Guild Wars 2

updated for Takarazuka podcast upload

Storm of the Ages.9076:

Imagine all the condition transferring =o

Come on storm sign up!!!

HiSaZuL.2843:

Daze to Doom to Staff 5 = incredible control

No daze + daze runes to fear + fear spec = “get that tear jar ready”.
[/quote]

I am going to have to try this out. Do you run Terror power build or terror condition damage? dagger with a terror build sounds interesting.

HiSaZuL.2843:

Sannhet.8745:

HiSaZuL.2843:

If you plan on mh dagger then warhorn outstrips everything else for pvp bar nothing. Focus only in case of hybrid/support builds and even then there are very specific requirements to make good use of it.

I agree with everything else in your post minus these two items. Focus works very well in a power build that isn’t using staff as the swap weapon, and there are quite a few tpvp power Necros much higher ranked than you or I that swear by OH dagger (Khalifa being the most visible of these).

Someone else and me already said it can be used just fine for specific purposes. Extra condition removal and weakness and all that. Just like focus can still be best offhand for specific builds in pvp while utterly useless for anything else. But id still prefer warhorn for melee especially if wells are involved. Not to mention you can significantly beef up duration of daze making it far superior to fears for cc purposes.

Daze to Doom to Staff 5 = incredible control

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

CHIPS.6018:

Where did Jon Peters said that “All of you necros are bad players”? Please provide link please.

If he did say that, we in the necro community deserves a very detailed explanation and clarification from him. Show us what we are doing wrong. Prove that we suck by demonstrating how to beat elite players from other professions.

I’m not providing the following as “proof” that Jon Peters said that “All of you necros are bad players”? (he did not directly say this). It’s simply the source material from which some players have inferred that one developer’s opinion of the Necromancer as being a potentially very powerful class is inconsistent with their experiences.

Here

And here

6 months ago we had a world of issues that have since been fixed or minimalized. Death Shroud is an extremely powerful tool for the Necromancer. The problem is the conditionmancer can’t use it 90 percent of the time, and the powermancer has no way to escape a fight once he starts, and since DS gets absolutely wrecked by one big burst that leaves us with a bitter taste in some fights.

Having said that and talking to numerous Necromancers, Rangers, Guardians, and Mesmer’s who wvwvw and tournament at the highest levels. The Necromancer borders on scary op when protected by his teammates.

A high level mesmer said it best. "You kill the necromancer in tournaments, because if you don’t he kills your team. They are really squishy if they are condition specced and they can’t get away so if you can control their teammates they go down, and you can breathe a sigh of relief. "

Oscicat, wvwvw havoc squad mesmer, in the most recent Mesmerized Podcast: "Necromancers are the most frustrating class to fight, because even when you think you kill them they have that green ooze thing that means you have to do it again. They won’t ever blow you up, but they completely control the fight. They protect their teammates, prevent you from focusing on their buddies, and the good ones just keep the fight going longer than you want.

They are tougher than any other class to kill because they know they can’t get away. Every fight is a fight to the death for the team with the Necro so it’s completely different than anything else. 1v1 I will kill a Necro but in a group the good ones will completely control the fight with fears, chills, and if you get two Necros. MY GOD BLINDS EVERYWHERE!

So when you enter the fight with that Necro, you have to prepare yourself to kill or be killed. They won’t quit because they can’t." Check out the Mesmerized Podcast where Oscicat talks for about 15 minutes about fighting a good Necro.

A guardian told me, the only downside to a necro is they have no mobility so you can really only play the Two node which means any team that faces you knows exactly how to play you.

Finally, the top ranger on the EU side, “Necromancers are both hilarious and frustrating. They can completely wipe out any team, but they are easy to spot, dodge, and once you learn their cast animations you can prevent a large portion of their damage. If you mess up though they are crazy.”

Come on guys where is the Necro love, it would take 10-20 minutes of your time to do this, and it would be hilariously fun to record and watch later!!

Sign up now! Bullzooker! Nay! Dredlord! where are you guys?!!?!?!

Kravick!! come join us for a little bit of Necro laughter before going back to the angry abyss ;p

Admired.7461:

Yeah because speed is everything, right? Wrong.
Utility > Damage

You clearly misunderstood my post.

haha, who is talking about speed here btw Mesmer’s do way more damage than a necro. We just rock the Death Shroud. But hey, you thought if a necro could do something everyone could so what can we expect.

Amadeus.5687:

I’m only playing my Mesmer alt a little, but I for sure enjoy listning you guys doing the podcast! And there is a lot of good information for me for when I face off against Mesmers aswells, so thanks for helping the enemy! So yeah, it’s a really awesome Podcast, keep up the great work! You both do a great jop at answearing the questions and giving good information!

Double Big Thump Ups from here!

Amadeus!! How you doing mate? Are the engineer forums calming down a bit? I have been thinking of expanding to the Engineers for a podcast next once the Guardian and Ranger ones are up and running! “Hint, hint” :P

I have no insight into mesmer’s but there are some great people who do. I don’t mind it at all if this turns into the FAQ for Mesmer’s I am sure it would make Pyro, Osci, Fay, and Kylia’s job much easier :P.

Kilger.5490:

OK, I was hoping there was another fear I could dig out somewhere heh.

Corrupting Stability is a ton of fun for conditionmancers.

Paul.2745:

Hey all,

Just wanted to drop in and thank you guys for the responses. After playing around with traits/weapons (and other professions), I’ve come to the determination that necromancers aren’t for me. When I play my Guardian, the traits and weapon skills just seem to fit so well, while on my necromancer stuff feels awkward. I just feel so much more active and effective on my Guardian and hope that feeling persists at 80.

Feeling active on a Guardian? I felt the complete opposite on my guardian :P. Have a great time though, and good luck in the game.

Kilger.5490:

Bas.7406:

I think Oscicat pointed out in the recent mesmer podcast that it’s frustrating because Necro’s have 3 ways to do it on short CD’s, and that because it’s only for 1 to 2 seconds that stun breaking it is not always smart because you may need it again.

Hmmm 3 ways?? Maybe its because I didnt sleep well but I can only think of staff 5 and shroud 3, aside from the reactive traits of course. What am I missing?

I was referring to the reactive traits. I think he is talking about the one on CC. I will say if you want to hear another classes view of Necromancer. On the most recent Mesmerized podcast, Oscicat spends a good 15 minutes talking about Necromancers.

He essentially said 1v1 he has no problem, but once you get two or three with the Necro they become the most annoying class to face. My favorite part was when the hosts were like seriously a Necro? He goes, a good necro is incredibly difficult to burst down. They have the three fears, the cloudy thing that means they won’t let you get away, and if you get two of them in a 10 man group BLINDS EVERYWHERE!!

But the best part is that he runs a highly mobile two ele’s/thief/Mesmer havoc squad, and he said that the toughest thing to remember is that any fight with an Necro Squad is a fight to the death. You have to go in knowing you either have to kill them or forget the fight because their teammates aren’t running it’s a battle and they are ready for it so you better be. He mentioned that alot of times you can get a squad to run from you which makes it easy to pick them off, but not Necro’s their teammates know they can’t run so they will lock down and fight it out. You can kill them off one by one, but they ain’t going anywhere!

yski.7642:

Bas.7406:

It’s possible and happens all the time. I hit DS, as a warrior charges it knocks me out of it. It has happened against any knockdown or daze, and only happens if you activate it and it hasn’t fully swapped your skills before getting hit.

I suppose I’ll take back my doubts, then. OP’s DS could’ve been interrupted, though it would’ve taken inhuman reflexes or amazing luck.

I find it weird I never noticed it myself though. Can the skills in DS be used before they are properly swapped? Usually when I try to avoid a spike I use the fear more or less at the same time as I enter DS, so maybe I’ve interrupted the potential interrupt. If so, fearing as you enter DS might be a good idea just to be sure you actually stay in DS

..I’ll test that, actually
EDIT: Seems like you can, so that means you could interrupt before getting interrupted. I entered the DS hitting 3 right after the DS button (bound to < for me) and the icon appeared on cooldown as soon as it, well, appeared. My recording FPS is poor so I can’t be 100% sure not being able to slow things down, but based on a glance it seems to work.

You can cast your instants right after you hit the DS key, but you can’t do a LB until it has fully swapped. So you can hit DS get stunned, dazed, knocked back and still have pulled a fear off, and yet not be in ds anymore.

It’s not like it happens all the time, but in tournaments it will occassionally happen quite a bit against that ridiculous Hammer Guardian, D/D ele combo.

Zogyark.4597:

spoj.9672:

Did you try using spectral walk at all when attempting this btw?

Yeah, it’s great when the swiftness is active, not so much when it’s on cooldown I found the 25% passive speed more reliable.

Hey, zog, I sent you a pm, and congrats!

yski.7642:

HiSaZuL.2843:

It’s also possible to fail if you get stun/dazed/cced in general at around the same time as you hit f1. But that is very very rare because timing has to be almost exact.

Are you sure about that? DS is instant cast, so it shouldn’t be possible to interrupt it. I mean, it can be used while you’re stunned so getting stunned right before it shouldn’t matter and it’s physically impossible to get stunned during the cast time since it doesn’t have one.

OP: I’d say you probably hit the key twice. I can’t really think of any other explanation

It’s possible and happens all the time. I hit DS, as a warrior charges it knocks me out of it. It has happened against any knockdown or daze, and only happens if you activate it and it hasn’t fully swapped your skills before getting hit.

koopatroopa.5360:

Bas.7406:

Ah, the trolls are strong in this one. I opened it up expected complaints was met with it, when Andele attempts to help, the Dredlord raises his sarcastic head from the grave to help his minions :P.

I am going to make one comment and the disappear from this den of horrors.

Fear is the Number one most complained about Condition in the entire game by every class not named Necromancer. We want it stronger, every other class wants it gone. Take a listen to the Mesmer Podcast coming out on Monday. The top Mesmers, hate fear, they absolutely despise it almost as much as we despise thief invisibility.

People complain about our fear? Really?! I guess condition builds would warrent a complaint, but I barely even use mine givin’ im using a meleemancer build

It is an instant cc with no ability to know when or that it’s coming, and even the short ones can hurt or can push you into more damage. If you don’t have your stability or stun break ready it essentially hits you every single time. I think Oscicat pointed out in the recent mesmer podcast that it’s frustrating because Necro’s have 3 ways to do it on short CD’s, and that because it’s only for 1 to 2 seconds that stun breaking it is not always smart because you may need it again. He said warriors you can just stun break and keep going, but Necro’s will use one than let you stun break and than do it again.

bullseye.9573:

Hi bullseye here, im playing with my necro, but im kinda confused since he has so much viable weapons to play with.

Any advice on which weapons combo i should run for pve ?

Best regards,
bullseye

While leveling just use whatever weapon is best until you reach 60 and can start specializing in damage methods. Our power/condition/minion/support builds are all viable for every phase of pve. Find the weapon you like as you level and things will be good to go.

The only thing I would recommend is that you carry staff at least as a secondary to provide a nice utility and range when needed.

HiSaZuL.2843:

No actually if you go minion you go full berzerker. I can do fractals below 20 w/o agony resist in full zerker just fine. Minions as long as they are alive can keep you alive better then any healing skills/specs or other classes.

HiSAZul,

How do your minions handle the Agony at that level? Do you find yourself summoning them more than normal dungeons? I have yet to try FoTM with Minions yet.

DayLight.9603:

Thank you for the build Ichor! As soon as I’m able I’ll give it a go. Could you perhaps post some figures (Power, Health, Toughness, Condition Damage etc.)? I am currently at work and while pretending to be busy would like to crunch some numbers.

I ran the Dagger/WH last night in COF with some fellow Necro’s. It’s ridiculously hilariously powerful. Now I was running Tak’s version with my berzerker gear. I will have to give your build a try as well.

As for Greater Marks it’s not necessary at all in pve. Regardless of what some players think it has limited usage in pve, but is pretty close to mandatory in sPvP and WvWvW.

I will have kitteno’s podcast with gameplay and Takarazuka’s podcast with gameplay up tonight on our youtube channel. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get all of Shinzo’s videos working, but we did get a good 30 plus minutes of him destroying things with the axe, and you guys get the privilege of watching me try to play Takarazuka’s power build in COF with the gameplay.

I will upload the entire All-Necro CoF run as well. Phase 3 was hilariously fun especially since they made some changes and half our group had never been there before, and I kept forgetting that. You also get 5 minutes of me dying while trying that stupid run :P.

bumping because the first podcast just hit 737 youtube and 757 audio only passing Symbolic’s for most listened to podcast.

kylia.4813:

Bas.7406:

Don’t worry the youtube version will be up this week.

I’ll be out of footage soon the way we are going with podcast releases

Get them from your GUESTS!!! :P No one cares about how you play!!! I want to see OsciCAt wooohooa

Welcome to the second episode of Mesmerized, our Mesmer only podcast!

This week our two hosts, Kylia Deprigen and Pyroatheist interview one of the most well known Mesmers in GW2, Osicat, the creator of the ShatterCat Mesmer Build.

We delve into the mind of Osicat, from what he enjoys about the mesmer, to his favorite and least favorite opponents, he breaks down his build and also goes into some of the technical elements of the Mesmer. And, as a true Mesmer he even has a turn at asking his hosts a question or two!

http://sittingonacouch.com/the-gw2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-ep-3-osicat-the-shattercat-mesmer/

Don’t worry the youtube version will be up this week.

Ichor.9360:

I haven’t tried WH out roaming in WvW yet ‘cause I’m under the impression that condition duration doesn’t affect daze – does it? That’d be another epic lockdown if it did (even without Banshee’s Wail) and I would definitely give it a test run.

I like Dagger 5 with 15% CD reduction ‘cause of the blind and AoE weakness. I don’t have retaliation when I’m in close, so the miss plus long term damage mitigation is nice, seeing as people usually live with weakness rather than clear it.

The cd reduction is minimal at best. WH is not great for WvWvW, but it’s significant in PVE.

Haha, no it’s a bad idea. No one would carry anything but a staff. even 1/4 fear is incredibly powerful for the control of it. Flow is hands on correct, the damage from terror isn’t the issue, the issue is if you were in melee, you could concievable maintain a constant CC.

Great work!! We must get you on for a special podcast episode mate!

Ah, the trolls are strong in this one. I opened it up expected complaints was met with it, when Andele attempts to help, the Dredlord raises his sarcastic head from the grave to help his minions :P.

I am going to make one comment and the disappear from this den of horrors.

Fear is the Number one most complained about Condition in the entire game by every class not named Necromancer. We want it stronger, every other class wants it gone. Take a listen to the Mesmer Podcast coming out on Monday. The top Mesmers, hate fear, they absolutely despise it almost as much as we despise thief invisibility.

Actually the first question that should be asked is what are you using this build for? PVE, WVWVW, or PVP and then ask yourself what do you want to do with the build.

I will give you my three step process to learning about the Necromancer

1) CHIPSSS Encyclopedia of Necro skills

2) Nemesis Tutorials

3) SOACGaming Podcast - sittingonacouch.com for audio only

Each of these are fantastic ways to get immersed into the spirit of the Necromancer and what they bring to the table.

Ignore the hate. The Necromancer does have a learning curve, but the more you play it the more you will enjoy it or find that maybe it’s not for you.

Good luck and if you have any specific questions as you level, don’t be afraid to come back here!

Also, Almighty Troll is exactly what he says he is. Ignore anything he posts and you will be better off.

Kravick is intelligent and has a lot of good stuff to say most of the time, but he has a serious bitterness to the Necro class at the moment, so you will have to look at what he says through glasses that are tinted to his dislike.

Currently, the Necro is in a good place, the helpful players now outnumber and in general overwhelm the angry players who remember the super powered Necro from Beta, and/or the completely screwed up buggy one that launched. So you have to weigh responses. Then there is me, and according to Dreadlord I run around shooting rainbows up players butts which is quite difficult as a Necro :P.

It’s a nasty issue everyone faces. It’s annoying and really bugs me since I use fast cast.

Try the ones from outside Arah, they are really ghastly :P.

Do you run with the same gear in Dungeons as you do in WvWvW or do you swap out for Warhorn?

I will give you my three step process to learning about the Necromancer

1) CHIPSSS Encyclopedia of Necro skills

2) Nemesis Tutorials

3) SOACGaming Podcast - sittingonacouch.com for audio only

Each of these are fantastic ways to get immersed into the spirit of the Necromancer and what they bring to the table.

Ignore the hate. The Necromancer does have a learning curve, but the more you play it the more you will enjoy it or find that maybe it’s not for you.

Good luck and if you have any specific questions as you level, don’t be afraid to come back here!

D I V A.6018:

It’s nice these podcasts and videos get more and more attention…well deserved.

We are doing what we can, our goal is to help players realize that the Necromancer is nowhere close to as bad as some people believe.

Added the Special Q and A video and podcast

Thanks, the guys are great, and we have enjoyed working with them so far.

Updated for the most recent episodes!

nicodemus.3812:

Like to see DS stomping/ rezzing imo. Necros seem to be the worse at it due to lack of Stability and inv. skill like mist form or stealth. Can’t even use DS life force as damage shield.

You can DS stomp rez, you just have to do it at the same time. You can also plague form stomp ;p.

Axe is amazing, I would like a 900, but it won’t happen. Staff is incredibly powerful when it hits. The problem is it doesn’t track, but it pierces. I would trade staff piercing for tracking in a heartbeat.

As for the comment about staff being 1500, Staff used to have if you shot it at 1200 range it would follow through and hit someone farther thanks to piercing. They fixed that one, when they fixed epidemic. It now stops at 1200.

Targuil.3741:

So I performed some testing about this issue.

First off I’m assuming following premises are true:
1) Downed state health is directly in related to your normal health.
2) Downed state damage taken per tick is a percentage of your downed health.

Me as a necromancer and my friend as an elementalist simply got downed against a normal wolf without any special abilities (besides summoning another when low health) and we watched how much damage we got each second when not using bandage. This was done in PvE, in a level 80 zone.

My necromancer had 19453 health while elementalist had 17019. My necromancer was damaged while downed at a rate of 486 hp per tick, while the elementalist was damaged 1276 per tick.

Assuming the premises are true, and if I had same downed health as the ele, I should’ve been damaged by (19453/17019)x1276=~1458 health per tick.
Instead I only got damaged by 486 per tick. Roughly, that means elementalist in general (cant speak of other professions yet) has (19453/17019)x1276/486)=~3 TIMES MORE health than necromancer in downed state.

That is all for now.

It may need more testing such as counting all resurrection ticks to get the real downed health calculated, taking the reviving while in both downed and defeated and in combat/out of combat, recording the downed health bar while taking damage and testing it with all professions and in the mists. Also comment if my premises are false and what it could change.

If you were using your 1 attack while downed, than you need to remember it heals :P.

What’s your goal with the build? WvWvW or PVE?

If you are running staff plus wells – Learn to Lich Well bomb to wipe out 5 man Havoc squads while your teammates lock them down.

Flesh Golem is nowhere close to as much fun as Plague signet tanking in wvwvw or Lich Well bombing :P.

Plague signet is bad. It’s absolutely awful. You can still Death Shroud while stunned, you don’t need two stun breakers. If this is for tournaments, than you should carry a staff or dagger as your second weapon.

Staff is too valuable not to keep. While your build has potential, it would be significantly better if you dropped 5 points from curses, and 5 from Soul Reaping and grabbed Greater Marks. Also you will have more success if you focus on one thing or another. Run the fear build with condition damage or run the Axe with a thief/warrior buddy and be the vuln stacker for kill.

Nickczh.6341:

3. Cleave – I used to think the lack of cleave was really impossible to understand, but I guess the blessing in disguise is that we’re less susceptible to retaliation oriented builds, such as the “Immortal Mesmer” build (unless you’re using Wells and hitting everything in sight).

The reason we don’t have a cleave is we have more access to multi-target abilities than any other class in the game. Someone once counted exactly how many aoe abilities we have, and had close to or over 40 different individual aoe or multi-target abilites. The lack of a cleave is necessary.

@OP – Dagger offhand is fantastic in pvp and wvwvw with another dagger in a power build. It really loses it’s luster in dungeons because condition removal is meh.

Dagger/Focus and Dagger/Warhorn have great synergy and provide you with the maximum amount of damage in a power build. The poster who said vulnerability is bad is ignorant of how valuable it is in dungeons. Focus is our single best teams support offhand. Chill is fantastic when you need to kite and if you are building for a damage per condition build.

So to wrap it up. D/D is great in pvp and wvwvw, but lacks the oomph of D/F and D/W in dungeons.

I would comment, but Kravick is right on here :P. The key drrobotnic is remember that until 60 there is no need to really worry too much about builds. It’s all about staying alive, and learning how to play your class effectively.

At 60 you start focusing your gear, and therefore it makes it important to figure out what style you like to play best.

Good luck, and have fun!

Bhawb.7408:

I’d suggest looking for unlicensed music, or finding companies/artists that are easy to get permission from. A lot of people use music in their videos, the key is finding music that you can use just by giving the artist credit in your description, which makes things much easier than having to email tons of people for permission all the time.

That’s a good point, I would like to help out a Necromancer gamer who would like to get their name out to a few more people.

Welcome to our Special Edition of Mesmerized, our Mesmer only podcast! Our first episode went so well that we had nearly 20 questions emailed. Thanks to this overwhelming response our two hosts, Kylia Deprigen and Pyroatheist bring you answers to to questions that you have asked us, and talk not only about their favorite moments in WvW this week, but also look into some less used skills that each love and play with!

http://sittingonacouch.com/the-gw2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-sunday-special-questions-from-the-fans/

Check us out, and the corresponding youtube upload will be up a bit later!

Dahkeus.8243:

Solid podcast. Thanks for putting in the work to make this available for the community!

No problem Kylia D and Pyro are fantastic guys, and I am pretty excited about what they are going to do with the podcast. We have been shooting ideas back and forth, and they are ripped and ready to go.

Christos de Soufre.3802:

I’d like to avoid zerker gear considering I’m primarily a WvWer and am not really into being the first one down in a group, heh. That said, I also plan to command and am going to be at or near the head of a lot of groups and can’t afford to be squishy.

So would one recommend Knight’s, Soldier’s, perhaps something else or a mix thereof?

Deathshroud is based off our Health and if you are doing a Hybrid (pretty good in wvwvw) or power build, than Knights is pretty good because of the crit. For pure survival skills, nothing beats PVT.

The general recommendation is to start with PVT until you got the hang of DS and how to play the necro and slowly swap to a bit more damage. If you are running the front, remember to take Plague form as your elite (Nothing is tankier and it’s amazing in a zerg).

I think Nemesis has a video of a strong build, and CHIPS may have one as well. I don’t know who Sheobix is, but I have heard good things.

Bull Zooker.1672:

khalifa’s game play video wss awesome.

Editing that was so much fun, because I got to watch it several times :P.

I have been informed that our fans in Germany cannot see our old Dungeon videos due to some copyright issues with the songs we have. I will be looking at ways to change that.

Perhaps there is a Necro musician who is looking for a way to get his name out? haha!

I will see what I can do to replace the videos with songs that won’t get nailed.