Guild Wars 2

Dude, while we, the necro community feel your pain, ANET does not. I do not think they care, especially if we are questioning their wisdom on the necro. We shall see, but its an MMO, and most MMOs don’t really care about the community’s thoughs when it comes to questioning their mechanics.

I watched videos of GW1 necro before during and after release of gw2. They rammed the gw2 necro right in the KITTEN hole

walk out of said cloud, click one button, cloud effect nullified. damage done – minimal.

necro – great on paper; bad in application; and nerfed into oblivion.

I agree. to top things off, the long cast times are coupled with LONG cooldowns. So not only are some classes able to cast Great skills instantly (or with fast cast times) they also do not have to contend with ridiculously long cooldowns. Wells are some of our best skills, but in a fight, it is like they are single cast, because the cooldown is long.

I know how you feel man. I log in each day, complete some minor goals, try diff builds, buy some gear to try diff builds, encounter bugs, get frustrated, read the forums, get more frustrated, take a break, and log back in with my thief or guardian and enjoy the game. I too am trying to be optimistic and expect the devs to really take a look at this class.

I think the Devs spread us too thin with our abilities; they gave us great “on paper” abilities, that just don’t work in a fast moving game. I am of the opinion that necros are not bad, per say, in t/spvp (which supposedly the game is balanced for), but in all other aspects of the game, we are mediocre at best, simply because other classes do it better, and our class defining traits/abilities are lackluster. This forces us to an extreme build, all conditions (risks the effects of every classes condition removal skills), or full power/crit, still gives us only decent damage, with a huge cost to survivability. Almost ALL of our abilties are on long long cooldowns which cant measure up to spam classes. Attrition is very difficult if a class can hit and run you to death, and given that we are the slowest/least mobile class in the game, and have few ways to really lock a player down, its very difficult to keep someone engaged. A good example is our cripples, etc., are removed to easily, evaded too easily, and are so freakin slow to cast that you have to be way ahead of them. Maybe in spvp when your trying to secure a spot, they are not bad, because people have to stand in your marks/wells to keep the point or back off. Long cooldowns, slow cast speeds are really gamestoppers at times for our class in things such as wvw. I won’t even go into minions, because I have not run them since level 30 or so. Useless.

IDK, i am hoping the devs not only fix the bugs, but take a more global look at the class. Maybe play it a bit, or observe it in other areas of the game.

SolarNova, it’s not too bad to overclock, but it just takes a LOT of power. My 750 power supply cannot support an overclock of my cpu and the kitten 690, so I had to order a new power supply. I went with a 1050. I should be able to overclock to 4.5 ghz no sweat, but who knows. Ill make sure I overclock while maintaining stability. Maximum PC overclocked it to 4.8 ghz i believe with no issue.

i would like to think it is my cpu (which is kitten good) and its GW2 non-optimized game engine hahah.

So i have to overclock the 3820. Well, I am running a 750 powersupply and the 690 is a kitten hog, so I am installing a 1050 to better allow me to overclock. Still, the fact that this system handles anything BUT gw2 bothers me. I imagine if i overclock to 4.6, it will smooth out the performance, but it will still underutilize this GPU. I must have been drunk when I bought it, but it is nice with every other game.

Ok, it is not fact, you are right. but explain to me how a gaming rig, that pretty much handles every other high end game out there (90+ FPS), gets a great 3dMark score, does poorly at times in gw2. I mean 20-30 fps in wvw, and 30 in other areas of the game.

It actually is like a kick the gut. Nice system, spent a lot on it, did a fair amount of work, but our game, well, just wont do well. hahaha. I can overclock my cpu, and I will, but I think that their programming is very unefficient if this rig cannot handle it.

ahh ok man, so, do you think that CPU is bottlenecked? It is a very decent cpu, and I have hard time believing its bottlenecking

Kirito, man, i am severly disappointed that I am running a kitten near perfect rig for gaming and im having issues. I cannot be the only one.

Optimization of GW is archaic, outdated, and cpu dependent. i am running a i7-3820, 16 gb ram, with an nvidia gtx 690. for some pathetic gw2 specific reason, i am getting 20-30 fps in wvw. Joke. It has gotten worse since the patch.

Who optimized this program, smurfs?

I am really confused.

I run an i7-3820 at 3.6 ghz (waiting on a new power supply to overclock), with 16 gb ram, win7/64. I am also running a Asus GTX 690. I also am running my operating system and GW2 on a SSD harddrive.

Why in god’s name is my FPS 20-30 in WvW.

This game has BIG time issues if I am getting 20-30 fps in wvw.

It is completely unoptimized and I am getting tired of trying to find bogus work arounds to get 5 more Fps.

I can run most current games max settings and easily achieve 90 FPS. This game has some serious graphic issues.

Hey Death, thought I would add a comment because I could not find the previous post on hybrid builds. In WvW (which is where I live now), I have tried every archetype build (Power-crit (with axe or dagger), Conditionmancer, and hybrid. Hybrid seems more flexible and versatile, without sacrificing to much.
Here is what I run:
Hybrid Power/Condition/crit spec, which in my opinion looks like 20/30/0/0/20, which gives me a balance between power, condition dmg/duration, and some crit. It also gives me some Death Shroud focused abilities which makes it more useful bouncing in and out of shroud when i have enough bleeds stacked, or to fear an opponent/mob. Retaliation, life blast piercing/vulnerability, cooldown reduction on deathshroud abilities, gives me a good feeling about using deathshroud. I shroud dance a lot to fear, and chill. I also see DS #4 ability hitting for up to 4500+ dmg. In this build, it is not bad to Staff putrid mark can crit for 3k as well, and i get 3500 – 3800 crits on lich #1 attack.
SKILLS: I typically run BiP, Epidemic, Well of Suffering as my utility skills (though I will add another well and drop epidemic if im single target focusing, or drop the well and run a spectral skill in wvw for a break stun).
Weapons: Main weapon set is scepter/dagger: This is the epitome of a hybrid weapon. Direct damage output is slightly less than axe (at full power build), but the 2, 3, 4, and 5 put out decent damage, while 2 and 5 stack bleeds. Find someone with a lot of conditions on them, hit 3, and do about 2.5k damage on one hit (no channel).
Secondary weapon is staff (with hyrdomancy; this sigil is great when you get overrun. turn direction, swap weapons, chill/freeze everyone, run, drop marks behind you.) Sometimes axe/focus, which is entirely situation dependent. I like Sigil of bloodlust on the scepter (stack it to 250 power to help out with axe dmg) and Sigil of agony on the dagger (sometimes i run geomancy). On the axe I run exquisite rubies that give power, perc and crit dmg.
Gear I run a full Arah set, mixed with kebron gloves/boots. Stats on the armor though are not flat. Specifically, on some pieces I have power, vit, condition, while on others i have perc, power, toughness, and perc, toughness, condition dmg.. My jewelry is also a menagerie of stats to get the stats I want.
Runes: I bounce between aflicted/krait, or just a full set of undead. Both are good for getting condition damage up there. I tried Lich but did not like it, enjoyed the increased toughness with undead.
Stats: Depending on which weapons I am running im averaging about 1750 in power (2000 solid with maxed bloodlust), 1600 percision (40 crit/40), 1300 toughness, 1271 vitality. Close to 3k attack power (2900 on average), 2.3 k armor, and about 21992 hps. Condition dmg range from 1200 to 1300 (depending on what earrings im running, coral vs ruby) or so, and I tick for like 105 dmg, 123 dmg with BiP, and 130 with BiP, and stacks of might from DS lifeblast (1 hit with life blast gives you 5 stacks might). I will bounce in and out of DS to get the 2 or 3 might stacks regularly, and I will just keep BiP going off constantly. With scepter 4, any bleed/poison/weakness i put on myself, gets sent back at the target. In wvw, I never seem to have an issue with life force, people are usually dropping all around, or there are 1 hit animals (rabbits, moas, rats, cats, mosquitoes) that provide backup.
With a Hybrid build, I seem to do decent condition damage vs high toughness classes (sure they can erase my condition, but they are not too shabby to stack). Bloodlust stacks from the sigil give me 1800-2000 power (2900-3k attack), which gives my wells a nice boost in damage. I sometimes swap out jewelry entirely to go all power,perc, crit without having to change my armor/runes/etc. and I can flop into a pseudo power build (gets crit chance to 47, with crit damage at around 50), swap to dagger and do ok.
The biggest downfall to my build is that im running 1300 toughness. I dont like it, but its not terrible. If they made percision, toughness, condition dmg jewelry I would run that. Hell, I would love to see power, toughness, condition dmg jewelry and stats on armor. does not exist afaik.
I have also changed my runes to give more condition duration, and went into death magic instead of spite to get +200 toughness, greater marks, and increased well cooldowns. It is def a tradeoff, but not terrible. In dungeons, I will often drop spite for deathmagic, though I HATE the jagged horror.

sorry, posted in the wrong forum post.

Ascii.9726:

Ahhh Xom so you know about me then and have watched my videos, how kind of you

Well seen as you’ve provided no evidence as such ive taken the time to just for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g8nELNhlNQ

This is the time from first damage to death for Axe (7.24 seconds)
This is the time from first damage to death for Scepter (10.09 seconds)

Stats for Axe
Stats for Scepter
Traits

Axe 1 vs Scepter 2
Now comparing the utility of both or even direct vs condition damage. Conditions are too easily removed in this game, almost every class has multiple ways of removing or even transferring conditions to boons which is a vital blow if the bleed stack from scepter is removed as that’s 47% of the damage per scepter hit.

Axe 3 vs Scepter 2 (Cripples)
Scepters cripple effect is a placeable AoE, this means quite simply, it can miss. Its affect area of 240 with range of 900 is trumped by Axes cripple AoE of 1200. Axes cripple is a cripple full stop, unless they dodge roll out of range or block its going to hit. It hits people in stealth and ive killed a fair few people that way and grants retaliation which reflects (at least for me in WvW) 300 – 400 per hit.

Axe 2 vs Scepter 3
Firstly Ghastly claws vastly out damages Feast of Corruption, infact Ghastly Claws is the fastest multiple striking skill we have. Ghastly Claws grants 8% life force on a full channel, Feast of Corruption grants 2% per condition (so at least 4 conditions to match Ghastly Claws LF)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Necromancer class, and hope you carry on watching my videos!

Ascii I appreciate the breakdown and I agree with what you have said. Conversely, I think one of the things you have forgotten is the dmg from bleeds/poison that adds to the damage. Diminishing power just a bit, to add condition damage, can match and in my opinion surpass damage from axe (from a greater distance).

Rhyse, have you tested that? if we are talking only about the #1 attack, axe is complete garbage, and scepter, with its ability to put bleeds and poison on a target does way more damage in the short and long term than axe. Granted axe 2 with the 3 retaliation is not bad, but the axe 1 damage is just complete crap. And vulner compared to condition damage is piss.

nothing has improved in ai/minion master since Beta2/3. Nothing.

greatsword on a caster just grates on my nerves. Jesus, fix axe, and create a scythe like blade on a short handle and I am happier than running a greatsword. 2 weapons gives a chance for 2 sigils anyways. Staff is the only 2 handed weapon I care about.

I say just up the kitten axe damage and you will make a lot of necros happy.

I am building 2 sets right now.

(completed) Conditionmancer – Full kebron’s gear (Cond. dmg., toughness, percision) add in some vitality, up duration a bit. Purpose – slam as much conditions as you can fast, epidemic (spread). continue.

(in progress) Power – using a full arah set – transmuted from either WvW armor (power, tough, vit) or Knights (toughness, perc, power). Hit hard, fast, lich form, wells, dagger (or axe), and staff.
—- some survivability with high toughness, good crits (if you go knights) etc.

(Being evaluated) presently I run a hybrid build (mixed kebron, arah/knights, wvw armor). get about 1750 power, 1200 cond dmg, 1600 perc, 1300 vit/toughness. Not bad in wvw, can swap utilities for condition skills to wells etc. Scepter/dagger and staff (also swamp in axe sometimes if im bored. I find that scepter is better in hybrid because im doing condition damage and decent his. crit for 800-1k, which is not bad considering i stack bleeds for 105 – 122 (with bip) and 210 for poison.

As far as axe, I would like to see its damage upped a lot because it just does not compete in most of my builds for staff, and in the power build, I just think dagger does so much more (though I still dislike dagger because of the range). In hybrid, I just go for scepter. High crits, and im still bleeding.

Another – OMG, my bleed (condition) just critted for double damage. Condition dmg can crit now!

-seriously, if my conditions critted, i would crap a brick. probably several bricks, at which time i would construct a house.

“Wow that guy mastered Death Shroud” – Knote

HHAHAHAH, nice

OMFG, that necro practically one shotted me.

Ladies and Gentlemen/my fellow necromancers:

Given the paucity of communication from the Devs, and given that the necromancers that frequent this forum have pointed out the problems with our current state and identified every bug and downside to the class, I propose we, the necromancer community, boycott the necromancer section of the forums. There is simply nothing left to say until such time as bug fixes are implemented or a developer chooses to actually contribute to the community discussion. I for one, will withdraw from commenting in this forum until one of the above happens. Will it change anything? likely not, nor do I require you to care what I have to say. A forum is a place to express oneself about the game, and I have nothing constructive to add.

I have read practically every post, contributed where I could, transitioned from excitement about the class, to frustration with the limitations and bugs, to increased frustration due to limited dev communication and outright veiled insults , to anger, and now calm. I have dealt with the possibility that the devs do not agree with their community and potentially have no fixes planned.

Thus, I bid you good day, good evening, and a well intentioned good bye, until such time as we see changes. Wish you all the best of luck.

send your minions after it, especially the flesh golem. oh wait a minute, those things jut usually run up to the structure and stair at it, unless you blow their cooldown skill. SWEET!

Skills
-Axe 1 – because im swinging an axe and doing less than a dagger. (really? talk about nerfed into oblivion. ) Not that I am looking for reality, but this kitten weapon is used by maybe 5% of the necros out there, and it is likely because they were hit on the head repeatedly, someone stole their dagger, their scepter head fell off, or they tried to pole volt with their staff and wound up with it in the keister. I love the look, the skills, but the autoattack actually SLOWS the fight down, and makes easy mobs take too long to kill. Power build weapon that is emasculating.

- Spectral Wall: In wvw its just kitten. oh look, a stupid wall, lets just walk around it. Oh hey, let me grab another semi kitten skill (spectral grab) and pull them through. oh…. it missed, at 900 range. or oh, it stopped half way because a pebble was in the way.

- Spectral Armor: Actual skill is mediocre with a hUGE cooldown. yeah…, Spectral walk is better, more useful, and breaks stun as well. I have spec armor from the SR trait line anyways. Maybe im not using it right, but i usually slap it on me if i just want another LF build quickly. Not too quickly because that would mean some zerg is pounding on me, and no amount of LF is going to save my ugly mug.

Traits
Reanimator- just stupid for wvw, for dungeons, for anything. It’s like that annoying little yapper dog that’s biting at your ankles, until an enemy kicks it from a downed state and pops right back up. Thanks Anet. I mean, jesus, I Want to punt the kitten thing myself.

Gluttony – another useless trait because it does a whole kitten-all. (Compare it to Guardians trait skill they get with 5 points in virtues. COME ON. JUST LOOK AT IT! Adds 2-3 extra boons to one use of F1. NICE. awe, gluttony. poop!

Full of Life – uh, can someone heal my 10%? COME ON, who thought that was a good skill? 21k hps, out of a total 24k… lets give him regen when he hits 90% health. Just… I mean, did they put the interns on necro development? or were some of these skills created when they ran out of ideas and were pulling an all night session. GOT TO GET THIS IN BEFORE BW1 releases. Just throw this skill in, it sounds cool… and it’s not op! SWEET!

I think if they moved condition duration out of spite and into Soul Reaping, it may be interesting. However, it is still tough to generate life force on a condition spec because gluttony does not work, at all.

I think the stability grandmaster trait in DS should be pushed to the master level. Are necromancers the only ones who have to build one trait line to get stability? (minus our elite skills)

Agree with most of what is posted except for requests for a new weapon, or a new downed state.

Mostly, I would request communication from the DEVs, regarding the current number/type/impact of the bugs that plague our class. What would actually be interesting would be to hear from the Devs that actually play the class and have them compare to the other classes with regard to trait synergy, build types (or lack thereof), etc. Perhaps communication with regard to the drastically reduced axe damage, UTTERLY slow staff 1 attack.

I am starting to wrap my head around the entire GW2 experience by playing the other classes (up to 3 80s now) and have WVW/pvp with most, and we are simply lacking slightly.

So, I will cut myself off by just getting back to my original point; a little communication/aknowledgement from the DEVs would go a long way to setting the necro community at ease.

Started with Necro (did not think about bugs) and leveled it to 80, geared him up and then started looking for diff builds etc.

Then one day I decided, Ill level a Thief. Leveled it to 80, was fun, tried lots of diff build types, diff weapon combos, it was very versatile and capable of doing some awesome damage, turns the tide of battles imo when you have 2 good thieves working together. Went back to my necro, played a bit (to do arah) and felt lackluster.

Then I rolled a guardian and I was like, HOLY CRAP, this is fun, easy, and I have so much utility. I can heal, cleanses conditions on a huge amount of people and increase my healing. I hit hard (semi – hard), i have good abilities, and ALL my traits synergize, like my thief.

Now I don’t go back to my necro as much. I refuse to play a mesmer, as I feel they are overpowered, I see to many of them in WvW, I hate butterflies, and the color pink.

Agree Digiowl. I will likely finish my Arah set and shelve my necro until such time as I deem the class upgraded/polished up a bit. We are in need of a lot of help, just to fix bugs, let a lone fine tune it. I really do feel like I am beta testing. Meanwhile, I am watching Mesmers get buffs, while watching the large number of them in WvW create utter havok. I think It WvW is starting to be swarmed with Mesmers, Guardians, Thieves, and a few warriors (though they are decreasing), wherease ele and necro are not there as much.

Well im sure you deal decent damage, i find that style difficult in wvw as you get locked down, have no escape or gap closer. Thus you run straight ahead (or flank) and the minute you start dealing damage, you will get stunned, locked down and you will melt.

Fun PvE build

yeah, with decent duration, i get a solid 16 bleeds or so on an opener, scepter attack 1, scepter 2, dagger 5, BiP, scepter 4 (send bip bleeds on me to target), and then autoattacks, wash rinse repeat. I would say you can swap to staff and drop staff 2, but the cooldown to switch weapons back is slow and your bleed count goes down.

To be honest, I would like to see some of our minions be the ghost or shades of enemies we just dropped, for a short time of course. No management, other than I hit attack, and it automatically goes for my target. No minion management, just a heat seeking missle that either is destroyed, destroys its target, or runs out of energy and turns to dust. Maybe we could have the elite pet (the golem) as the only minion we truly control. and make the others battle dependent.

we are a dark bunch indeed, mildly disgruntle, slightly frustrated, but I think we respond with humor (after a short explosion). I do think a lot of necro players are better than the average player because we have to deal with what we got, and we learn to push the bounds of what is there. In fact, I think the necro players are so good at playing and looking how to find weaknesses in other classes (due to being forced too) it actually slows down the developers in fixing our true flaws (bugged skills, wonky trait lines, lack of synergy) because….. “Necros are fine,….”

I like partying with another necro because I know they are thinking sorta the same things I am, how can i burn this guy down, keep moving, stack bleeds, wait for him to try and heal, and fear his kitten

It is depending on the number of people stacking bleeds, and where you entered on the scenario/attack, and where you are on the rotation of stacking bleeds.

This is why I went hybrid, to where i could split damage across power (initial hits) vs bleeds (sustained damage).

Angel by massive attack.

It’s just how I roll Necro.

sorry guys, I think rather than add other weapons, etc., I would like to see trait lines adjusted, bugs fixed, and existing skill fixed before they add other factors that could be bugged.

I have to say, that I agree with all that the OP said. Most of the problems I have encountered with necros was after I started playing other classes. Perhaps I can explain quickly.

First, I never saw any huge differences in damage, protection, healing/vampric when selecting the appropriate trait skills that are essentially giving them a boost. I noticed some difference with condition damage lasting longer which allowed me to get a few more stacks; conversely these did not really up my utility or dmg protential significantly. Thus, when I select some traits, i see marginal differences at best. I have tried multiple builds, and you have to go to an extreme to notice differences and it is usually with a massive sacrifice.

In contrast, I have a thief (level 80) and have recently begun playing a guardian. On my thief, there are so many viable/useful builds that allow you to be more survivable, and do decent damage, or do HUGE damage and less survivable (though I find I can still get out of sticky situations even when im a glass cannon). With regard to the guardian, my god, I am survivable (even with this low health), I am VERY useful to a group (I am running a hammer spec) and I see conditions melting off of my teammates every 3rd hit, aside from the healing, etc. Trait skill drastically improve my game play, and I see noticeable changes depending on what traits I have selected.

With the necro, I just don’t see it. I feel forced into a hybrid/condition build in WvW (I tried the dagger/focus or dagger/dagger power build and had fun, but I was way less useful, and melee range in zerg vs zerg battle is.. well poop. (I am not referring to pve; in pve i feel builds matter way less). My traits boost me slightly (i see jumps in ticks on condition damage for sure, yeah) but they are not huge, and are erased so fast, its ridiculous.

IDK, I guess I just notice necro problems when im playing other chars, and I am a kitten good necro imo. I will run through rotations, etc, and bust my kitten and still feel only mediocre. I get on my guardian, and im mowing through people, or I feel like im a huge asset to my team/side. I go thief, and I am dropping people, moving to the next, dropping them, bugging out, going back in, dropping one, backing out.

Oh, and another thing, on Guardians, if you build one certain way, you can take any combo of traits, and you have a semi unique build and all traits synergize. granted some trait combos work better depending on what you want. However, I feel with necro, if i want to build condition, i end up taking a trait line that does not help me at all for condition damage, and usually ends up being less than optimal.

Sorry for the negative post, I just feel for our community. In comparison to the other classes, I just think we are weak, and cannot stand our ground.

Well the stability in Plague Form is sorta bugged as I can be knocked down, which bugs me a bit.

— Minions called forth from the blackest pits now have a SUPER – AI that attacks the necromancer’s lifeforce draining it fully.

— Minions called forth by a necromancer automatically put the necromancer in combat, thus he does not regen health, and runs at a slow slow slow speed. (We felt the necromancer was getting out of battle with the spectral walk too much while generating life force.)

— Staff autoattack moves so slow now, it goes in reverse and blinds the necromancer, pierces him and heals enemy in an aoe like effect.

— Necromancers can now equip a greatsword. The sword does little damage, and is in the shape of a huge nerf type weapon. It makes a bouncy noise, and knocks the necromancer down each time he swings.

scepter attack is faster, not that dodgeable, and does about 1/2 of staff, thus staff 1 and scepter 1 dps is simliar, but for the amount of bleeds/poison is applied by scepter. Staff 1 is a time filler, what you press when your not hitting 2, 3, 4, 5

I wish they graphic, sound, speed, and dmg was changed (boosted).

no kidding, I would rather the minion come out of the ground and start hitting me for regen. I think I saw one of them come out of the ground once and hit a target for like 300 dmg, and then die.

Mostly they go running for some stupid mob way off and die on the way. I just ignore them, but it is a waste of a trait. Feel we could get something useful, like the thing charges and where it dies, a small well of blood is created. or a small well of suffering/corruption, etc. DO SOMETHING.

Infamous Darkness.3284:

just a random idea but i dont play necro very often but it seems like MMs and condition damage necros get the short end of the stick with death shroud so what about someghing like “you use 50% of the death shroud charge to summon a plague minnion of your choice when hit said minion explodes doing an AoE condition of your choice” conditions could include say poison chilled or bleeding and take up f2-f4 slots?

It is an interesting idea, but then again you have to deal with bugged Ai on the pets (that sometimes sit there and look stupid while im being beat on. Is that minion watching me and eating pop corn? WTF)

One huge solution for DS would be to simply allow DS 1 to be altered by the weapon equipped. SO if I had a scepter equipped, I would continue to add conditions with my DS 1 attack; or if i had an axe 1 equipped, I would continue to add vulnerability; etc, etc.

DS for conditionmancers is less useful because it’s hard to generate life force, and you watch your conditions go away if you’re not continuing to stack them.

Ok I disagree Seras. I run a hybrid build (1790 power, 1550 percision, 1300 toughness/vitality) and with full bloodlust I have over 3k attack (45% crit, 45% crit dmg), 2.3k armor, with 1200 condition damage = 103 dmg per tick. If I got a small percentage of life force off condition damage I deal, I would be MUCH tougher to bring down. Way tougher, so that I would even sacrifice more abiltiies to increase condition damage. As a hybrid you can get decent crits (Staff 4 2k, Life blase 3-4k, DS 4 – 4-5k, axe 2 4-5k) and im still dropping bleeds from scepter. Hell I have critted on scepter for 1k (3 attack on scepter does more damage) after getting vulnerabilty on targets.

You add LF gain from condition damage, and I would jump for joy. Hugely. YOu add a small condition dmg to Life blast (DS 1) and I would go nuts and never leave my necro.

I use DS a lot on the hybrid build, which equates to 20/30/0/0/20 – gives DS a lot of utility. Love to pop into DS when a thief is coming at me, and watch him drop my DS health down, while taking a good amount of damage from retaliation. Yes my DS gets erased but man, seeing a rogue go half health from his Steal-cloak/dagger-backstab combo hit (or pistol whip depending on the thief) and the proceed to burn him down when he cant stealth. mostly they will switch to shortbow and shadowshot out until their skills regen, which time your health regens.

Yes, you can do that and people will melt with 2 wells down, especially when you use scepter 2/5 in conjunction.

I for one sometimes switch to focus for the chill, and regen. Also, I use axe 3 to get a group crit in rotation with scepter 2.

A typical rotation on my scepter/dagger – axe/focus Hybrid build Looks something like this: Start autoattack on scepter, drop scepter 2 (cripples/bleeds), scepter 5 (bleeds), BiP (Bleeds), scepter 4 (sends my bleeds from BiP to them), hit with scepter 1, switch to axe, cripple with 3, followed by 2 wells dropped (corruption, etc), focus 5 (chill), and axe 2. (mix and match, but you can keep cripple/chill up. a bit. Sometimes ill throw in DS 2 to chill, and DS4 to boost damage.

OF course the above is for 1 on 1. for massive groups, I will sometimes swap axe out for staff, and use staff 3 in there to get a group chill, and use aoe like crazy. I haev soloed a 3 on 1 (heh, not one was a mesmer or a guardian) before with the above rotation, and luckily had epidemic up instead of my wells.

Bigger groups will look force me to drop staff 2, 3 (chill), 4 while dropping 2 wells, then switching to scepter and dropping the cripple/scepter 5 combo, all while backing up

If someone ignores me in a fight, which heavies often do, I will burn them down, or force them to use their heals to cleanse. If an enemy cleases my conditions, I will immediately drop the rotation to begin at the beginning, and I will us DS as a time sink if I cannot immediately switch back to scepter weapons to initiate condition burn.

ANET necro devs: the mal-informed devs of the anet dev world. I wonder if the necro devs play necros. probably not, it is likely they play guardians.

Eon, true. That would help considerably. However, I doubt they read the forums let alone respond. I think they check it once in a blue moon, see that we are all disappointed and leave, because no one likes to face reality. I think the necro community has suggested some outstanding fixes/changes, aside from pointing out the plethora of bugs, only to get 0 response from devs.

Sorry, I am a bit discouraged

I’ll tell you what, I chose a class (the necro) based on how interested I was in the class, only to learn, through trial and error, that my class did not work how it was stated on paper. On paper – sounds awesome; in gameplay you eventually learn it is weak, and you’re STILL busting your kitten to be substandard.

Ok, not weak, but not working fully due to the amount of bugs, and F-ed trait lines. We are still forced to play certain ways (imo) to be valid. Quick example, I have such a hard time bouncing between builds in my thief because they are all so kitten effective and just demand a slightly diff playing style/weapons combo.

On my necro, i have tried diff builds, but keep getting pulled back into one or two builds to be worth crap.

For me it’s the guardian. I have an 80 thief, and of course my 80 necro, and with the lack of changes, appalling lack of communication from the dev’s (or even feedback), I have gotten to the point where I have to play another class to continue to have fun. I’ll log in to run Arah one time a day, so I can slowly grab arah armor, but doubtful I will be back on the necro full time until the devs wake up and adjust this class. I have just lost hope that the devs are even paying attention.

GL with your necros guys, because let’s face it, this is Guardian/thief/mesmer wars, with some other classes in to increase our diversity.

ANET does not appear to care. I find no evidence to support that they do. The last correspondence we had was what’s his name telling us to learn to play and use deathshroud. after that, the dev response dropped to nil, and we have had little bug fixes. I have no faith in anet, and I don’t think they value their community, at least from the necro side of the house. I feel they got their feelings hurt when we, as a community pointed out all the flaws without patting them on the back.