Guild Wars 2

Knote.2904:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Sheobix.8796:

i agree with ascii, he rounded this up very well.

I too defended this class before the patch (it was still good)

but now warhorn is a piece of junk. fears are junk vs. bosses and champs. and we STILL are lacking major fixes to the class.

not to mention gluttony is still junk! 10%? you do know our LF gain is percentage-based and we won’t feel a boost at all until we get at least a 20-25% bonus to LF gain?

perma swifting is now no longer worth it because warhorn is reduced to junk.

You say Warhorn has been “reduced to junk”, but there are absolutely 0 notes mentioning Warhorns. I don’t think you even read the patch.

I think he means it’s bad now because of Signet of the Locust, main reason you took warhorn was for the swiftness. Now all it’s really for is the daze.

and now the daze was patched vs. bosses. many players didn’t know that daze still worked against defiant bosses for the interrupt. (it didn’t immobilize them, but it interrupted casting animations) as well as fear.

with the new patch, horn4 daze is useless in dungeons now, and the horn5 is useless for the key to perma-swifting which is now settlable for the 25% runspeed across the board.

Knote.2904:

Levian.6742:

I tried a mesmer and got it to 20. It was pretty fun, but a pain to level at those early stages. I heard it gets good at 30ish when you start getting some good traits but I couldn’t quite get there. Who knows, I may give it another go.

On a side note, and unrelated to the thread but related to your post Knote, do you, or anyone else know of another good MMO with a Necro, or Necro style class? I’ve already bought a couple MMO’s and really don’t want to buy all of them plus monthly subs to find out it doesn’t offer what I want.

I played WoW for a long time off and on but don’t really want to go back to it, and I have Rift but didn’t have any friends who played it so it got a little boring, even though it had some classes that looked awesome. I kind of expect this post to be deleted within a matter of minutes, but hey, what ever

Mesmer is pretty trait reliant, so yeah they pick up later on and it’s not so bad.

As for other MMO’s, only 2 I could think of right now is Allods Online and Vanguard “Saga of Heroes”. Both have a fantastic necromancer class and blood mage class.

I’ll pm you the rest since I don’t want to go offtopic.

I second Allods Online being a good substitute. The pvp is tight, except i left it at the time when the pay2win rune system TOTALLY screwed pvp until it was pointless to play.

and their psionicist class makes the gw2 mesmer look like a joke.

if they fixed: Fear of Death mechanic, Rune system, Crystal Chip system

it would be worth it to play.

also, to avoid getting offtopic…

they need to fix something significant on this class soon or else there will probably be a slow decline.

Savan.8495:

your fearing the mining suit to get him into the ‘correct’ position?

… you’re doing it wrong

yes nothing to do nothing at all

sure. go aggro and limp with cripple to the next oil. fear was our way of quickly getting him into place. staff5>ds3>dag3 done. ds4 life transfer bubble up> repeat.

Knote.2904:

Sheobix.8796:

Knote.2904:

Sheobix.8796:

after some thinking, i too was frustrated with the change to defiant. I actually ditched warhorn in dungeons for the daze interrupt and used fear to interrupt as well.

(there was a daze hole they patched as well)

now i use focus and feel like the class lost a big part of solid skill-reward play.

Yeah, as much as I hate going back to sounding like a huge cynic, this is just a huge “slap in the face” to me. It was the sole thing we had in pve that was awesome, that was unique to us, and as you said “skillful”.

Now it’s just, poor condition dmg, decent power dmg, and the situational boon strip that mesmers do more consistently anyway.

i have to say, the patch notes may not make us look that nerfed, but come around to re-assesing the fact that we now only have two viable offhands (dagger which is bugged still w/ dag4… making focus the only good one)

congrats anet, we are now the class that is shoehorned to use focus in one of our sets. (every conditionmancer knows weakening shroud trait> dag5 all the time) so we now have TWO totally effed offhands.

and wait.. oh.. what, we can’t interrupt any bosses anymore? the fack? okay, i will be playing new games now or try to roll a mesmer.

You KNOW it’s bad when the biggest Necromancer white knighter (no offense) has been turned into just another jaded necro.

Thankfully it’s christmas, and steam will be having a massive sale again, I need a break from this game anyway. =p

absolutely no offense taken, but it’s sadly true. I was content before the patch, after the defiant change though, (im a heavy dungeon player and champ soloist) this just kitten me off to hell.

STOP MAKING OUR CONDITION CONTROLS USELESS YOU DUMB COMPANY

Savan.8495:

Yes thats why I PvE for my fear interrupt.. that is only reason to play necro in PvE… right

less drama please

Things get nerfed, things get buffed – its an MMO

Haven’t even noticed a drop in my pve experience, then again I spend less time complaining and more time playing – who knows I would probably believe all the hate our class gets if I read these forums often enough

On a side note

Necros staff is not a mainhand weapon, its not the only weapon in your arsenal

ds3 and staff5 was our unique way of helping teams position bosses or herd cows.

example: mining suit boss in FotM to position him under burning oil.

now we have nothing to do that. nothing at all.

Manticore Five.9867:

For bosses, swap out withering for either reaper’s or targettable wells if you plan to use them (unlikely).

was thinking the same, but i might swap in Weakening shroud as well. I like the traits in the curses line over the spite line.

Knote.2904:

Sheobix.8796:

after some thinking, i too was frustrated with the change to defiant. I actually ditched warhorn in dungeons for the daze interrupt and used fear to interrupt as well.

(there was a daze hole they patched as well)

now i use focus and feel like the class lost a big part of solid skill-reward play.

Yeah, as much as I hate going back to sounding like a huge cynic, this is just a huge “slap in the face” to me. It was the sole thing we had in pve that was awesome, that was unique to us, and as you said “skillful”.

Now it’s just, poor condition dmg, decent power dmg, and the situational boon strip that mesmers do more consistently anyway.

i have to say, the patch notes may not make us look that nerfed, but come around to re-assesing the fact that we now only have two viable offhands (dagger which is bugged still w/ dag4… making focus the only good one)

congrats anet, we are now the class that is shoehorned to use focus in one of our sets. (every conditionmancer knows weakening shroud trait> dag5 all the time) so we now have TWO totally effed offhands.

and wait.. oh.. what, we can’t interrupt any bosses anymore? the fack? okay, i will be playing new games now or try to roll a mesmer.

yeah.

and i agree. our condition damage could be upcurved a bit. (trying to calculate a balance between power and cond this week, bleed numbers are REALLY bottom line w/ good gear)

as of power building, when we stack ptv gear, we behave much like a selfish warrior w/o buffs. I just find that we aren’t getting the competitive output unless we really trim the numbers and gear specifically to rock it.

will switch out crests with ramp orbs.

i agree with ascii, he rounded this up very well.

I too defended this class before the patch (it was still good)

but now warhorn is a piece of junk. fears are junk vs. bosses and champs. and we STILL are lacking major fixes to the class.

not to mention gluttony is still junk! 10%? you do know our LF gain is percentage-based and we won’t feel a boost at all until we get at least a 20-25% bonus to LF gain?

perma swifting is now no longer worth it because warhorn is reduced to junk and having S.Walk on the bar just for a tiny-tele and stunbreaker is pointless. time to grab the new sig, and drop my 2nd well for an attrition build.

I will also take a hiatus totally from necromancer. time to roll a mesmer and warrior…
and revisit my 80thief.

after some thinking, i too was frustrated with the change to defiant. I actually ditched warhorn in dungeons for the daze interrupt and used fear to interrupt as well.

(there was a daze hole they patched as well)

now i use focus and feel like the class lost a big part of solid skill-reward play.

the stat calculations for this more hybrid-y build is:

1839 power, w/ weapon = 2950 attack rating unbuffed (3300 flat w/ BiP running)
+ 474 condition damage unbuffed = 824 with BiP running… + 110 + 14 (MTC buff) = 948 cdamage
49% crit rate (52% w/ omnom ghost) improves procs and crits
23.4k HP (offset by vampiric traits and buffs, active hp regain is improved)
1748*1.05 (death25 trait) = 1969 + 920 = 2889 armor unbuffed

the build gains a better trait selection and more engaging playstyle (weaving between power output and Bleed stacking from range)

this is the first calculation pass w/o perfect gear prospecting.

UPDATE! http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mzVMcm9cmTCxomTCxo0xpf0cobMVV
with the new update, we’re looking at a total revamp to the build.
I’m thinking of cutting and pasting the old build so others can still choose to use it as a base, but the new build should be:

0/30/25/15/0 w/ power-synergetic traits in curses, same setup in death, and crit-vamp trait in blood. new food buff will be omnom ghosts.

scepter/focus or dagger/focus will be the main set. PTV gear, Emerald Trinkets, and Rampager jewels/orbs in the accessories (this is my first off the fly mental mockup, please discuss this setup)

the focus is dropping the perma-swiftness for sig of the locust (25% is good, and it adds an AoE leech pop) which free up 10+ trait points, and when i reviewed the spite line, i discovered that with more precision, i could drop the passive heal converter minor in spite as well as the might-blast major and the weak initial minor. -150 power, +300 condition and precision. good trade off.

with knight’s accesories, we gain more Toughness to offset less base power and slightly less health, and gain a precursor bonus to precision. (+ 255 + 300 precision from base trinks and traits at this point mentally)

this opens up more crit-based play (bleeds and heal procs) and increases our DPS curve dramatically. the grandmaster trait in curses (weakness proc) imo in duels is one of the strongest. especially vs. glass cannons or other similar PTV based class builds that don’t focus on crits.

another bonus, more condition manipulation opens up, and bleeds will seek its way as an equal primary source of DPS. This will compliment playstyles that weave in and out of melee range, letting the player either stack bleeds or dish out power damage.

the reasons why i drop warhorn at this point is because bosses have been patched and defiant no longer has the daze/fear hole, i can no longer interrupt key movements in dungeons with it. also, the pbAoE on horn5 as well as the perma-swiftness option is no longer as useful with the new buff to locust sig. so i picked up the focus for some chills and regen.

Utilities will be tight, and that is the one horrid crux of the new patch. Gluttony still is not a valid build point, and with most of the underwater buffs, condition/underwater play will become a stronger feature in all the classes.

Utils: S.Walk(stunbreak and some swiftness, swappable trait in curses line), BiP(tying together condition and power play 10 might buff, and being our premiere Bleed source), and either locust sig for WvW (passive run bonus and AoE leech) or epi/well (like WoP, WoD, or WoC) elite is plague. lich still maintains its fantastic crit-enabled burst capabilities, but the new build will make plague an even competitor… and more useful elite from a tactical standpoint.

Reacting.6180:

Why do people think in terms of stats instead of thinking about builds…
Anyone can wreck your “immobile fortress” with half the stats and a better optimized build….
Jesus…

try this one for instance..
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;0_-30GKlHVI0F43KkJ0;9;5T9J9;118A1;027-2;0U-F4aJG6jwmAjwmA2ZZ

although i sense this is a troll attempt, you need to understand some things.

first, this is a strong build for Wvw>dungeons>pve>pvp. It can be tweaked for competitive fast-down play in PvP because it lacks the stat numbers available in PvE gear. by about half.

second, i did extremely rigorous testing with this build, including in PvP. I used the following scenarios:

1v1 against a bunker/healing Guardian (guild mate who is a strong pvper)
1v2 vs. a thief and an engineer
1v3 vs. three DPS classes (mixes of mes, war, rang, GS guard, gcan thieves) to see how long i can hold out and see if i can down one or two opponents.

1v1, this build (with soldier amulet only, no runes) was able to fight a perfect stalemate with the guardian. Neither builds could kill each other. The hard part was waiting for their cleanse and using lich and wells to eat them. i always got him to 10% or less, but they managed to bubble up to 100%, and for me it was likewise. Except, I was able to stay above 90% and use DS exclusively to take his damage.

1v2, against two weaker builds (this was a test for common outnumber encounters)
I was able to down the engineer first, AoE trap and killed the Thief, and finished the engineer and nearly the thief until their autoattacks took me down. i finished the thief in downed state. (it is harder to generate LF w/o using auto attacks and no damage to convert to LF w/ spectral utils) nevertheless, I was able to take both down solo without too much focus.

1v3 – this is the hardest test, and some of the most varied results come from these battles. The different mixes of groups i tested against really changed how to play/survive/attack. In a 3v1, the stacked group focuses more on DPS and throws defense to the wind in most cases, including my target which makes it easier for me to take my target down. (its a race against the clock, how well i can hit defensive skills and still maintain my gaps and damage) But most of the time, i could down one opponent while interrupting the whole group regularly with judicious use of DS3, staff fear, and tricky moves with spectral walk. (WoD or WoC was also helpful in some tests— mainly ripping might to give me mroe time)

i honestly think this is a good build for team play. even with only an amulet and no runes, it performed well. in WvW and dungeons, it scales to become an even better performing build.

As for your link, that build is trash. you have very little synergy between traits and suggested strengths, and the gear choice is poor. (you can’t get your toughness high enough in PvP for the undead runes to matter)

Gryph.8237:

Hey, been running this build now (pretty close to the stats, though I don’t have any ascended gear). I like it, I think it is a great build and I think it stretched the bounds of what we can do. In wvw, I only run this now, because the survivability is great.

I have two complaints, and they are not huge.

One, Power. I have managed (with 25 bloodlust stacks, and a beserker staff) to get my attack up to 3950 or so. However, I am not seeing huge huge gains in dmg, and see more when it comes from crit and crit dmg.

Do you ever think about adjusting to bring crit %/dmg up a bit? I know it is at the cost of some survivability. Too bad there are no percision, toughness, vitality sets, or I would balance and drop my power to up my crit chance a bit. Even some Crit %, vitality, toughness gear hahahah.

Second one, I miss conditions sometimes. It makes me sad that to be this survivable, I need to leave behind the one mechanic that is supposed to be ours. I have done the hybrid build, to get power up with condition dmg, but you can only get your power to 1800, with about 1200 conditions, and 1300 vit/toughness. just not as survivable, and 1/2 our damage is just insta cleared with heal, or removal.

These are just notes, not really complaints. Maybe just trying to get your guys’ thoughts.

Thanks

what you can do is slot in Berserker Jewels in your accessories and some ruby orbs in the armor. remember, if you use orbs/jems instead of soldier crests, you have something like 280/200/200 bonuses-ish to play with.

if you want a more offensive build, drop vitality in your gear. knight’s gear (power/tough/prec with major in toughness— covers drop in vitality) and pump either berserker jewels or rampager jewels. If you go rampagers, you open up your build to use more conditions as well as power.

the vitality from full soldier’s is only like.. 5-6k hp which is covered if you do full knight’s gear. the trade up is more precision and you could gain another +280 precision from rampager jewels/orbs and another 300 is you drop spite and soul reaping and fill in curses. that would roughly be an equal and clean change between vitality numbers => precision numbers

you’d also gain more toughness from knight’s gear. so yay to that. you’d probably get into the 3300+ armor range.

it’s a good cousin. as i said, playing with knight’s as a base and then fusing in another 2nd set upgrade components really will make your build unique.

If you want to see where the high stacked power (3.5k-3.9k attack) you can pop lich and use that. I don’t focus on crits in my build because it is 100% covered while in lich mode, which is my primary “temp-glass cannon except not glass at all” mode.

kKagari.6804:

Sheobix.8796:

the reason why i run PVT vs. Berserkers is because if you’re going 1v1 w/ berserkers.. you can land maybe three chains until you down. that’s not intelligent play for me, nor is it challenging.. its autoattack win like a glass cannon thief.

other than that, that means you could deal maybe.. oh.. 15-25k damage until your hp is a wisp of smoke. with ptv gear, you can outlast and outdmg that pool by far just by time alone… and tank 1v2 or 1v3 (if they are weaker) on top of that. To me, that makes PTV exo > Berserker Exo

WvW is about knowing what fights to pick regardless of what gear you are wearing. I run berserker dagger builds all the time in WvW and I am deadly efficient in taking down stragglers or people that only slightly overextend from the safety of their group. Much more efficiently than a build with only sustained damage can. I supposed I’d say Berserker > Soldier for that reason alone, but I won’t, because there were be situations where Soldier will outshine Berserker. Its just needless to say, if you don’t have the hp, don’t tank? There’s no guarantee that you’ll be downed after 1 or 2 chains using berserker gear, or once you’ve dealt 15-25k damage, like you’ve stated, thats simply not true.

i agree with your point. berserkers vs. soldiers is very situational. They are both some of the strongest sets in the game, imo.

XD I’m one of the necros you chase past two forts and kitten on their bodies after you finally finish with them from frustration..

fyi our strengths don’t come from traits alone, they come mostly from gear.

Toughness+Vitality = LIFE!! GLORIOUS UNKILLABLE LIFE!!

edit:
I actually run up to groups of three people in enemy BLs just to /wave at them, jump around in spectral form, and walk away just to kitten them off when they all try to down me.. its so much fun!

PearlGore.7419:

I feel pretty much every class should have a speed signet realy, avoids forcing you to use certain weapons in WvW that you Don’t like, which goes aganst what GW2 is.

oh god, yes. in that case i’d ditch my horn and find a focus already!

if the question allows me to answer with my opinion.. i would say explore other sets than just rabid(im assuming this is the set combo you got from TA) or berserkers.

we’re not inherently a autoattack pewpew win class. thief/warrior/ranger is.

but to answer your question directly in terms of transmuting looks to get your condition stuff on arah set, go for it. imo TA armor looks fugly and the helmet is a derptastic piece of work.

i honestly think running w/ conditions to level up and run dungeons is a strong tactic. AC has a lot of clustermobs and an epidemic can really rock in there.

scepter/focus + staff for sure. pick up potent or ravaging gear for cond/power or cond/prec. get points in curses and points in death.. use a life siphon food buff.

In the defense of Dark Armor, it can be useful for using dag2 and ds4 to lifeleech and run in DS

plus.. you walk around like a deboweled chicken.

well, you could also be one of those guys and run around with knights gear and full minion bunker… :P~

but modkip really answered your question well. our DS mechanic is really good, but imo it could use a tad tweaking to get us in the tank club as an ele or guard in terms of bunkering. (its really close though!) or they could just nerf some ele skills and guard staff skills and call it good.

the reason why i run PVT vs. Berserkers is because if you’re going 1v1 w/ berserkers.. you can land maybe three chains until you down. that’s not intelligent play for me, nor is it challenging.. its autoattack win like a glass cannon thief.

other than that, that means you could deal maybe.. oh.. 15-25k damage until your hp is a wisp of smoke. with ptv gear, you can outlast and outdmg that pool by far just by time alone… and tank 1v2 or 1v3 (if they are weaker) on top of that. To me, that makes PTV exo > Berserker Exo

@okamy
as sitael said, you’ll probably get near the 3400 attack power range once you get a couple more sources of power and some food buffs to cover you while you get better gear. I hit for 700-1100-1300 usually and only 60% more if i crit.

If you’re trying to roll with the “big dogs” try using lich more judiciously, because it raises your crit chance to the ~50% range and you can dish out some DPS in that manner. make sure to cast jagged horrors before you exit lich, they act as PvE mob distractors and for additional bleed/annoyance factors to a player.

from a personal standpoint, and not a play to win standpoint.. have a warhorn on your at all times until you get to 80. having that swiftness will speed up your playing process a lot, and you will thank whoever told you to do it. the daze is also a good ConeAoE daze that can get you out of face-to-face mob binds when you really need to get out.

as a general tip, conditionmancers (as in, full condition builds with NO power) are going to dissatisfy you when you siege in WvW (like zerging) or when you need to DPS on a boss or event mob. you will hit bleed caps, and your graytyped power damage will be less that satisfactory.

also given, condition based gear lacks vitality, and most condition gear lacks toughness except for the hard to obtain Rabid set which is dungeon only or Khilbron buyable.
you will be considerably squishy and your main lifeline will be to manipulate bleeds.

as soon as you run into someone who knows how to cleanse conditions, sometimes even convert them into boons…

you’ll be ineffective.

I love conditionmancers, and from a practiced view, they can kill quickly if you can manage to get your opponent to focus on you and not on bubbling up. this is rare though, and you will find that it can sometimes get boring or frustrating because you won’t have an alternate workaround to being a stacked condition build.

my two cents.

imho, work in some balanced power w/ your conditions and look at Zintair’s cirtmancer build.

i only like flesh golem if im trying to troll with a serious well bombing rig.

as many people have said before in the past.. flesh golem charge> dag3> wells.

win.

even a couple fears to get em back in those wells makes it work.

The two classes that really lock head to head with this class are the healing/tank guardian and the bleed thief. Bleed thieves get a much more comfortable access to trickery and can stay in stealth almost the majority of the time you 1v1 them. If you’re taking 8k hits from them, you need to start obtaining toughness. Some players like to run w/ berserker gear and overblow it, but in reality you can take two hits, just like you can give two hits

When he stealths, drop mark3 and mark5. place them like a venn diagram, and strafe between the two. always have your middle figher (right clicker) pressed and ALWAYS strafe in a circle around your target. if you can, swap direction when you can.

this breaks LoS on the thief, which will make C&D and backstab VERY hard to land.

This is a tactic I learned from a player named Taugrim (you can google him) back when he played Allods as a melee priest, which in that game was supposedly as crappy as what we’re considered now by popular misconception.

as long as you stay moving (strafe around your target, maintain LoS while breaking theirs) and you will feel more comfortable with getting the gank on him instead of the other way around. If he starts spamming heartseeker and you start to feel binded by your low HP, fear him. maybe twice. This will allow him to probably reconsider and try to go for a C&D move (as most thieves are used to performing as a deep habit when they see they have more initiative) Or if he’s a p/p w/ haste nub, he’ll try to p3 you to death. use that death shroud in either of those situations of when he decides to keep spamming heartseeker or when he wants to use a ranged burst weapon. (some slightly better thieves unstealth at a range, and perform combos when you misstep)

@duckcheeps

thank you so much for supporting the build and playing it! Its a real solid setup that took a lot of time and talking to many different people about the mechanics of GW2 as a whole, not just about the necro.

As for your main leading question, the healing power in spite15 is actually a huge benefit. since the power in this build when fully buffed tops out at just over 2400, you’re looking at a +120 to healing power from one trait alone. on top of the +200 in blood magic, we’re looking at a solid +320 total from all sources. This emulates an ADDITIONAL set of gear with a minor bonus in healing power. So how i pulled it off was by focusing on making spite15 my minimal pullback line in terms of how many points i could take out of it, and pump as much power into my build (while neglecting precision and crit dmg as planned) I basically have a full PTV set + Healing Power.

The Healing power is a passive gain from the power, and really shows the usefulness of tying together our trait lines to compliment one another.

320 to healing may not seem like much. but because our main healing skill is a Base(how many conditions you have on you) heal which is extremely unique to the necro class, (And i’ve actually made a precursor build to this juggermancer which I did not publish or speak of) that tested my theory of only needing ~300 healing power to really feel like you have significant gain from skill6.

Healing power not only scales the flat number (6-8k initial heal) but it also scales the number which heals per condition.

to clarify:

our base heal w/o healing power is 5240+(724*conditions)

with my healing power, my current Consume heals for (i have 344 HealPower)

5584+(758*conditions)

with 6 conditions on me, that’s a difference of 10132-9584= 548

given that i always cycle out DS (with practice) so that i can use Consume after exiting, i can use it 3-4 times in a 1v1 or 1v2.

that’s a 2k hp gain give or take ~500 if i miss a cast, and if anyone reading this has played games like D&D where Damage Reduction> Ablative armor mitigation, 2k hp in this game could mean an extra 4 or 12 seconds of life.

w/o the passive healing power trait, i lose 50 power, and i lose that +1k benefit over an unbuffed consume.

not to mention the healing power increases my regen on staff2 as well. That’s a plus.

in the end, i still swap around traits if i decide to do something in the day.. like dungeons or wvw.

you only need 10 pts in soul reaping to permaswift.

Have you heard of expiremental teleportation guns? they are the finniest things to use with your necro. people will wonder how you did something like a mesmer and you might just kitten off the mesmer king.

im biased.

but..

power necro?

lich form..

um… lich form..

aaaaand lich form..

ooh! i think lich form is good.

pve/wvw/dungeons

pvp?

maybe lich form. but probably plague. aoe blindness/weakness is really good for screwing up combos.

and this is why i made a build that works well with preeetty much any trait setup >.>

traits i like to swap around:
Dark Armor instead of Staff mastery

any of the Soul reaping 10 slot traits

transfusion for siphon on crit or vice versa

quickening thirst in blood20 slot for when im lazy in wvw and dont feel like perma swifting… autorun is my friend

might blast trait in spite for downed damage… when i feel like playing nub-like and want to troll people by killing them with high base power scaling when down. (because when i get up.. the upped health on me is like, 14k hp… it pisses people off to work on killing me again..)

LastDarkness.7390:

Klaus.8326:

Heya, i wanna make a necro and worried if one race is better then others. So pls tell me your suggestions. Thx

Asura for the small size dosnt help with Necros as much as other classes (The real factor here is harder to see animations)

Norn Racials dont help other then give you access to another two temporary pets.

Charr, look good as a personal preferance and as far as racials go Warband support is ok, so is Charrzooka for keep sieges, hidden pistol can help in very specific situations.

Human have a number of options, but nothing particularly that stands out though reaper of grenth is pretty cool along with hounds of balthezar.

Sylvari, despite what you may think Necromancers are pretty common. Death is just as important as life in the cycle. But their root skill can be clutch and lock someone down longer. Though if you want immobilise dagger and/or the ranged pet will help there.

In all liklyhood you will never use your racial skills anyways, especialy on a necromancer.

So play what you think looks best and/or has a better story. Read the wiki a bit and even look at your racial armors. (Norn racial Armor is pretty sweet)

I play a sneaky Charr Necro in Ash legion, though I think I should have taken Iron instead :P

You will need to figure out what type of Necro your going to play as and work your build out from there. Power, Condition, Crit or Hybrid all work in differant ways and in differant areas. You will note that Necros dont have alot of AOE power and are more single target.

wait a second, how did i miss this?!?!

bro, we have the most AoE in the game. get with the timez.

(oh yeah, asura can also have super long uptime w/ retaliation… can you say.. impenetrable tank asura necro?)

charr with shadow armor looks pretty good, although i’d only grab the skull facemask from that set and mix it with either arah’s, nightmare, or CoF set.

I run an asura for the racials and the smaller figure. Since i also run a super tanky steamroller type necro, having a tiny floppy eared critter steamroll you in WvW is hilarious. i think the Arah set on asura looks really fantastic, and the CoF set horns will make you wonder why you haven’t tipped over yet. Its very enjoyable.

if you want pale bringer of death look, roll human. it also fits a bit better story-wise and thematically. I believe rustypipes said this.

…

but we all know how much we love fat norns that flesh out armor really well.
y0l0

A necro is many things young padawan, but one must realize one’s own true full potential to become a great master of the art of owning.

The necro isn’t all about the minions. Even though many serious players view the necro thematically as the raiser of the undead, that’s only a fraction of what the class can do.

On top of that, given that minions are NOT tailored/tuned (AI is slow in reaction) for competitive play, many pvpers and players with other highlevel alts can be dissatisfied with what they perceived the class was supposed to be when they rolled one.

I am extremely pleased to see other players coming across the good parts of the class, I leveled Sheo up to 80 first, then played other classes.. finally got my thief to 80 two weeks ago.. haven’t played him since.

This class is just awesome. (i mean, i can expect a lot more people would be happy if minions reacted a little better and some other things were fixed from gimpdom but hey.. im not complaining, it hopefully will be done eventually)

gamefreak.5673:

XiL.4318:

KirinDave.6451:

XiL.4318:

So while I can competitively play Necro against the best PvP players in the game, within reason (bunker and burst being what they are to Necro…), new players cannot without frustrating themselves into playing something else. And that has to be fixed.

Guides and/or videos, pleaseplease… sticks hands out in the universal “gimme” motion again

I barely have the time I want to play let alone make videos and guides. That is ArenaNet’s Job.

Nemesis.8593 has made some good guides at the top of the necromancer page if that matters.

Nem’s vids a re a little long for my tastes, and i’m a speed reader so i actually tried to write a LOT of different guides to help new/old players with the necro.

most of the time, they got shot down

crimson tide is the best one for one bleed skill a necro has hands down. The reason for this is that it has a higher |condition damage: power damage| ratio and attacks so fast.

too bad the rest of the trident skills are garbage.. jk. I only say that because i play a powermancer. :P~

I’m already aware of the alternative Ascended pieces. But really… a necro with a quiver? lolwut? I listed Koss on koss because its the most logical choice, thematically.

But thank you for listing them, some players may have some materials for alternatives which can be really helpful if you’re short on time/materials and dont want to grind out the koss item.

even with dc rates, obtaining the loot by farming l10 fractals is easy.

i don’t use sigils… im confused by your question

im currently just missing the ascended pieces and a couple weapons. and im sitting on 3k armor and 28k hp right now.

tbh, ascended gear isn’t that hard to obtain.. it took me 2+ weeks to get the SE gear, and probably going to take me about 4-5 days only to get the ascended trinks.

kKagari.6804:

Sheobix.8796:

using 30 points in Soul reaping is good for you, if you use Knight’s full gear with berserker jems slotted in the accessories, your SR 30% mod from the trait line will compensate for your lack of Vitality for scaling death shroud.

You could use runes, but i recommend soldier crests, or using 2 runes of krait, mad king, and afflicted if you really want the condition duration.

the main problem with your gearing/building mindset is that you have split goals. You’re trying to make a staff/DS build and Toughness+Vitality makes Death shroud better. yet you’re trying to run a hybrid build, which won’t benefit without the precision and condition damage.

why not go 10/30/0/0/30 with d/d + staff and full knight armor, rampager accessories, and berserker jems slotted in the trinks? you’ll max crit damage, stack precision, have runes of rage(2) and runes of citadel(2) to make furious demise trait Fury last 6s… if you’re really set on DS/staff then you could just do that build and spam ds4 all day. trait for DS cooldowns, efficiency, and stability, and in curses grab furious demise, hemophilia, and withering precision. you could have almost 100% uptime on fury and DS as long as you can generate the LF. But beware, that kind of build is a total gimmick build. i wouldn’t recommend it.

the trick to hybrid builds is bridging the gap between using power and condition damage. and the way our traits and mechanics are set up, rampager+ d/d or s/d or s/w with max curses, dribble in spite, and condition runes with toughness sources will get you a long way. proc’ing bleeds/healing is the way to stay up

100 precision via Curses is not even 5% chance (need 105 for that), IMO is quite negligible in the way of getting another trait that suits you better. Personally I go 0/20/0/20/30 myself. Target the Weak does look very promising but I’ve always felt I needed 20 on blood for well recharge.

Hmm now that said, he probably wants 20 points in spite for the +10% mark damage, at which point it feels strange he missed the death magic tree completely for staff related enhancements, primarily staff mastery and greater marks.

i never said to put only 10 points in curses dude.. it shows 30 points.

Du Bist Schuld.8097:

I’d definitely add Knight’s gear to the power setup. It gives everything a power necro can wish for: Power (as a Minor though), Precision and loads of thoughness.
Toughness and Vitality are both necessary Stats for survivability but as the necro has the highest Base hp Toughness outshines the effect of Vitality. Plus you can Build a tanky Powermancer by going all Knight’s but an all out Valkyrie would just suck (why would i want crit dmg if i won’t crit?). Valkyrie is Great as an Addition to Power builds though.

using a mix of valk and knights is a good way to bridge the gap between vit and tough and still balance precision and crit damage. think of a permutated soldier bonus mashed together with berserker gear

Palmski.6419:

With a 20/30/20/0/0 build running scepter/dagger/staff I was thinking of doing something like:

Rampager armour with 6x undead runes
Carrion weapons with “on crit” sigils
Rabid jewellery with Chrysocola (carrion) jewels

The idea is that this gives me a balance of power/precision/vitality with lots of condition damage and toughness which I think should be my primary stats. Am I mental and barking up the wrong tree?

if you’re trying to pump condition and toughness, grab rabid gear and use rampager trinks with carrion jems slotted.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Item_nomenclature

this page will tell you where to get anything and everything

Updated the post to include my newest trait setup.. couldn’t live without warhorn/spec walk perma swifting.

1) stability>vigor
2) spectral utils already skyrocket LF gain, kiting w/ staff to pierce and hit multiple targets does the same thing
3)???
4)profit

using 30 points in Soul reaping is good for you, if you use Knight’s full gear with berserker jems slotted in the accessories, your SR 30% mod from the trait line will compensate for your lack of Vitality for scaling death shroud.

You could use runes, but i recommend soldier crests, or using 2 runes of krait, mad king, and afflicted if you really want the condition duration.

the main problem with your gearing/building mindset is that you have split goals. You’re trying to make a staff/DS build and Toughness+Vitality makes Death shroud better. yet you’re trying to run a hybrid build, which won’t benefit without the precision and condition damage.

why not go 10/30/0/0/30 with d/d + staff and full knight armor, rampager accessories, and berserker jems slotted in the trinks? you’ll max crit damage, stack precision, have runes of rage(2) and runes of citadel(2) to make furious demise trait Fury last 6s… if you’re really set on DS/staff then you could just do that build and spam ds4 all day. trait for DS cooldowns, efficiency, and stability, and in curses grab furious demise, hemophilia, and withering precision. you could have almost 100% uptime on fury and DS as long as you can generate the LF. But beware, that kind of build is a total gimmick build. i wouldn’t recommend it.

the trick to hybrid builds is bridging the gap between using power and condition damage. and the way our traits and mechanics are set up, rampager+ d/d or s/d or s/w with max curses, dribble in spite, and condition runes with toughness sources will get you a long way. proc’ing bleeds/healing is the way to stay up