Guild Wars 2

I tried several dye colors, although it was one of the default green ones (Jalapeno?) I initially intended to use. It didn’t seem to be related to the specific dye color.

Another possibility is that there was some “memory” somewhere (either stored locally or on the server) of my initial version of my character that did not get removed properly when I deleted the character and re-created it. And then somehow the difference between the saved information about having a shield vs now having a focus caused the issue? If such inconsistencies could occur, then perhaps they could occur at any level due to some hiccup (disconnect, glitch, etc.) which results in the inconsistent state manifesting in the form of dyeing issues. I dunno.

What armor/sigils/runes/etc. do you recommend?

After creating a female Sylvari Guardian character, I was having an issue where dyes were not being applied to the starter chainmail armor. Further, upon trying to unequip the armor in order to re-equip it (in case this made the dyes show up), the game would crash.

This happened several times, since I tried deleting and re-creating the character multiple times to try to resolve this issue.

I tried deleting my local.dat, and tried selling my starter armor and replacing it with vendor chainmail armor from LA. Same problem occurred: dyes not applied and game crash on unequip of armor.

What was puzzling was that earlier I had been able to successfully dye the armor on my first iteration of this character. I had deleted and re-created the character in order to change some facial features and since then had issues.

Then it struck me that the first time, after coming out of the Dream, when I had the choice to pick either a shield or a focus for a reward, I had chosen the shield. But…since then, for every re-creation after that, I had been choosing the focus.

Sure enough, once I destroyed that starter focus, then I was able to dye successfully. In addition, buying and equipping a focus from a vendor did not cause any issues.

This was so strange I thought it worth reporting.

Sodzilla.5239:

….

As a rebuttal to our one paragraph class philosophy, I’d just point people to the actual in-game implementation of our Death Magic line. As long as traits like “Reanimator” and “Protection of the Horde” are forced on those who spec in Death, I believe someone at Anet at some point in time must have considered minions an important part of Necromancer design. As far as I can tell, we’re the only class that has traits catering to one specific spec (minions) forced on a player for choosing a specific trait line. Because of this, I don’t believe it’s a stretch to consider minions part of the class philosophy even if not written. Until Anet chooses to make those traits an option or adjusts them to be useful to all Necromancer specs, I’ll continue to believe that someone at Anet must consider minions an important part of being a Necromancer.

Just to be clear, my intent was not to say that minions are not, or should not be, part of the definition of a GW2 necro. Rather, my intent was to point out that – for whatever reason – the minion aspect of being a necro and all the accompanying mechanics didn’t make it into their philosophy statement, which I find weird for ANet to have done.

Something that just occurred to me…the ANet class philosophy for necro from 12/14/2012:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/999247

The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher. While they don’t have some of the escape or damage reduction capabilities that other classes boast, they do have a lot of ways to win attrition fights. They have access to poison on multiple weapons, they are able to combine condition damage with raw damage, and they have multiple disables to interrupt enemy skills. Necromancers also have multiple movement disabling abilities, while allows them to chase down enemies who are low on health.

The word “minion”, or even the idea of summoning undead, is not even present in that description. I don’t mean to read too much into that, but I found it interesting, especially if you contrast it with the Ranger description in the same post.

The real fix is to retain and gain more customers than you lose each month. That requires DEs that reliably aren’t bugged, AI that is reliable, longstanding skill & trait bugs fixed, artwork issues (clipping, tearing, dyeing, etc.) fixed, culling fixed, and a sense that the GW2 designers comprehend the playerbase’s desires such that the game evolves in a way that builds enthusiasm, rather than in ways that sometimes are head-scratching.

Just for reference:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Game-Update-Notes-December-14-2012/999247
The necro boasts the highest natural health of all the caster classes, and also has death shroud to extend that life total even higher. While they don’t have some of the escape or damage reduction capabilities that other classes boast, they do have a lot of ways to win attrition fights. They have access to poison on multiple weapons, they are able to combine condition damage with raw damage, and they have multiple disables to interrupt enemy skills. Necromancers also have multiple movement disabling abilities, while allows them to chase down enemies who are low on health.

I’d like to see the necro get some Confusion or some decent retaliation abilities. (I’m leveling an Asura necro now for the Pain Inverter racial skill.) Some CD reductions are also needed on our defensive abilities.

We do have Weakness – which is pretty nice – in Enfeebling Blood, Withering Precision & CPC. But WP requires foregoing Lingering Curse and CPC needs much improvement (I’d like to see it be an instant AoE whose conditions last for 12s, rather than a stationary AoE that pulses for 12sec).

To me, it almost seems as if the “attrition class” notion was a post hoc attempt to justify the necro’s current design state.

See this thread, including video:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-Minion-AI-VIDEO/1286954

You might want to try to “repair” your install. See 1.1 in:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/1095383

First off, I agree: we ought to play a character, not a spreadsheet.

That said, navigating necro’s traits and skills to find the playstyle you want, and then combining it with the right gear to make those choices effective, can be challenging due to the myriad variety of possible gear stat combinations.

Sheobix has a great simple spreadsheet method on his site:
http://necronotes.blog.com/2013/01/01/sheos-calculation-method-taught-in-5-minutes/

But it got me to thinking that it would be nice to have a spreadsheet that already contained all the gear choices, so I could easily choose them from dropdowns.

Well, I found one. SatireV has one on Google Docs, which is pretty comprehensive and must’ve taken a crapload of work to put together.

Here’s the reddit thread, which has the Google Docs link:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/136aa7/pve_gear_calculatorefficiency_optimizer/

He also has a separate blog post from a few days earlier, which seems to point to an earlier version of the spreadsheet:
http://guildwars2.mmmos.com/?page=view&id=4048&title=pve-gear-calculatorefficiency-optimizer-spreadsheet-almost-all-pve-gear-included-with-some-theorycraft

I’ve downloaded them and, although I haven’t had time to check everything for errors, it looks pretty amazing. Nice thing is that if there is an error, or you want to add some special piece of gear, you can do so on the appropriate sheet. I also scanned with 2 AV programs and they seem to be clean.

Although the spreadsheet is for all classes, I only really care about necro, so that’s why I’m posting it here.

Whenever my Asura draws his weapon, his ears go up, like I’m standing in an updraft. It’s kinda clever, but it also kinda annoying.

Is this the case for all Asura ear styles? I’m using the large “chewed edges” style.

That was awesome!

Geez, that it the case. Warrior Adept trait III:

Bleeds you apply last 50% longer

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deep_Cuts

FYI. A post by Jonathon Sharp in the AoE thread in the 11-page Discussion forum:

Just wanted to let you guys know that we’re reading this thread.

Your logic, reasons, anecdotes and ideas are being listened to. Also keep in mind, that as I said yesterday, a skill can be a balance problem in one area of the game, but underpowered in another. That’s the nature of using one set of #‘s to balance across all areas of the game. So we’re keeping that in mind as we look at this. We may need to do different tweaks in different areas of the game.

We’re also not going to make a knee jerk reaction to this. We’re still gathering data, watching player trends, and having meetings on all possible ramifications from possible changes

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Is-AoE-actually-a-problem-Discussion-Thread/1237400

Wow, that is amazingly pathetic AI. I hope ANet watches this.

Mango Pie helps (88h/sec), but its a shame to have to use your food buff slot for something which should be more of a passive.

Nemesis’ conditionmancer had decent passive healing in his video due to vampiric traits in Blood, but that meant foregoing dagger traits in Blood.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food#Regeneration

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Introducing-the-conditionmancer-tutorial/1249155

I like this idea. I’m doubtful it’d be OP, considering how we generally have little investment in Healing Power.

Ezeriel.9574:

I would guess nothing….

I don’t think the devs play, or care, about necros at all.

When they infracted Ruufio for asking a question about shroudstomping, when they asked for people to ask questions, I gave up on caring.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Developer-Livestream-Questions/first#post1228926

But then a few posts after that one, someone got infracted for asking if Legendary weapons would become account-bound! So, I don’t know what the heck the metric was for being infracted:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Developer-Livestream-Questions/1228934

After being completely blindsided by unexpected buffs to underwater skills, I have no predictions for this patch. Its just RNG, from my perspective.

Brtiva.9721:

Also, it seems many dislike the axe. I have been using staff ( which seems really great), and usually axe/dagger. I have fun with axe/dagger and seems good. Scepter seems good too but it simply holds less appeal for me and I use it rarely.Is the axe somehow really bad? Maybe it does not compliment the staff well?

Axe damage is Power-based, whereas most of the Staff’s damage comes from Malice (condition dmg). So, in a sense, they don’t synergize particularly well, unless you run a hybrid build with both Power & Malice increased.

Here is the most recent bug list:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Bug-Compilation-1/first#post1245798

I agree with what Larx said. Just be aware that ANet’s design is for us to be an attrition class, which means we generally have little burst ability.

XiL.4318:

And to top that off not a single ArenaNet employee plays Necro and could prevent Necro from getting trashed by blanket changes. No one will be sitting in those balance meetings talking about Necro specific changes.

Xil, that’s kinda hard to believe (and scary if true!). What is your source for this? Is there a dev post or interview where they state (or imply) this?

I don’t think our AoEs will get balance-nerfed. Its not as though we have OP AoEs, AoEs with too low CD, or the option of switching to single-target skills that we are currently avoiding due to “opportunity cost”.

I think it was idiotic of ANet to come out and make vague statements about a “major” rebalancing of AoEs without specifying the profession(s) and skill(s) that prompted their concern. It just created unwarranted panic in the streets.

I’d switch out Chill of Death for Spiteful Talisman, since Focus4 is important for LF, vulnerability and regen.

You don’t specify a second weapon set. Maybe Axe/Dagger? Dagger4 offers a nice condition removal & blind, and Weakness from Dagger5 helps for survivability.

Since you have 30 in SR you have a nice boost to CritDmg, but your Crit Chance is quite low. So you may want to add a healthy amount of Precision in your gear.

I wanted to make another profession to go along with my 80 Charr necro, but after numerous tries last night I ended up making a second necro (this time Asura)! Seems weird, but it feels kinda cool to start the necro again. I was surprised that his default starting weapon was an axe. I don’t think that was the case when I started the Charr.

1) There are bugs, but I think there is too much “complaining for the sake of complaining” on this forum.

2) I don’t think you’ll get bored. To me, the necro definitely improves with levels. Necro is definitely not a simple-minded button-mashing profession. As for synergy, well, in some ways yes, some ways no. I’m sure you’ll get mixed opinions on that.

However, there is also no lack of build variety on the forum, which I think speaks to the flexibility of the necro concept and the breadth of skills available.

3) Yes, we generally kill slower, but I seem to do fine at tagging mobs, soloing, and killing en masse.

4) I gave up pets around 20, mostly because it fit my personal style better, and its worked well for me. But I do see MMs around at level 80.

6) Survivability improves greatly, IMO, as one levels up. As you can see from some of the builds on the forum, they have a “last man standing” quality to them.

At first glance, I think I’d mix the stats, so I’d go Rampager (Prec/Power/CondDmg), and maybe mix in some Berserker or Carrion.

It’s hard to say for sure, though, since it would depend alot on your playstyle (e.g., use Staff mostly and D/D only rarely, rely on minions and keeping them alive, etc.).

@Arvid: Oh, sorry for the misread. That’s not good to hear.

@gamefreak: That’s a neat trick – I’ll have to try that. Thanks!

Pendragon.8735:

TheAgedGnome.7520:

Very instructive video, as always. I was wondering about crit chance in this build. Since it is used to proc (such as Barbed Precision), it seemed to me that going higher than 50% would just improve that proc rate linearly and so also improve DPS linearly. Does this make sense?

For Barbed Precision it should, but not for the Bleed Sigil, which is actually the much better proc, but which you are going to start getting diminishing returns from the 2 second cooldown if you are critting constantly.

Ah yes, ICDs…good point. Thanks.

In PVE, I use Plague for the bleeds sometimes, but mostly just while I’m waiting for my heal to come off of CD, etc. 30s worth of bleeds from any source often trims down the enemies nicely.

(I agree with @Delryn, that Lich mode does look a neon freak – kinda like a cheesy cartoon superhero.)

“Damage from conditions is doubled while in Death Shroud”

Geez, I had not heard of that. Could it be that the damage increase is due to gaining Might while in DS? According to the wiki, Might affects damage from existing conditions on the target.

Very instructive video, as always. I was wondering about crit chance in this build. Since it is used to proc (such as Barbed Precision), it seemed to me that going higher than 50% would just improve that proc rate linearly and so also improve DPS linearly. Does this make sense?

See these resources -

Nemesis tutorials (including hybrid):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-tutorials/first

Sheobix Juggermancer (power) build:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Juggermancer-Final-Blog-Link/772683

Yes, necro is worth it – especially since its your favorite profession. There are some bugs, but necro is still pretty darn strong.

Might be that your company’s firewall (and/or whatever local firewall is installed on your work PC by your IT dept.) is blocking it.

Well, for Power/DS/Health, I think you are looking at a Juggermancer. See:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Juggermancer-Final-Blog-Link/772683

I highly recommend looking at the following instructive and helpful resources. These will give you a very good idea of a number of builds and what makes them work:

Tutorials by Nemesis in the stickied thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-tutorials/221328

Sheobix’s necro website:
http://necronotes.blog.com/

Lopez’s necro guides:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Guides-for-condition-necromancer-Updated/1042737

Tommyknocker.6089:

Changing it to targeted such as BiP would make it more useful. With a combo of BiP, this cloud, epidemic and offhand dagger(4) it could be VERY nice for PvE, but as has been said moving out of the areas is quite easy for an AoE and as such the negatives outweigh the positives by a rather large margin. The poison field aspect of the skill could be made to center on the target instead of the area thus making it a nice roaming field too.

That’s pretty much what Signet of Spite does, except with an insanely long CD.

See #20 here:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/legal/guild-wars-2-rules-of-conduct/

You may not use any third-party program (such as a “bot”) in order to automate gameplay functions, including playing, chatting, interacting, or gathering gold or items within Guild Wars 2. You may not assist, relay, or store gold or items for other players who are using these processes.

Also see:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Are-simple-macros-illegal/771805

I’ve tried and I just can’t find a good use for it. The self-Weakness,etc. is too detrimental and the damage output is too trivial.

Have you found a reason to put it on your skill bar?

Well, my current build is a little unique. I’d call it an “attrimancer” (attrition necromancer). Its a PVE scepter/dagger & scepter/focus hybrid build. (Yes! just one scepter with two different offhands!) All my stuff is Rare quality, no exotics (well, except the Superior Runes & Sigils).

The philosophy is to not try to be a burst build, but to outlast the enemy yet not be so defense-oriented I can’t kill anything.

Traits & skills:
http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.5.2.2.13.18.0.0.0.0.106.127.125.112.128.0.0.0.302.303.0.317.322.327.0.0.0.346.0.0.363.0.0.20.30.0.10.10

Armor: Rabid (CondDmg/Tough/Prec) (you can get rare “Strong” armor with these stats)

Trinkets: Rampager (Prec/Power/CondDmg) with Emerald orbs (Prec/Power/Tough)

Weapons: Rampager (Prec/Power/CondDmg)

Sigils: Scepter-Perception, Dagger and Focus-Generosity

Runes: currently 6xRata Sum, but I may go back to 5xLich + 1xRabid Crest for more Vit.

Food choice depends somewhat on rune choice. Currently I’m testing Veggie Pizza (CondDmg/CondDur), Mango Pie (88h/sec,Vit),Omnomberry Pie (Steal Health,Prec).

In this build, Enfeebling Blood + Withering Precision + good crit chance = perma-weakness on the enemy.

I like the passive condition removals from Sigils of Generosity and Spiteful Removal.

With 20pts in Spite, both Power & CondDur are pretty good. Veggie Pizza really helps to lengthen Weakness, and the Vulnerability from Focus5; the latter gives me decent crits of 1.5-2K from DS1.

I find Life Force refill from Scepter3 & Focus5 usually quite sufficient, especially because there will be lots of conditions (due to duration) so Scepter3 will refill LF quite a bit.

In other words, in this build DS is not just for damage absorption and escape; you can actually kill things with it, even though at first glance it looks like a condition build.

BiP+Epidemic is self-explanatory. WoS gets swapped for Locust or Undead Signet, Shrapnel Mine (I’m a Charr), or Bone Minions (for the explosion dmg) based on the situation and my mood.

About 1200-1300 Toughness, 21-23k health (depending on runes & food), currently 72% crit chance.

The variables I’m still playing with are food, runes, and scepter sigil (e.g., could use Corruption rather than Perception).

Try this, rather than using the shortcut to start the game:

Start>AllPrograms>GuildWars2>right-click GW2 and choose “Run as Administrator”

I usually have to do this once after each patch, otherwise I get the blank Sell window. After I do this once and it is successful, then I can use the desktop shortcut thereafter until the next patch messes it up again.

Curses: ….XII=the part of the build i like 25% chance on crit to apply 3sec of weakness

I’ve been running this trait the last couple of weeks in a PvE build and I really like it, especially when combined with buffed Cond Duration. It’s quite a potent damage reduction, as long as your Crit Chance is 50%+. Because it stacks in duration, this trait can extend the weakness from Enfeebling Blood significantly.

Signet of Locust is now fixed. Tooltip now shows 25%.

Spinal Shivers is completely messed up. Tooltip says “Inflict chill and vulnerability on your foe.”

It does not inflict vulnerability and since it says nothing about removing boons, I’m skeptical it does that.

Lewis Burnell.2493:

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone would be able to answer some beginner Necromancer questions for me.

1. How viable is axe? I’ve played the game across Mesmer and Engineer for over 1200 hours, but have only ever encountered 1 Necromancer who uses it. What I found impressive was the fact that he was absolutely brilliant. Is it even viable in sPvP and WvW?

3. Are Power/Precision builds (based on the above) also viable?

Take a look at this power axe build. The video is also a good tutorial on some necro design ideas:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-definition-of-glass-cannon-tutorial/1193079

I like scepter/dagger because the Enfeebling Blood from Dagger5 offhand provides a nice bleed plus a long Weakness, which really helps to reduce the damage you receive.

I found necro squishier to level than other types at first, but I felt like as the levels went by that necro just got stronger and stronger.

Around 12:00 min into the video:

“We feel like right now AoE skills in WvW, as well as in PvP, is probably a little bit too strong across the board. So we’ll be doing a major update to all the AoE skills to kinda bring them back in line a little bit”

Hard to tell how impactful this would be. It’s hard to reconcile phrases like “major update” and “a little bit” in the same sentence.

stone cold.8609:

bosky – thanks for the help. This is exactly the information I was looking for.

Hickeroar – I haven’t tried food buffs yet. Are they really that good?

Yes, well worth it, even if you just get the next-to-best food due to cost.

See: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food

It is only a (very annoying) display bug. You aren’t actually getting that 6th buff.

Dietzen.6127:

Necromancer underwater skills are really nice, they fit together. Nothing to complain about here.

Same here – seems fine to me.

Lopez’s guides for the necro will give you a good start:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Guides-for-condition-necromancer-Updated/1042737