Necromancer Thread

[Beazy]

Ive noticed that Necromancer is the least played class so far. I dont see many running around, so I would like to start an officail necro post, and try to help people play the class more effectively. I am, by no means, a PRO necromancer, but I do have over 40 hours playing as one.

There are a couple of things you need to know about when playing the necro.

1) Your primary source of dps is conditions.
2) Your condition damage does not crit, so do not collect gear that grants precision(crit%). You want to focus on Condition damage.
3) Learn how to use combo fields and combo finishers. If you dont understand combos, please read below.

A) Some abilities have an attribute, "Combo Field: Poison" for example. See here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chilblains. This is a spell that you place on the ground and people can stand in it or shoot through with a combo finisher to trigger the "Poison" effect.

B) Some abilities have and attribute, "Combo Finisher: Projectile" see here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Necrotic_Grasp. This is an ability that will allow you to benifit from a combo field.

C) Remember, not all wep combos, have combo fields and finishers. You may be using a combo that has neither, so you might need to pick one up from your utility skills. And remember only combo finishers can trigger combo field effects, So dont be alarmed if your abilities do nothing when shooting in or around a combo field.

D) So a typical Necro combo would be, use chilibans on the ground, wait for an enemy to trigger the trap, once he does, shoot a Necrotic Grasp through the poison cloud it leaves behind ~ and it will grant the projectile the poison attribute. This will up your dps on the target. And remember, your friends can shoot threir own combo finishers through the cloud too and gain the buff. Communication with your team is super important if you want that edge in DPS, especially in sPvP, where everyones gear is the same.


So, I have been testing out a lot of builds, but one thing is constant in PvP and PvE: The Staff. I use the staff because it has the necros only combo finisher. (There may be a utility or ultimate that has one, but I have not unlocked yet.) The necrotic grasp. This skill is your Staffs auto attack, so its great for hitting combo fields out in the thick of battle. To be honest, sometimes you will hit a combo field and not even mean to. Thats the beauty of this ability. Its spamable and it has the potential to be powerful.


So, In PvP, I use the following wep combo. Staff swapped to Axe + Dagger. This gives me the slows and damage to deal some great damage to people.

For my utilities

#6 Well of Blood (Has a nice combo field, plus a nice AoE HoT)
#7 Spectral Grasp (This pulls an enemy towards me, similar to DK in WoW)
#8 Spectral Wall (This gives a 33% damage reduction to all allies that run through it, adds a condition of vulnerable to enemies that walk through it, Plus it has a nice combo field)
#9 Spectral Armor (This is another 33% damage reduction, and it regens life force when hit.)
#0 Summon Flesh Golem. This guy hits for a massive amount with his charge.

My priority when PvPing, is to get my traps out and then switch to axe dagger to DPS, periodically switching back to my staff to place more traps and use combo fields with my finisher. Once I begin to take damage, I pop my shadow form (Its great because the life force is now my HP). Once I exit shadow form, and the enemies are not dead, I will use my spectral armor to gain more life force quickly as they hit me. Then I can pop my shadow form again. If Im taking massive amounts of damage, I will cast my spectral wall and get the buff from that, before returning to shadow form. This gives me a bunch of damage mitigation.

I like to use the charge ability on my Golem too, but you dont want to waste it, because it can hit multiple targets in a line. Its usually a good idea to wait for your enemies to get in a position where the golem can charge through 2 or more, to max your dps.

If you guys have anything to add, or a better build, id like to see it and try it out.

---------- Post added 2012-08-29 at 10:48 AM ----------

Here is the GW2 Wiki for Necros: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Necromancer

[Cempa]

So you trait for Power?

I think you will find most guides though use staff as main weapon use Scepter+Dagger and spec condition. as for utilities you use the heal that removes condition, signet that transfers conditions from friends to you and another AE that poisons you, seeing how it synergies really well with the ability to transfer all conditions from friends to foe or from foe to foe and the healing #6 ability that removes conditions and heals for each condition.

[Beazy]

So you trait for Power?

I think you will find most guides though use staff as main weapon use Scepter+Dagger and spec condition. as for utilities you use the heal that removes condition, signet that transfers conditions from friends to you and another AE that poisons you, seeing how it synergies really well with the ability to transfer all conditions from friends to foe or from foe to foe and the healing #6 ability that removes conditions and heals for each condition.

Traits for condition then power.

Also, I tried out the signet that transfers conditions from friends to your target, and it works pretty well. I might swap out spectral wall for it, because it negates the condition damage by 100% when its removed, opposed to 33% reduction in damage from wall. Its such a hard decision.

[Artorias]

I don't have my necromancer leveled up yet, but I have to say this: Every time I see one in game, he is DOMINATING everything around him. I want one *drools*

[Beazy]

I don't have my necromancer leveled up yet, but I have to say this: Every time I see one in game, he is DOMINATING everything around him. I want one *drools*

Well, for the most part, I can dominate most people, but sometimes ~ I get simply out played by better players of other classes. 1v1, I feel pretty strong, but when another shows up, I go from killing machine to defensive machine, and it totally kills my damage output.

[IMonstrousI]

You have some of the highest survivability in the game due to your Death Shroud being like a second health bar, use this to your advantage.

[Taranee]

Good writing on how combo's work , they still get me confused sometimes..

I'm playing Scepter+Dagger and Staff and am having a great time so far. Basically doing the things Campa mentioned I like being a necro.

[Beazy]

You have some of the highest survivability in the game due to your Death Shroud being like a second health bar, use this to your advantage.

Yeah, I love it, and when you pop out, you can use spectral armor and regen your life force quicker on hit, making it possible to pop another death shroud within the next 5 or 6 seconds. Makes you a power PvP tank.

---------- Post added 2012-08-31 at 09:37 AM ----------

Good writing on how combo's work , they still get me confused sometimes..

I'm playing Scepter+Dagger and Staff and am having a great time so far. Basically doing the things Campa mentioned I like being a necro.

No doubt, I tried out scepter last night and I like it a lot. It applies more conditions than axe, but hits slightly lower (which isnt that big of a deal IMO).

[Artorias]

No doubt, I tried out scepter last night and I like it a lot. It applies more conditions than axe, but hits slightly lower (which isnt that big of a deal IMO).

Yea, Axes are OP on all classes in terms of straight damage. My 1h axe hits for more than my 2h greatsword on my warrior... its also faster lol. But it doesn't give any conditions at all!

[Beazy]

Yea, Axes are OP on all classes in terms of straight damage. My 1h axe hits for more than my 2h greatsword on my warrior... its also faster lol. But it doesn't give any conditions at all!

Yeah, I think that If I had traits and gear for straight power, I would use axe, but since Im speced (traits) as conditions, I need to be applying as many conditions as possible.

I think I will test out the direct damage spec later on, but for now, im loving the conditions spec.

[woodydave44]

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ht=necromancer


we already have one

[Taranee]

Yes I used to play Axe in the beginning and it was nice having so much raw power, when I swapped to Scepter however I just fell in love with it and am now traited into conditions as well. Love to see all those little things pop up on my foe and watch it die >:}

[Irraticate]

A good post and certainly helped me some, and I've been playing the beta weekends some and a lot during a head start. But I'd also like to post a little bit of my testing, if that's okay with you.

At level 30, I grabbed all the level 30 vendor weapons and armor to conduct a test on what weapons do the most damage against monsters, auto-attack wise. Using absolutely no skills other than the auto-attack. I had ZERO traits, zero buffs, zero signets. No help from pass-by'ers. All 'base' gear. I conducted multiple tests and averaged the numbers. I fought against the same monster for all tests.

This was the order from FASTEST kill to SLOWEST kill.
Dagger (12 seconds for a kill)
Scepter (13 seconds for a kill)
Staff (23 seconds)
Axe (26 seconds, got downed right before I killed the target)

But do not take the list at full face value. If you use the other staff skills, you will do a very large amount of burst damage and easily kill your target faster than a dagger could. This goes for all the weapons, too. The other skills are beneficial to damage.
Axe... Well, personally, I find Axe to be our worst weapon for soloing. Using it's skills along with a Focus/Dagger/Warhorn, it was just slow. The range on it is rather pitiful, you're essentially melee with it without any of the utility of a dagger (a snare and a siphon health ability). It would excel more in group play, but this post isn't group play.

Of course, if you find using an Axe or Staff better for you, then all means use it. It's far more important to have fun and like what you're using than using "a more efficient weapon". But personally, I like killing fast. So this list helps me.

I've also found that Dagger and Scepter are really close together in their damage output and what edges out one or the other is your traits and if you have a better weapon for one than the other. It's such a small difference that those factors are really important in determining which one is 'better'.

Other things I've noticed so far:
"Parasitic Bond" (the trait you get for 5 points into Spite) is worthless. I heal for almost nothing when I kill something. It's such a small amount.

"Vampiric Precision" (V in the major trait slot in Blood Magic) is also worthless. Heal when you crit sounds nice, but I've only seen it heal for single digit amounts, even in the late level 30's.

Pets are fairly weak, with the exception of the Flesh Golem. When the game started it's head-start, pets never regenerated health out of combat. And last I checked (last night), now the only pet that does it IS the Flesh Golem. I just feel that they are a very weak aspect of the Necromancer. I'm sure they are better once you spec into your traits to increase their power and life, but I have yet to get to that point. And I just don't think it's worth it to spend those points.
But at the same time, I do have to mention that your pets will get healed from Well of Blood and Mark of Blood (which is your 2 skill in staff, or what you place down when you dodge in the III major trait in Blood Magic). But even then, it only feels like they get Regeneration only half the time.

"Reanimator" is also rather worthless. The AI for it feels really clunky and it doesn't start even trying to attack anything until it's halfway dead. Then it does bad damage. So while you can't avoid this while putting points into Death Magic, do not put any stock into it.

NOTE: All of this in my post is just from my personal experiences, and everything is my personal opinion. And some of the info might even be outdated by now due the new builds coming out. But to my knowledge, this is the way it is at the moment.

[Deleted]

Ive noticed that Necromancer is the least played class so far. I dont see many running around, so I would like to start an officail necro post, and try to help people play the class more effectively. I am, by no means, a PRO necromancer, but I do have over 40 hours playing as one.

There are a couple of things you need to know about when playing the necro.

1) Your primary source of dps is conditions.
2) Your condition damage does not crit, so do not collect gear that grants precision(crit%). You want to focus on Condition damage.
3) Learn how to use combo fields and combo finishers. If you dont understand combos, please read below.

A) Some abilities have an attribute, "Combo Field: Poison" for example. See here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Chilblains. This is a spell that you place on the ground and people can stand in it or shoot through with a combo finisher to trigger the "Poison" effect.

B) Some abilities have and attribute, "Combo Finisher: Projectile" see here: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Necrotic_Grasp. This is an ability that will allow you to benifit from a combo field.

C) Remember, not all wep combos, have combo fields and finishers. You may be using a combo that has neither, so you might need to pick one up from your utility skills. And remember only combo finishers can trigger combo field effects, So dont be alarmed if your abilities do nothing when shooting in or around a combo field.

D) So a typical Necro combo would be, use chilibans on the ground, wait for an enemy to trigger the trap, once he does, shoot a Necrotic Grasp through the poison cloud it leaves behind ~ and it will grant the projectile the poison attribute. This will up your dps on the target. And remember, your friends can shoot threir own combo finishers through the cloud too and gain the buff. Communication with your team is super important if you want that edge in DPS, especially in sPvP, where everyones gear is the same.


So, I have been testing out a lot of builds, but one thing is constant in PvP and PvE: The Staff. I use the staff because it has the necros only combo finisher. (There may be a utility or ultimate that has one, but I have not unlocked yet.) The necrotic grasp. This skill is your Staffs auto attack, so its great for hitting combo fields out in the thick of battle. To be honest, sometimes you will hit a combo field and not even mean to. Thats the beauty of this ability. Its spamable and it has the potential to be powerful.


So, In PvP, I use the following wep combo. Staff swapped to Axe + Dagger. This gives me the slows and damage to deal some great damage to people.

For my utilities

#6 Well of Blood (Has a nice combo field, plus a nice AoE HoT)
#7 Spectral Grasp (This pulls an enemy towards me, similar to DK in WoW)
#8 Spectral Wall (This gives a 33% damage reduction to all allies that run through it, adds a condition of vulnerable to enemies that walk through it, Plus it has a nice combo field)
#9 Spectral Armor (This is another 33% damage reduction, and it regens life force when hit.)
#0 Summon Flesh Golem. This guy hits for a massive amount with his charge.

My priority when PvPing, is to get my traps out and then switch to axe dagger to DPS, periodically switching back to my staff to place more traps and use combo fields with my finisher. Once I begin to take damage, I pop my shadow form (Its great because the life force is now my HP). Once I exit shadow form, and the enemies are not dead, I will use my spectral armor to gain more life force quickly as they hit me. Then I can pop my shadow form again. If Im taking massive amounts of damage, I will cast my spectral wall and get the buff from that, before returning to shadow form. This gives me a bunch of damage mitigation.

I like to use the charge ability on my Golem too, but you dont want to waste it, because it can hit multiple targets in a line. Its usually a good idea to wait for your enemies to get in a position where the golem can charge through 2 or more, to max your dps.

If you guys have anything to add, or a better build, id like to see it and try it out.

---------- Post added 2012-08-29 at 10:48 AM ----------

Here is the GW2 Wiki for Necros: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Necromancer

Are you sure that conditions can't crit becasue I see a lot of reaper/condition builds out there that stack crit?

[Beazy]

Are you sure that conditions can't crit becasue I see a lot of reaper/condition builds out there that stack crit?

Not that I have noticed. I have asked around and the answer, so far, has been the same. I can do some testing tonight and see if I can proc a crit with condition damage only. I noticed that my PvP gear did have some precision, but I only noticed my projectiles critting.

---------- Post added 2012-08-31 at 10:09 AM ----------

http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...ht=necromancer


we already have one

Maybe a MOD could merge for us.

[Irraticate]

Are you sure that conditions can't crit becasue I see a lot of reaper/condition builds out there that stack crit?

While I'm fairly sure conditions cannot crit, look at the other things that a condition build benefits from, crit wise:
(I'm also assuming they are spec'd into Curses [Precision and Con. Damage], otherwise they're just being silly)

66% chance to Bleed the target on a crit
33% chance to gain 1% Life Force on a crit
25% chance to cause Weakness on a crit

Crits greatly benefit condition builds, especially at max level when you deal 2% more damage FOR EACH condition on the foe. So I'd suspect they are going crit so they can stack up conditions really quick with the 1st and 3rd things I mentioned.

[Beazy]

While I'm fairly sure conditions cannot crit, look at the other things that a condition build benefits from, crit wise:
(I'm also assuming they are spec'd into Curses [Precision and Con. Damage], otherwise they're just being silly)

66% chance to Bleed the target on a crit
33% chance to gain 1% Life Force on a crit
25% chance to cause Weakness on a crit

Crits greatly benefit condition builds, especially at max level when you deal 2% more damage FOR EACH condition on the foe. So I'd suspect they are going crit so they can stack up conditions really quick with the 1st and 3rd things I mentioned.

I think crit spec would work GREAT with axe, because the #2 ability hits multiple times, and has a chance to crit. You could stack conditions that way, with a high dps wep. I might try that this weekend. Sounds like a good idea.

[Irraticate]

I think crit spec would work GREAT with axe, because the #2 ability hits multiple times, and has a chance to crit. You could stack conditions that way, with a high dps wep. I might try that this weekend. Sounds like a good idea.

A crit/Death Shroud build would work with Axe pretty well, considering Axe also gain Life Force like mad.

[Fencers]

Please use the following: http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/...cussion-Thread

-- Fencers