still having access to all of our utilities. You can autoattack with a dagger in a power build for 2.8-4k per chain. that’s roughly 2k per second. Thieves can get 13k in three seconds using C&D=>Backstab=>Heartseeker, but if you drop ONE Well of Darkness, you negate that whole combo, and drain all of their initiative. One utility. Go figure.
We are not completely outperformed by other classes. I like to think of the necro as a lovechild between the warrior and the thief. Good sources of bleed, high power potential, high condition potential, high vitality base with extreme toughness benefit as a clothie. Sure, mesmers, warriors, and thieves can get higher stacks of bleeding faster than we can, but we also have the other 80% of the things available to our class that they do not. Take a look at those things we have in our bag of tricks. Using them intelligently makes you a good player. (What other class can skyrocket a second health bar in 3 seconds, go into it, and do 2k/hit auto attack damage, lifeleech everything to heal friends, and instapop fear to mess up a player combo? Not to mention our DS2 gap closer that chills the opponent.) It is only a weak mechanic if you don’t build to bolster it.
We are NOT squishy. Not only are we the only clothie class that has the SAME vitality base as Warriors, but we get 3x the milage from toughness and vitality than any other class. We have Death shroud, and plague form. having a higher Vitality benefits both, while toughness makes all three sources of health decrease much slower. (in this respect, we make a fantastic offtank. Sometimes, a better primary tank in dungeons) I have run Sorrow’s embrace and Arahs with guardians and warriors, and frequently I find myself to be last man standing. (and have prevented party wipes with hitting F+F1 wink wink ;D )
We are not lacking synergy. Death shroud, Spectral utilities, and wells all have great controlling play patterns. If a players figures out how to utilize ALL of them well, you’ll find that you won’t be found wanting anything more in your necromancer. Same goes for the rest of the utilities and traits. (save for reanimator, minions, and our signets. What a waste of space. lol) Dropping Well of Suffering and Well of corruption while dropping staff5, and Ds3 to keep them in your well while maintaining a high Dagger1 autochain or Ds1 ramp-up with might blast trait, you’ll find yourself doing as much damage as a glass cannon thief while pressing fear control, ripping boons with WoC, and building might and poison. Thieves do not get those side benefits at all.
