Guild Wars 2

Valheru Baal.9456:

Lily.1935:

Valheru Baal.9456:

If the OP wants to get better with necromancer or wants to learn its secrets. I can recommend whatching streams of highly ranked players palying pvp with necro, necromancer commanders on higher tier WvW servers, and necromancers playing on high lvl of fractals. An other option is to hunt down and ask necromancer players in game they trust and know to have experience with it (more than 100 hours of gameplay).

And I would recommend playing the profession themselves. Perhaps experimenting with Rare armor at level 80 to find the right build for them before spending the good chunk of change to get exotic to see if they really like it. Sure, watching people can give you somewhat of an idea. But the problem is playing their preferred profession is almost second nature for them and can never give them an accurate look into how it might work for them. Personal experience is what I would say is the best way to go.

Now, I’m not knocking your way. I would say do that as well. I am saying that it wont be enough to just to that. The necromancer has a few good builds that can be chosen from and each of them play rather differently.

Oh and I have 777 hours on my necromancer for GW2 and about 3,000 hours on my necromancer from GW1.

“In the end what I can recommend is that you play the toon you are most comfortable with. Your personal experience already is positive about necromancers and I can assure you it wont change in the future if you keep an open mind.”

“I would not recommend the OP to ask questions like this on forums because there are lots of casuals, trolls, incompetent palyers who gives you false information.”

“If the OP wants to get better with necromancer or wants to learn its secrets. I can recommend whatching streams of highly ranked players palying pvp with necro, necromancer commanders on higher tier WvW servers, and necromancers playing on high lvl of fractals. An other option is to hunt down and ask necromancer players in game they trust and know to have experience with it (more than 100 hours of gameplay).”

These are my quotes from this topic in this order. As you can read (again) above I said personal experience will be the way to go in the end. Since I discouraged the OP from using GW2 forums to get an other person’s opinion about this matter. I have provided some alternatives instead which I think could lead to better understanding and improvement, nothing more.

Btw my GW1 necromancer hours are almost exactly the same as yours, but my GW2 necro hours are a lot more (not proud of it at all). I’ve spent almost all my time playing my necromancer, though I’ve played guardian, mesmer,thief, engineer also (both pvp, pve) but much less. Almost nothing compared to my Necro, just to get a basic understanding of their mechanicns.

I didn’t get to start until February because of funding issues. I have 1.5k hours across all characters, my necromancer being my highest played. mesmer and Guardian about tied for second. My engineer being right behind them.

I wouldn’t say someone with less then 100 hours doesn’t have anything useful to say about the necromancer. Because that is just ignorance. Someone who has never played the game or the profession after a good amount of research into the game could function at a higher capacity then both of us combine because of a deeper understanding of how games work. I use my experience with other games that seem like they are unrelated to improve my abilities in this game as well as others. You think Magic the gathering or Pokemon has little or nothing in common with GW2 in terms of mechanics? You might be surprised.

And fine, I missed something you said. I can’t spend 24 hours on the forums. I have work and family to deal with.

Valheru Baal.9456:

If the OP wants to get better with necromancer or wants to learn its secrets. I can recommend whatching streams of highly ranked players palying pvp with necro, necromancer commanders on higher tier WvW servers, and necromancers playing on high lvl of fractals. An other option is to hunt down and ask necromancer players in game they trust and know to have experience with it (more than 100 hours of gameplay).

And I would recommend playing the profession themselves. Perhaps experimenting with Rare armor at level 80 to find the right build for them before spending the good chunk of change to get exotic to see if they really like it. Sure, watching people can give you somewhat of an idea. But the problem is playing their preferred profession is almost second nature for them and can never give them an accurate look into how it might work for them. Personal experience is what I would say is the best way to go.

Now, I’m not knocking your way. I would say do that as well. I am saying that it wont be enough to just to that. The necromancer has a few good builds that can be chosen from and each of them play rather differently.

Oh and I have 777 hours on my necromancer for GW2 and about 3,000 hours on my necromancer from GW1.

Valheru Baal.9456:

I would not recommend the OP to ask questions like this on forums because there are lots of casuals, trolls, incompetent palyers who gives you false information.

This is the kinda of thing I don’t personally like to see on the forums. Discrediting everyone else in this insane idea that one way is the right way to play. Its elitism, and leaves no room for improvement or open to other people’s opinions on the matter. I’m not going to say everything everyone says is completely right or accurate. But each person’s experience and opinion should be taken into account when trying to make a decision. They ask because they haven’t had the experience and they want to hear what we think.

When I first started GW2, I had all the Necromancer Traits and Skills memories months in advance and I still struggled with the profession up until they gave us a buff. And by that point I had figured out how to cope for Their crippling weaknesses. The Addition of Dhuumfire and Torment just made it so I could have stable damage while I build up my bleeds to keep combat quick and smooth.

As for the Condition control and Boon control comment? I did say they where the best at condition control. The problem is practicality. How practical are some of these abilities in any given situation compared to the condition or boon control compared to other professions? Because a Guardian is far better at keeping your allies healthy then the necromancer is. The necromancer controls conditions better for themselves, but for allies its a different story. And the Mesmer is better at stripping boons on mass. Sure, the necro can strip a good number of boons, but the clones while the mesmer is auto attacking with a sword does it as a passive ability. Then there is null Field which is amazing in PvE that made Well of power laughable bad in comparison before WoP became a stunbreak. Then you have to think about the other side of boons. Not just stripping them but applying them to allies. Which the necromancer is very poor at. WoP is really good in parties as you can throw it over burning allies and give them aegis for it which is awesome and I use that all the time. But in comparison to the mesmer who has very unique set ups where they will combo with their runes and put a whole bunch of boons(If not all of them) on themselves and copy them all to allies.

Are both the Mesmer and Necromancer extremely good at stripping boons? Absolutely. They where extremely good at it in the first game and its no different here. Is the mesmer slightly better at it? yes, however don’t believe for a second I think the necromancer is bad at it.

After talking with a few of my in game friends, something that everyone seems to agree on is that beating Zhaitan feels lacking and without a real sense of completion or reward. I’ve only beaten him on one character because I just don’t feel a point in completing it again on my other characters.

So Here is the suggestion. Since we are supposed to kill each of the elder dragons we should have hard mode maps. All areas controlled by Zhaitan should open up with a new hard mode version of that map that opens up after you finish the story with him. Changing the enemies in those maps, like maybe a local dragon starts to spread into that area and gets stronger now that their isn’t another dragon competing for magic. This would allow for a real zone that would allow for an evolving world without stealing the experience from newer players.

In these maps, you should also need AR depending on the natural level of the area. Such as the Cursed Shore should require more then Sparkfly Fen. It might be interesting to do new events trying to maintain the area in Cursed shore from something like the Krait who now see a new area to try and take as their own. Or the Inquest who decided to start moving int there.

Hard mode would give players something to really desire after completing the story along with giving players a reason to get ascended gear outside of just Fractals of the Mists.

GuildWarsPlayer.5608:

I have 4 level 80’s with full exotics, Warrior, Guardian, Elementalist, and Mesmer. I have one last free character slot left so I’ve decided to level a Necro to 80.

Out of the mages, in pve, it seems to me that the necro, at least in pve, is the strongest solo mage class right now.

I’m only level 22 at the moment, but it seems that, comparing my Elementalist and Mesmer at that time, the Necro is able to defeat enemies quicker than they did at that level.

I’m not much of a pvp’er and I haven’t really spent enough time in WvW because I like to pve so much, so I’m only speaking from a pve point of view.

If you are just open world roaming, it doesn’t matter what profession you bring. All of them are capable of doing great. Unlike the other professions though, the necromancer struggles with escaping. This makes map completion slower on a necromancer then other professions because you might find that you have no choice but to fight.

In Dungeons, necromancer is seriously lacking. Their poor defenses combine with how conditions stack put them at a serious disadvantage against other professions. A zerker warrior in your party will be pushing off your high damage bleeds cutting your damage in half, while if you go zerker yourself you will easily be downed by elite mobs or champions because you don’t have the defensive abilities the other professions do. A warrior can bring endure pain while a mesmer can evade, go invulnerable or just go invisible to disengage from the enemy.

Your party support is also very limited. Considering its mostly restricted to wells, you occasionally asking your allies to stand in them to gain the benefits. While a Mesmer supports through other methods or a guardian does aoe shouts and buffs along with the warrior.

In fact, the necromancer is just lacking in every area except for applying conditions. But even that is ruined in PvE by poor stacking.

Valheru Baal.9456:

ArchonWing.9480:

In no way, are they the strongest in anything.

Well, maybe looks.

I think they are the strongest in condition and boon control. Do you disagree?

In terms of condition “Control” yes they would be the strongest if you consider converting and sending condition and not raw removal. The Guardian is actually at least as good if not better then the necromancer for removal, especially in group settings.

Boon control? No. They play second best to the Mesmer. The mesmer has a far easier time dealing with boons then the necromancer does. This isn’t to say they are bad at it. Just that the mesmer does it quicker and better.

LoreChief.8391:

I like the idea of Disease actually. Seems like a really nifty zerg-buster if you combo that with a condition Necromancer

I don’t care for the other two, seem kind of bland and non-unique.

You get a +1 for Disease though!

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Fragility

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Barbs

They are condition versions of 2 amazing GW1 skills.

Much like Torment was a Guild Wars one skill by a different name. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Weaken_Knees

I would suggest playing with them in the first game. You could build entire teams around these concepts and people did. I built a Condition based team with Fragility along with a really powerful elite and multiple sources of condition application and spreading with allies and it was one of the most fun and interesting teams I had ever made or seen in the whole game.

While barbs was a part of another build known as MoP, or Mark of Pain. Which functioned more around this http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Mark_of_pain

Trust me on this. They are anything but bland.

TriggerSad.2597:

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I think they should add Spiteful Spirit back into the game. Whenever target creature attacks, he damages himself, and allied creatures around him. It was the perfect aoe spell against large mobs of enemies, that killed them faster, the faster they attacked the players.

The issue with that idea is that you’ve just made an AoE version of Confusion, which I don’t think is needed.

---

Anyway, I live the idea of adding new conditions to spread out the ones we currently have. I mean, the thing I love about Torment is the fact that it’s almost impossible for a single player to get a full 25 stacks of the stuff onto a foe. However with Bleeding, I know a few builds that can get to 25, or as easily get close to 25 as possible, which just breeds a lot of stack wars with other condition builds.
I wouldn’t mind replacing some bleeding traits on warriors and necromancers with Fragility, and maybe even replacing the necromancer’s Blood is Power with a similar skill that gives Disease to a target instead of a large stack of Bleeding. That way, while applying Bleeding onto a foe is still possible for them, they can’t get a full stack going.
Mind you this is just an example that’s off the top of my head, I’m not 100% sold on replacing those traits and skill, but it might be a nice place to start.

This is exactly why this suggestion was made. To limited the competition between condition based professions. Considering 95% of the time its go bleeds or go home. Both Barbs and Fragility would be viable as “Build around me” conditions that would be desirable in parties. Do not that I’m not interested in completely removing the Bleed based condition damage build, but I am saying this shouldn’t be the only option to non-mesmer players.

JETWING.2759:

We don’t need more conditions, we need more boons to pair conditions :/
12 conditions with 1 or 2 effects against 9 boons with 1 single effect (might is the exception).
I think that are an unbalance

I don’t agree that we don’t need more conditions. But I do agree that we need more boons. A boon that reduces condition damage was something I suggested before but people didn’t like it. Another one I suggested was a boon that acted like Hundred blades or Vow of strength from GW1. Which could be interesting(http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Vow_of_strength http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hundred_Blades) But how those should scale is another store and I have another suggested that goes into more detail.

Rising Dusk.2408:

They already added torment and have had extreme difficulty giving it to enough skills. It just doesn’t have the distribution that something like a condition requires. I think new conditions shouldn’t really be considered henceforth until we get a new class or a healthy dosage of new skills (new weapons for classes possibly), where that new class or skill may be an exceptional source for that condition.

That said, Barbs would be cool and is the one I like the most of those presented. It’d be nice if it was competitively viable for DPS and stacked intensity and were given to the Necromancer en masse, since it’d be primarily valuable in PvE where you could stack it up to increase Warrior/Guardian/Etc dps significantly through offensive support.

I see your point. New skills is something I would like to see as well. And if it would be a better idea to wait until we get new skills as opposed to just adding them to existing skills I would be okay with this.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I think they should add Spiteful Spirit back into the game. Whenever target creature attacks, he damages himself, and allied creatures around him. It was the perfect aoe spell against large mobs of enemies, that killed them faster, the faster they attacked the players.

As much as I loved spiteful spirit. Spiteful spirit and Arcane Echo was a build all it self. This should tell you how powerful the skill was. Now imagine epidemic on spiteful spirit. This causes too many balancing problems that arena net doesn’t want to deal with. And I have to say its a bad idea.

Silver.8023:

While I liked those old skills, the last thing I think Guild Wars 2 needs is more conditions! Just writing that kind of gives me a headache. If anything, I’d say we actually need better ways to deal with conditions, especially if something like these ideas come into play.
However, what’s wrong with perhaps making some of these effects traits rather than conditions?

well. Whats easier to control? A condition that causes damage when a new condition is gained or lost? Or a Trait that says foes in 1,200 range when they gain or lose a condition they take damage?

Or a trait that says conditions now spread to adjacent creatures?

Making them traits would be much harder to control and would either have to be useless or massively broken, you can’t make a middle ground with them.

coglin.1867:

Disease is a pretty common MMO DoT. I can go with that.

Barbs seems redundant to either confusion or retaliation.

Fragility seems a bit like a waste to me. Seems to be it would be simpler to just add a bit of direct damage to skills that apply conditions. I just can’t swallow this one.

Frankly, I do not see a need to clutter the list of conditions further to be honest. We need another condition, like we need another currency in the game.

I disagree. The game hasn’t come to the point where its too complex for new players. The most overwhelming part isn’t the conditions or the boons, its the armor and weapons.

how is barbs redundant with Confusion or Retaliation? Confusion triggers when they use a skill, and Retaliation triggers when you take damage. I’ve heard it being redundant with Vulnerability, but not those.

part of this is there is too much reliance on one condition for almost all condition builds. Bleeding is the condition most people care about unless you are a confusion based Mesmer. But thats one profession stacked against six.

I hear all the time about cleansing being too powerful completely negating Condition power. So Fragility helps to fix that problem. You hit someone with a burst on someone, and get your full damage. You put your Conditions and they all get cleansed, you don’t get your full damage, its completely wasted.

The game has also been out long enough to where they could afford to put in something like this without overwhelming people. All conditions have one thing they do. They are extremely easy to remember and are in no way overwhelming. We could easily go up to 20 different conditions and still not have it “too complicated” for the player. If Pokemon isn’t too complicated for children, GW2 defiantly isn’t too complicated or cluttered now.

All three of these conditions help to solve a real problem in the game and promote Build Diversity. Something that is seriously lacking in GW2.

As we all know conditions are one of the most important sources of damage in the game. They improve damage, punish foes for moving and are supported by some traits. However they struggle in some areas. PvE they will often get capped and pushed off, making condition using players deal far less damage then a tanking player, or they just get mass cleansed in WvW making them more of an itch then a actual threat. But I already made a post on that so here are 3 conditions that would help to promote more condition use.

Disease: Deals damage each second. If a non-allied creature gets close to the foe suffering from this condition it spreads to that creature.

Disease was a fun condition back in GW1. It was also the cause of some headaches because it slowed the game down at time and cared about the creature’s species and not if they where enemies or friendlies. This meant if you where fighting humans, well you better not get too close to them. So a simple fix to make it only spread to foes would convert this condition from annoying to decent pressure that would be a bit harder to remove then your average poison or bleed.

The professions that should use this condition are Necromancer and Ranger.

Fragility: Whenever afflicted foe suffers a new condition or loses an old condition that foe takes damage.

One of my favorite Hexes from Guild Wars 1 made my favorite team possible. Having the ability to harm people that bit more for each condition they suffer was just golden. It created some powerful builds that worked so well with each other. In GW2 this could help promote Professions that use conditions to work together even without the dedication to max out their bleeds. This condition helps to lessen the burden on bleeds to diversify condition builds. This would also put people in an interesting position when considering cleansing.

The professions that should use this should be Mesmer and Engineer.

Barbs: Whenever a foe would take damage barbs deals damage to that foe.

Another awesome Hex from Guild wars 1. Barbs was a rather useful hex if not over shadowed by its sister skill, Mark of Pain. Barbs has a real chance to shine in GW2 though as a useful condition to allow space to be opened up for party support based condition users. Using this in a group with a lot of combo damage that hit multiple times rather then one or two powerful strikes could open up space for new team tactics.

Professions that should get this condition are Necromancer, Engineer and Guardian.

Leave a comment below and tell me what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.

ronpierce.2760:

Aw, no rank on my updated Toxic Nightmare set, pdg? :<

I give it a gold star! Because number ratings are arbitrary.

I need more armor sets.

saxmachine.6024:

Actually I do tend to run well of power in my 3rd utility. Hate getting stun locked.

I know! it is just the worst!

Elitism is no way to play the game. After reading the comments, this is what I’m seeing. You can optimize if you like, or you can play how you want. A bit of this will determine how well preform. I respect Nemisis’s opinion and his videos have proven he has had some superior ideas. I don’t disagree with his build as it is a decent way to play. I Do however prefer 30/30/0/0/10. I have my reasons.

The parts I can’t agree with Nemisis are his choice of Sigils and disturbing lack of a stunbreak. Although I would never use sigil of corruption I can understand the appeal. If one thing goes wrong you can lose those 25 stacks in an instant. And this is something I’m not going to risk.

Stun breaks is another thing. I wouldn’t suggest running without one. Nemisis most defiantly has the skill to run in groups effectively without one, however for people with less experience with reading foe patterns or poor reaction time, I would not suggest running without one.

Banjal.7328:

Lily.1935:

Interesting concept. Defiantly has some damage and high survivability. The damage very low when compared to a Condi or zerker build, but it seems you are more focused on control and staying alive then just burning people down. Which is fine.

When you fight those necros you will kill them very easy.If you solo roam there is more to winning then just DMG.

I wouldn’t know. I avoid WvW. Too many particle effects, hard to tell what is going on sometimes. And the one time I did go to WvW alone, I was using my PvE condi build, and 2 thieves tried to spike me down. It didn’t work, I scared them off. Although this was before Dhuumfire was introduced.

Offensively, the necromancer is pretty good. Power and Condi builds both hit rather hard, and keep the pressure.

Although I feel condition builds as a whole are not in the right place for PvE. This has more to do with how Arena net built them and less with the necromancer. Although the necromancer is directly effected by this.

Defensively the necromancer is seriously lacking. When comparing this to other professions, the necromancer is on par offensively with something like the warrior, But defensively they are the weakest profession. With the lack of reliable movement, no blocks, no evade skills, little/no vigor, no invulnerability and very little stability, getting trapped by bosses like Loopy or that new guy in the TA Aetherblade path becomes a real problem.

You can plan your teleports to keep yourself out of harms way. But this means you need to be more proactive with your build then other profession has to be and you have to be avoid AoE like the plague, always moving. While a Guardian or Mesmer can use their blocks and invulnerability to attack right through heavy damage keeping pressure.

Sigil of energy also becomes an important part of the Necromancer’s kitten nal. As a necromancer, you are lucky no skill roots you for even a second. You are going to need to keep moving so good thing you can do that. Best be nimble to dodge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgyk71VRoUE

Bhawb.7408:

Fact is, using minions my Fractal group 4 manned an entire fractal run last night after our 5th quit. And I solo’d the Imbued Shaman after my team died, again with minions (I didn’t kill it, but my minions distracted him while I healed up my team, from completely dead).

I was in a 5 man with people who had never run Fractals before. Everyone went down on the same boss, except me And instead managed to save 2 of them and finished the boss with my awesome condition control and damage.

Interesting concept. Defiantly has some damage and high survivability. The damage very low when compared to a Condi or zerker build, but it seems you are more focused on control and staying alive then just burning people down. Which is fine.

So a little while back I read that the devs where talking about trying to improve condition builds for PvE. I’m right on board with this considering my favorite team build in GW1 was a condition based team and my favorite set to play in GW2 is a condition necromancer. However, there is a serious problem with conditions in PvE. The first problem being stacking. Conditions don’t stack properly leaving many players who decided to run conditions end up doing very little damage to a boss or mob. And from what I found out recently, means you wont get credit for that. I don’t know if that’s new or what, but I found it frustrating after attacking a Champion with a large mob triggering all of my skills against it and not even getting EXP for it after attacking it from the beginning.

Another problem with the condition set up besides stacking is the dedication part. Where as a power build can use a full set of their favorite exotic rune, the Condition build needs to run 2 of 3 different types of runes and use consumables in order to maintain 25 stacks of bleeds on their own most the time. This shows that PvE supports Power over condition far more then it should and puts players in an awkward position.

A third problem which relates to the first is that you don’t usually want more then 1 person running a condition build for a dungeon because you compete for condition space. Which isn’t good.

The Forth problem is how much tougher it is for some professions to stack conditions themselves. This becomes a problem when Zerkers can just face roll into a mob and win while a Condi user needs to set up most the time and doesn’t always get the chance. This also becomes a problem when bosses just mass cleanse conditions off themselves setting the condi player back to square one.

With all these problems, its no wonder condi builds don’t work very well in PvE.

So some Ideas to help fix these problems.

1. Indvidual condition cap. Make it so that each person using conditions sees the conditions they apply so that 2 people could use burning and each of them would be applying the damage. I know this sounds like it could be a bad idea. However, even with this the condi builds wont out damage the Zerker builds. Considering what people are doing this would more likely change how some people play.(Note that I feel this should only apply to damaging conditions and not things like vulnerability)

2. Adjust the condition duration so that each condition using profession can apply a decent number of stacks without having to over invest in duration alone. Some major examples of this is bleeding and confusion.

3. Improve condition application. In some cases I’ve found my efforts to stack conditions completely negated by boss phases, condition control or just zerkers in the party melting down foes too fast. I don’t feel this is a problem with how bosses, mobs, condi control, or other players. The problems lie with the condition application itself.

These are some adjustments that I personally feel need to be improved on. Even with chances, some professions just can’t get there in terms of damage. For example, the Guardian couldn’t apply enough conditions that deal damage. They would require a more drastic change in order to work with a condition build. Either they would have to be given a damaging condition, such as bleeding, change the way burning functions, or add a new condition entirely.

Bleeding could work for the guardian. There really isn’t anything in the lore that says they could bleed people. Considering their practices mostly come from Monks and Paragons from the first game, they could cause bleeding. Although the Monk never caused bleeding, the Paragon did. So this would be the easiest option for them.

The second option shouldn’t be an option. Changing how burning functions shouldn’t happen. Its quite good where it is.

The third option of adding new conditions is an interesting one. Considering there is still untapped space here that the guardian or other professions could use. Such as A condition that triggers bonus damage when a foe is struck with an attack. Basically a condition version of Barbs(http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Barbs) from GW1.

There is a fourth option that I’ve been toying with and I’m not quite sure how it would effect the game. The option of changing the scaling of Damaging boons to scale with condition damage rather then Power. Retaliation being the only one currently. However a new boon idea I had that would deal damage to foes within 180 range when you make an attack. A Guild Wars 2 version of Hundred blades or Vow of strength(http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Vow_of_Strength http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hundred_Blades)

I hope to hear from all of you. I hope to hear your thoughts on the matter.

And give us a trait in its place that gives us 3 stacks of torment instead! Or disease. Actually can we have both?

Kraag Deadsoul.2789:

Uh-oh. Lily is agreeing with Bhawb. The First Seal of the Apocalypse has been broken! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES !!! :P

Actually, we agree quite a bit. I was just tired that night, so everything was begrudging. :p

Bhawb.7408:

Ignoring balance, I think the cast times in general give a proper feel to the Necromancer class. How much sense would it make for the slowest class in the game to have a ton of instant cast abilities? There are two professions with a lot of instant cast/effects, Mesmers and Elementalists. Both of which are very combination heavy classes, who rely on fast reactions, bursts, and rotations to do anything.

While we could probably argue a few of our obnoxiously long cast times should be reduced by 1/4 to 1/2 of a second (1/2 I can only think of 1-2 skills for) for balance reasons, the overall “feel” I get from those longer cast times actually makes sense from a gameplay point of view. It just feels right to have a slower pace of combat.

As much as it pains me to admit it, with how I feel about the profession. I have to bite my tongue and agree with you. The necromancer should be slow and creeping, up on you like the cold grasp of death. Always one step away but feeling like it takes ages to catch you. The flavor and feel is right there.

That said, the necromancer isn’t all slow. Their condition build skills are! They are very slow to cast and execute. While the power build tends to be a bit faster in the way it works.

I also think that their are ways to improve on this area without removing much of this flavor.

Minions are not supposed to be cute. They are supposed to be disturbing looking. Like some sort of flesh-less Chimera. The fact that your are so disgusted by them means that their design works.

PS, Minions are not suggested for use in WvW or PvE, so you are very safe not to use them. Unless you are leveling. In which case minions are amazing for leveling.

Umut.5471:

With all of your suggestions, we also need power based, ranged aoe weapons. Condition damage build is dying in wvw(due to cleanse spams), has already died in pve due to 25 stack limit, and we need alternative direct damage dealing weapons to make new aoe builds for wvw or pve. I suggest a new two handed weapon type for this : Scythe (Power-based alternative of staff for necro) In guild wars(1) dervish was already able to use this weapon type. I think this weapon type suits necro without doubt. They can also add this weapon type to some physical fighter classes too.

Gw1 had some nice scythe skins :
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Scythe

Dhuum’s Scythe should be a Legendary weapon with an updated looks and new animations. But that is my opinion.

I agree. And let me add some.

Armor and weapons should be account wide. or we should at least have an option to recraft the armor to become account bound until it was given to another character. I really hate buying a new armor from the gem store, or getting a new weapon that I just love that I have to replace because it doesn’t look as good on that character.

I have 3 light armor Characters of my 5 characters. I would like to be able to give one of my alts my old armor so I don’t have to spend an arm and a leg recrafting all of it. With how much money I dump on the TP and traveling. Just give me this! It would actually make me make more armors then make less. Because now I can experiment much more freely without having to worry about wasted money on armor because I can always try it with someone else.

Condition builds in PvE are still lack luster. I can’t speak for WvW so I’ll only speak for PvE. You do have some advantages with a condition build though. You will be able to take out mobs far easier then your Zerker counterpart. As a Zerker necromancer has a much harder time with mobs then you do. Which makes the Condi build more desired for Fractals then Zerker. Also, depending on the dungeon, it shouldn’t make too much of a difference. You damage should be good enough for the boss and the difference in time wont be 2 minutes longer like Stand the wall says.

However, this all depends on how you build a condition build. If you go full condition damage, at 30/30/0/0/10, with Rabid gear and actively use death shroud for the fear and torment, then your burst damage should be comparable to a single target as the Zerker’s is to a mob. Stacking 25 bleeds with burning, poison, and torment, your damage should be just fine.

I know my opinion isn’t as popular to some people because burning being over rided by other allies burning, however increasing the duration of burning still sustains over all damage. As for Terror, this is a 1.2k tick in damage and shouldn’t be ignored. You should be able to get around 27k over 8 seconds without cons Depending if the boss cleanses or not. This number may very from person to person too. This type of damage depends on how on the ball you are and how much you pressure the boss. The damage also drops a bit if they are immune to some of your conditions, like fear, poison or burning.

I personally really like running this build because enemies just melt before me. While I do also have zerker armor for those dungeons that a zerker will do better, such as CoF, I do enjoy condition much more and haven’t had any problems in the damage department.

Defensively is a different story. Lets just say my glass cannon Mesmer has an easier time surviving then my bulky Condition necro….

Interesting ideas. Mind if I add one?

Grandmaster Death magic trait: Jagged Bones, Whenever a Non-jagged horror minion would die a Jagged horror spawns in its place.

Edit: Also, for the second one. I don’t know about healing you. Your minions do a good job of that already. What if they exploded and healed allies around them?

TakeCare.3182:

First, I just want to establish that we can have a discussion as rational adults without getting upset. Your condescending tone really isn’t necessary. MethaneGas replied to your post with his thoughts on necro mobility and how he feels it is underrated. He has offered help and has made an attempt to better the necro community. This isn’t something to be taken lightly. You have a problem, and he wanted to help you fix it. You may disagree with his advice, and that’s fine, but please, be respectful. We are all people here, not faceless forumers.

First, he was undermining my thoughts and telling me that my perception of the situation wasn’t valid because he had a different experience in a completely different game type.
Second, I tried being reasonable with him and explain the situation from a PvE perspective. He did not listen or pay any mind to it.
Third, He continued to under mind my experience in the format I love most and seemed to blatantly ignore my concerns and neither provided a reasonable solution or constructive response.

I asked a valid question because the statement he said showed me that his experience with PvE was limited at best. And I also said Some players, not all, or most. He acted like his video was the be all end all of discussion and when that was challenged his response was to undermine my experience.

You want to blindly agree with him, fine. But don’t expect me to be kind about this anymore. I’ve been battling for the necromancer since I started this game and I’m not going to quit just because someone doesn’t agree with me.

Vex.7486:

I wasn’t really disputing the case of necromancy being the oldest form of magic, although one could make a case of ritualism (or blood magic) pre-dating Abbadon’s gift to the races of tyria. Grenth’s triumph over Dhuum came during some time between his birth (by Dwayna on Tyria) and obviously the exodus. Now you have to assume that the fight between the two grim reapers happened after Abbadon’s Gift or else there wouldn’t be much to fight over as there was barely any controlled magic outside of the knowledge of the six and elder dragons (Mortal’s don’t have the ability at the time to resurrect anyway so why would they fight over it before that knowlege was given to them? After magic was given freely, Dhuum denied mortal races part of that gift which was part of why it lead to his downfall). He was helped after all by mortals who were probably enticed by the notion of increasing their power’s by serving Grenth, dubbed the “Seven Reapers”.

So this was still pretty early in humanities history on Tyria hence why i labelled it as “primal”, also because death is base and involves everything. Really the only one of the six who brought something new to Tyria magic wise was Lyssa, as nothing like illusion magic had been seen before to my knowledge.

Also Ele’s Technically get a hammer anyway ;/

TL;DR: Necromancy is newer than elemental magic, but not by that much in my opinion. Illusionism is definitely the more recent, hence why they probably have a few of the more “up to date” weapons.

It doesn’t matter if you where or not. You where either using the word wrong, or didn’t know the lore. I assumed you knew what the word meant so I corrected your lore.

Also, the Joton Explain a bit about magic talking about humans being rather primitive when they first saw them, only using “Elemental” magic and started to teach them other forms. You can also see this pattern with the Grawl.

The gods where also around before the humans where. The Charr have a story about Melandru breathing life into the world after a great devastation. And there is also the Forgotten who fostered the sentient races of the world while the God prepared it for humans. So the time frame of when Dhuum fell would have to be long before the humans came to Tyria because Dhuum wasn’t the god of death first revealed to the humans. Grenth was. And its well known that the Forgotten believe in the gods and had once been their followers/minions.

Ritualism, is not necromancy. Ritualism is a form of calling on one’s ancestors in order to gain their strength. Ritualists from GW1 didn’t even start using magikittenil the blood stone was revealed by Abaddon who then gifted magic back to the sentient races. Ritualism was never a part of necromancy, although you can be sure in the past 250 years the necromancer did adopt some of their practices. Rangers also use Rituals that summon nature spirits.

Confused yet? Well the time line of GW is a mess and it only got worse with the addition of the elder dragons. Especially when you put Arachnia into the mix.

MethaneGas.8357:

Okay so I wasn’t going to reply to Lily. Was hoping someone else would explain the big differences between WvW and PvE. The main thing being: you don’t really need to be mobile in PvE.

You don’t play any PvE do you? Putting the wurm up in a “safe area” especially in Fractals or a dungeon isn’t usually an option. And if it is, you don’t have line of sight which means you will teleport to the closest wall and not all the way where you need to go. If the enemy can’t reach it, 9 times out of 10 you can’t either. And neither Spectral walk or Dark Path takes you out of a Legendary boss’s AoE. You’re only option becomes dodging, but unless you know the boss’s pattern perfectly and are not suffering from lag then its going to pressure you very hard if not just kill you. And that last statement is straight up wrong. Mobility is extremely important in PvE. I’ve seen more people die to trash mobs then I should because people don’t move. Its the difference between being able to down champion bosses and eating dirt on a veteran.

Hell, For the New TA path I had to switch from my necromancer to my Mesmer because of how hot one of the bosses was on my tail. I couldn’t escape, couldn’t get out of the way, He homed in on my so spectral walk was useless, Same problem with the Wurm’s line of sight. The Mesmer easily dropped agro, could keep out of harms way, had multiple stun breaks to stop attack and distracted with clones. There was no comparison to the mobility options and just all around defensive options. The mesmer, even with far worse armor and weapons just had all the tools needed to essentially make fun of the boss while the necromancer was easily pulled into its AOE even with prediction.

Also, your WvW experience says nothing about this problem. Many people who play in WvW(but not all, defiantly the ones you faced though) are actually easier to kill then NPCs. Hell, I saw 2-3 people chasing you into Spectral wall hitting it multiple times before it faded… You say its good, I say you where fighting the bottom of the barrel.

Keelan.7498:

Lily.1935:

Keelan.7498:

I see necromancers with these:

Offhand Axe- Because we have the mainhand already.
Greatsword- Single target, range 1200 to compliment our AOE 1200 ranged staff. Just don’t make it as stupid as mesmer greatsword.
Offhand Pistol- Because launching jagged horrors or exploding bone minions at people sounds awesome.
Crossbow- Just go with it. I don’t know why, I just really like the idea of dark shadowy arrows, it makes me think of dark lighters on charmed :I

Nonexisting Weapons:

Scythe- Same thing as my theory for greatsword. Something 1200 range with more emphasis on single target damage.

Crossbow doesn’t exist in the game. So its not a real option. It is a weapon that could be used by a few professions. Primarily I see it being used by Thieves, Rangers, Engineer and Guardian. Not so much the Necromancer. The reason why is because a crossbow has been a weapon of assassination or the bane of some evil. Example: Helsing. Although it fits the Engineer, I feel they wouldn’t logically favor it over a gun, however they don’t have a power main hand weapon so it would fill a role their current weapons can’t fill. The Ranger would love it as its silent and doesn’t break their almost druid like code. The Thief would like it as they have strong roots with assassins. And the Guardian using it as a bane of evil weapon like mentioned above. Holy bolts sounds very cool in my opinion.

I don’t mean to completely derail your post but, I totally meant to say shortbow instead of crossbow. In my mind they are essentially the same, I mean aren’t there crossbow models for the shortbow ingame? I don’t play thief or ranger sooo..

No, there are not. And they are not even close to the same thing.

MethaneGas.8357:

Lily.1935:

just because you have escaped form a situation using the necromancer’s teleport skills doesn’t make them good. I’ve escaped using dark path before and I do it quite frequently. But that is because I have no other real option to do that. I’ve successfully escaped more often with the engineer’s acid bomb, the guardian’s Line of Warding, or the mesmer’s blink. And my necro has a good 500 hours

I think a good chunk of us are in agreement though, that the necromancer’s defenses are seriously lacking in a tone of areas and this nerf done to us a while back has only made it worse.

I honestly don’t know why would go and say that after all I’ve said. I even posted 2 videos: one showing that mobility is possible and the other showing that escapes and that combat with that setup is possible. Dark Path is NOT your only means to escape. Should I bother?
-Spectral wall > Line of Warding. SW is a utility, true, but it is much, much more powerful on many levels.
—For example: Multiple target protection source, source of Chaos Armor (if you take a staff. Takes practice, but imo it’s more powerful than blasting Chilblains, which would only cause weakness), it FEARS enemies AWAY from the line, as opposed to a simple knock down (length of their running increases with increased fear/condi duration), it generates life force, can last up to 7.5 seconds, and can even do damage to multiple targets through fear.
-Blink is similar to Wurm
-Acid Bomb is similar to wurm
-Spectral walk is in a WAY similar to the above two mobility skills, as discussed on the last page. Additionally, it can be used to drop off cliffs. No one else has this ability.

All have ups and downs. But Dark Path is NOT your only escape/survival mechanism. Do you WvW? Or PvP? I’m guessing you do because mobility is not a HUGE issue in PvE, generally. If you are so distressed about surviving other players, kindly refer to the above skills. Pick a few, despite being skeptical. Try them for a bit. Give it a bit of time to sink in, then, and only then can we have a proper conversation.

How do those videos of WvW relate to PvE where enemies will kill any flesh wurm you spawn, especially in Fractals or dungeons? How does showing me one player who knows what they are doing against a group of players who don’t show me anything? Am I supposed to be impressed by a competent player? How does this fix the multiple aoe attacks that hit over 1,200 range in all directions? How does this change that I can’t fear or immobilize many of them? How does this fix the 5 enemy limit on the Spectral wall? How does this make the nerf any better? Answer? it doesn’t.

Keelan.7498:

I see necromancers with these:

Offhand Axe- Because we have the mainhand already.
Greatsword- Single target, range 1200 to compliment our AOE 1200 ranged staff. Just don’t make it as stupid as mesmer greatsword.
Offhand Pistol- Because launching jagged horrors or exploding bone minions at people sounds awesome.
Crossbow- Just go with it. I don’t know why, I just really like the idea of dark shadowy arrows, it makes me think of dark lighters on charmed :I

Nonexisting Weapons:

Scythe- Same thing as my theory for greatsword. Something 1200 range with more emphasis on single target damage.

Crossbow doesn’t exist in the game. So its not a real option. It is a weapon that could be used by a few professions. Primarily I see it being used by Thieves, Rangers, Engineer and Guardian. Not so much the Necromancer. The reason why is because a crossbow has been a weapon of assassination or the bane of some evil. Example: Helsing. Although it fits the Engineer, I feel they wouldn’t logically favor it over a gun, however they don’t have a power main hand weapon so it would fill a role their current weapons can’t fill. The Ranger would love it as its silent and doesn’t break their almost druid like code. The Thief would like it as they have strong roots with assassins. And the Guardian using it as a bane of evil weapon like mentioned above. Holy bolts sounds very cool in my opinion.

Vex.7486:

Most likely: Hammer, Mace, Torch. Possibly Offhand axe, but i don’t see that happening.

Sword & Greatsword don’t really fit our theme, swords are more sophisticated “dueling” weapons. Hammer and Mace are more raw and primal, which would suit the power necromancer very well in my opinion. I’m saying torch because of dhummfire so having a torch wouldn’t be ruled out i guess in case that trait is toned down and torch is made to synergize with it.

Hammer first though above all others. However the skills would have to compensate for the CCQ by having some defensive options, that is if it’s a melee weapon. Imagine a fully ranged hammer selection? Why not! S’what mesmer got with the GS.

Then again if i have that attitude i suppose i can’t rule out dual axe either.

I must clear something up. Of the Magic using professions the most “Primal” of them is the elementalist. It is the first type of magic most races learn and use. Excluding Sylvari of course. Even looking at the history of the role of Death in the world. Dhuum, the first god of Death essentially Denied necromancy. He wouldn’t allow resurrection. Which is why Grenth over threw him. So in that idea, necromancy is actually a relatively new form of magic compared to pyromancy, geomancy, aeromancy, and hydromancy. It isn’t clear on the age of the other forms of magic in comparison to Necromancy. The only thing that is fairly clear in the lore is that Elemental Magic was first. And by definition of Primal: “first or original” the Primal magic would be Elemental.

If we are going on the logic of the hammer being a Primal weapon(which it could very well be if we consider using a rock as a sort of hammer I could see that) then the obvious choice of the mage professions that should get a hammer would be the elementalist and not the Necromancer.

flow.6043:

Lily.1935:

For a Condition build, the only skill you really don’t care about is Life blast.

Dhuumfire on Life Blast would solve that.

Except I trigger Dhuumfire more often with Doom then I ever do with Life blast. or I just trigger it out of Death shroud.

SolemnMalevolence.5248:

Part of me wants us to get access to pistols so I can feel like Dante. But more than anything I’d probably want greatsword. I mean, hey, Trahearne gets to use it. Sadly, I doubt that’ll happen either. I’m most likely anticipating sword out of every existing weapon.

Dante isn’t a necromancer o.O

flow.6043:

That really is a problem, more so when you’re getting focused by many opponents at once. (Fingers crossed for more DS skills in the future)
However, in 1v1s a smart foe will save his CC for when you leave Shroud because that’s when you are the most vulnerable.

I’ve noticed the opposite to be true. If you have to stay in death shroud you are most often in a bad situation. Which means that being hit with a strong CC will waste time. Or even just being chilled or Immobilized. The lack of access to utility puts you in a seriously bad spot especially on the defensive.

Death shroud has a tone of problems in its design. As a resource it isn’t used nearly as much as it should be. This is coming from someone who dedicates much of her build to being able to use death shroud effectively.

On a power build, the skills are less useful as you only really care about 2 skills. Life transfer and life blast while the others are mostly forgotten. They do get used, but not nearly as much. Then it locks you our of skills that you have on your utility bar that you want to be able to cast while in death shroud but have to cast them out of death shroud, effectively making you have to set up before hand. if you are quick at it, this isn’t too much of a problem, but if you are not it makes a power build less viable then it would be otherwise. The other side of the power builds that use death shroud less often, don’t care about any of the skills and will be using it more as a way to mitigate damage. This second build is rather sad because it basically says, I don’t want to play a necromancer for their special mechanic which under minds arena net’s efforts.

For a Condition build, the only skill you really don’t care about is Life blast. In fact its usually so bad for condition builds that you will actively try to end death shroud before it even casts. This means that the necromancer will most likely drop death shroud within a few seconds of entering it just for the extra condition stacks. Then the problem becomes it locks you out of defense for a period of time.

For a defensive build its subpar there too. You aren’t worried about your damage so much with this, but the fact that it carries over means that you can’t pop it in response to a large hit while other professions can just use an evade, invulnerability or just block skill to get out of there while you might not be lucky enough to have your endurance bar filled.

Then there is the major problem with death shroud. You can’t break stun while in it. So if you need to enter death shroud as a defensive means, you sacrifice your defensive abilities to do so. Which further perpetuates the problem. This makes laughable at best, as once you enter a smart foe can use this time to begin to cc you to death. Doom really becoming your only means of defense in DS, but even that doesn’t last long enough and your foe isn’t locked out of a stun break like you are.

Now I’m not saying a necromancer can’t win. They can! They can destroy people very well. The problem becomes that other profession are far easier to use and play with more reward and less investment into their mechanic in order to be both offensively and defensively sound.

the build you are using at the moment should be fine in PvE. The only problem is conditions are still at a pretty bad place for PvE and there are other professions that will often run your conditions off. You may be able to put more conditions on at once, but the necromancer attack relatively slow in comparison to other professions so they often will cut into your bleeds because they can apply multiple small stacks much quicker then you. For PvE, I would suggest coordinating more with your group to make sure that you don’t step on each other’s feet.

Nagato no Kami.4980:

Lily.1935:

Nagato no Kami.4980:

I think a sword would be nice as I’d like a cleave weapon that would still allow off hand warhorn. I’ll settle for a greatsword or hammer, though. Anything with cleave is fine.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Bhawb.7408:

And as always, I want pistol off-hand to fire Jagged Horrors.

Yes. Just yes.

Death Nova= “Eat your heart out, Explosive Shot”

This got me to thinking, instead of Lich Form simply destroying minions, why not have it throw them instead? Or maybe eat them like engi med packs?

I’m just not a fan of having a hammer on a necromancer. I feel its better suited for the engineer. I’m of the personal opinion that mace would be a fine weapon in the necromancer’s kitten nal(shouldn’t be censored isn’t a bad word.) considering that it doesn’t fit the other professions that don’t have it very well in terms of theme. But since the necro is a dark cleric I feel this could work. A cleaving mace weapon? Could be a thing. Maces are pretty unpopular too. Less popular then swords and hammers.

Don’t clerics usually have access to all blunt weapons?

But, I’ll take anything that hits more than one person — even if it is the stubby little mace.

this depends on the version of DnD we are talking about. or which table top game the answer to any weapon is usually yes, but they get penalties for using them. In the case of the mace, this is usually the cleric’s default weapon regardless of what god you choose. Although, this can be different depending on the god. Some god’s weapons might be different so by following different gods might give you access to a whip, sword, axe, and so on.

I don’t have a reason for not giving the necromancer a hammer besides I would rather see it on the engineer. I would be upset though if the necromancer got a hammer and the engineer didn’t.

Nagato no Kami.4980:

I think a sword would be nice as I’d like a cleave weapon that would still allow off hand warhorn. I’ll settle for a greatsword or hammer, though. Anything with cleave is fine.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Bhawb.7408:

And as always, I want pistol off-hand to fire Jagged Horrors.

Yes. Just yes.

Death Nova= “Eat your heart out, Explosive Shot”

This got me to thinking, instead of Lich Form simply destroying minions, why not have it throw them instead? Or maybe eat them like engi med packs?

I’m just not a fan of having a hammer on a necromancer. I feel its better suited for the engineer. I’m of the personal opinion that mace would be a fine weapon in the necromancer’s kitten nal(shouldn’t be censored isn’t a bad word.) considering that it doesn’t fit the other professions that don’t have it very well in terms of theme. But since the necro is a dark cleric I feel this could work. A cleaving mace weapon? Could be a thing. Maces are pretty unpopular too. Less popular then swords and hammers.

If there is one thing I’ve learned about arena net from GW1. Its that they are far from flawless. Many changes they have made to professions in the first game where meant to “Nerf” builds that made them even stronger or things they did to “Buff” builds made them weaker. So when they say the change they did was to fix the problems we where having by buffing other parts while nerfing this was a “buff” I have to take it with a grain of salt.

just because you have escaped form a situation using the necromancer’s teleport skills doesn’t make them good. I’ve escaped using dark path before and I do it quite frequently. But that is because I have no other real option to do that. I’ve successfully escaped more often with the engineer’s acid bomb, the guardian’s Line of Warding, or the mesmer’s blink. And my necro has a good 500 hours at least on each of them. Also considering the fact that other professions have far more access to abilities to escape then we do and they are far more successful says a lot.

I think a good chunk of us are in agreement though, that the necromancer’s defenses are seriously lacking in a tone of areas and this nerf done to us a while back has only made it worse.

You want to know what I think? No? Too bad. I don’t think we will get a greatsword. The reason for this is because of the in game economy. Right now greatswords are the most expensive at the moment and most popular. Doing this could harm the price of other weapons the necromancer helps boost their price in. Such as axe. The Greatsword prices would also rise as well and other weapon types that the necromancer uses that would fill that roll normally their prices will drop. At least in theory.

Here is what I think is likely. Mace, off hand axe(maybe), and possibly torch. Assuming we can only pick from existing weapons.

MethaneGas.8357:

Lily.1935:

1) no teleports that can get you out in a pinch.

2)Arena Net. You frustrate your necromancer community to no end. You ignore us most the time and when you do listen, you listen to the people calling for nerfs when the necromancer doesn’t need them. A player getting beat once by a necromancer doesn’t mean that he necromancer was broken.

Two things.
1) We do have teleports which people don’t seem to be aware of. Spectral walk and wurm are two excellent teleports, if you know how to use them. I hate when people say “we absolutely without doubt cannot do this” when it simply isn’t true. Oh yes, and Dark Path. In WvW, USE it on neutral monsters. If you pop spectral walk, then dark path to a neutral, continue walking, then teleport back… the distance covered is unbelievable. There so, so, so much you can do with those. I’m a teleporting Necro and I’m proud of it

2)Don’t speak on behalf of everyone to better your point. There’s just as many people satisfied, if not more, than there are dissatisfied people – they just won’t come on here to write a “thank you” thread cuz that’s… human nature. Anet doesn’t ignore us. If you go to the Dec. 10th Balance Preview (Necromancer) thread, you’ll see. Also: Necro’s have been getting nerfs because it was warranted, and I’m a saying that as a Necro fan. They simply were over the top in certain aspects. No use in denying it.

1. Read again what I said. I didn’t say we didn’t have teleports. I said we didn’t have any that could get us out in a pinch. Which is a big difference. Spectral walk is good and all, but when you are running away its secondary effect to teleport you back isn’t an option. If you can time it right with jumping off cliffs it could be good. But that is also assuming you don’t already have a tone of conditions and damage on you already so that is out. Flesh wurm isn’t a good one to get you out either. Unless you go in planning to loose, and then you have to make sure its far enough to where they don’t notice it and make sure you be mindful of its distance to teleport which doesn’t make it practical. So, my point stands.

2. Yeah, that is fair. I was rather upset with the change and still not happy about it so I’m sure you can see where I’m coming from.

PS: the problems with the nerfs they ended up doing to the necromancer was they ended up applying them too quickly after the update was released giving people no real time for people to adjust or understand how this effected the metagame. On top of that the nerfs effected the PvE community which was something arena net used to be more mindful of back in GW1.

SolemnMalevolence.5248:

The one thing I liked about 30/10/0/0/30 is that it was so Death Shroud-centric. I really wanted to play something that utilizied our mechanic as much as possible, so that’s one thing the build had going for it. I’ve always thought Death Shroud, as a concept, was pretty cool. I’m not so sure about Vital Persistence though…life force may decay slower, but damage taken will drop it just as quickly, and that tended to be what pre-emptively ended my Death Shroud duration more than it just running out.

I actually run out of life force just as much as it getting dropped. Its okay. At 25% it isn’t that great but I don’t have any other trait I really want in that place. Once it is buffed to 50% you should really start noticing the difference.

I think the problem is more with the Racial elites rather then how useful they are for the necromancer. All the necromancer elites are useful if not a bit underwhelming. And truth be told I would much rather have a utility skill then any of the necromancer elites. But that isn’t to say their elites are bad. Just not very impressive.