Curse

Odai · May 11, 2005, 06:45 PM // 18:45

I'm lvl 13 N/E and I like using death magic. Believe me I'm no tank and I don't have any intention of being a tank.
Let others get their hands dirty-- I want mine covered in slime and gore.

I haven't tested this theory vary much ( I ran outta time) but at least to me there seems to be a significant difference damage dealt, recovery times and survivability based on atribute distribution.

I am concentrating on death magic and curses along with fire maguic.
I put as many points in death magic, curses and fire magic as I could, with a few in soul reaping.
I had zero invested in blood of the other elemental magics since I'm not using any of those.
I also set up my skill bar for only death magic and fire magic and nothing else.

When I did this I managed to not only get my hat handed to me a lot faster but I also noticed that my recovery periods were noticably slower.
After a few battles with not very good results I added a couple points back into blood and at least 1 in all the other elemental magics.
My results were much more satisfying - I collected a bunch of hats with the heads still in them..

I have not had enoguh time to play around with different combinations of point distribution to verify that having a 0 in any of the skills really does make a difference.
but it seems to have some effect.

blythe · May 11, 2005, 11:26 PM // 23:26

I just realized the same thing...at level 9...

The best part about the necro right now is the attitude...love the headbanging LOL!

I remember someone saying that death nova is a force to be reckoned with...sorry, but its AoE is terrible, and the damage really isnt that spectacular. I've tried using it in PvP...didn't do anything...tried 5 times in 2 different matches, and only hit one person once...and it hardly affected their health. Necro is dead.

I hope sometime they get a buff to it...for now I think I'm gonna go El/Mo...any other suggestions?

igormak · May 12, 2005, 01:43 AM // 01:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kordesh

Why would you get rid of death magic? Death magic has some of the best abilities. Curses does too, but nobody seems to do Curses *shrug*

In the last 2 missions when there are lvl22+ mobs, my warrior teammates barely could do any dmg to them (all lvl20 of course), and they were saying "thanx" many times after i casted barbs on the enemy because that was the spell that killed every1.
Necro is very hard to play but if ya master it...

NiGht_HaWk · May 12, 2005, 02:37 AM // 02:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Creed

As i already said Awaken the blood is risky, especially if you dont use your elite skill as being aura of the lich. 66% of your max hp from 1 skill, is simply insane.

Awaken the Blood only increases the maximum health sacrificed by 50%, not 100%. Therefore, blood renewal would sacrifice about 50% of your health, not 66%.

Rion · May 12, 2005, 06:47 AM // 06:47

Uhm, those who've been saying Necro is a nuker... That's pretty laughable, to be honest.

Necromancer is a support character - You're not going to outdamage an Elementalist.

You have potential to do some real damage, but I'd not class Necro as a nuker.

Oh, and um... The guy who's talking about stacking runes to get 19 blood magic or whatever... For a start that won't work and secondly the Vampiric Spells aren't that great, nevermind being 'nukes'.

Eh. I think all of the Necromancers' magic lines are very powerful if you use them right. I've been using Death Magic to great effect. My character isn't 100% finished... In fact, I just need one more skill. My Necro uses 6/8 or so Necro spells though usually.

Oh well. Regardless, I was a little disheartened on the road to level 20 with my Necromancer, even after playing them a lot in BWE's. But now I'm at level 20 and runed up, the damage he can deal is unreal (No he's not a nuker).

kxn · May 12, 2005, 10:05 PM // 22:05

you must not understand what the term nuking means, but whatever we all have our own views then.

gr0m · May 15, 2005, 01:52 PM // 13:52

havnt read all the posts but I can tell you, Necro primary is anything other than useless.
Combo Life Transfer, Life Siphon then a Vampiric gaze a Vamp Touch will bring any class down to dead or almost dead. Trust me.

Personally am N/W and find myself to be a valuable self-sustaining damage dealer in PvP. With Mark of subversion added in skills I am able to take out monks and W/mo with easy provided they arnt being healed by other monks.

As N/W I use swords and the only swordsmanship skill I use is final thrust, does average 100 damage to casters and around 70 to armor heavy types. But doesnt matter cos I got 45 energy max and still have enough left to take out that W/Mo no probs.

At 1v1 situations the only classes that may beat me if they areusing the right skills are Me due to the energy drainage and my rather weak standard attacks and his very nice self heals if I dont completely drain my energy and Rangers that are selfsustainable and often use the spell interrupting skill.

After you have ascended within story line there are quests which once completed allow you to change secondary profession. If you don't like your current one I suggest you look at what you think would suit you best.

Excuse the typos and blah blah cbf reading what I typed again.
GL

gr0m · May 15, 2005, 02:00 PM // 14:00

ok, just read what Rion had to say.
If you believe necro damage is laughable and talk about death magic I do understand your point. Death is more support and enemy distraction rather than damage.

I believe I am able to outdamage any E if I spam my energy full on, ok unwise but it hurts them, a lot. Blood magic does cost a lot of energy to be outstanding but if used at the right moments it will make those people targetting Me, Mo, and E's first think again.

Lim-Dul · May 21, 2005, 10:58 AM // 10:58

Oh boy - when I read the twentieth or so thread along the line of "Why does profession XXX suck so bad" one thing comes to my mind: don't the people realise that it's maybe not the profession that sucks, but they themselves? Or to put it another way: they don't know how to use the profession proplerly or their choice is completely out of step with their gaming style. Primary Necromancers aren't damage-dealing super-tanks, nor are they damage-dealing super-casters. Their main purpose is playing a support role. I think some people still don't realise the concept of GW - it's not about single characters - it's about parties. I would fear a party with a good primary Necromancer in it far more than the usual lame 3 tanks/3 healers/2 elems combo. I for my part LOVE to play supporting roles in a party - I love Mesmers, I love Monks, I love Necromancers (I've been playing a Necromancer/Monk for a long time during the alpha/beta) - if that's not the kind of thing you like, then choose a damage-dealing profession. Nevertheless it's not the damage-dealing professions that turn the tides of war during a fight, but the supporting characters. A good Necro can turn the enemies tanks into a gobbling pile of flesh - he probably won't kill them, but hell - this is the job of the other professions! Without a good Necro the other players would be prone to the tanks breaking through and owning them. Every profession and every combination has its own place in the GW-World - some are simply more straightforward, while others are less - there really ISN'T a *best* profession around - there are good and bad builds and good and bad players (and players who deem a whole profession useless belong to the latter sort - I can agree that one can ponder on the balance issues of certain skills - but not whole professions!)

Apocalyptic Touch · May 21, 2005, 04:20 PM // 16:20

I have a N/E20 and i absolutely love it. To be honest, i never use ele skills...all necro. Im largly Death magic with a few into soul reaping and a few into curses. I don't know who is saying that necromancers don't do alot of damage, because alot of death magic skills deal pretty hefty damage (death nova, putrid explosion, etc.) Just thought id pop in for the defense of my good ol' necro

Skyro · May 21, 2005, 05:59 PM // 17:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1/2_Extreme

Really? I havent had much success with my N/Mo build. Please give us some details on your build?

EG: What did you put your skill points into?, What skills are you using?

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...531#post102531

Roken · May 21, 2005, 06:39 PM // 18:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teufel Eldritch

I have been playing a PvE N/Mo. I am at level 17. Last night I came to the sad realisation that Necro sux. I say sad because I originally loved the concept of the Necro profession. Necro spells help in the lower levels but once you get up to Lion's Arch & beyond they dont do diddly.

The time I spent playing this character I feel has been wasted. I was thinking that as I progressed thru the game that the Necro skills would get better. Well some Necro skils are cool but overall the Necro is a pretty weak & worthless class. Whenever I go out on a quest I invaribly end up taking more Monk skills than Necro skills because they are more useful to the team. I wanted to play as a Necro primary not as a Monk primary. If I had known that Necros were going to be this useless I would have taken Monk as my primary or chosen a diff profession all together. Now I know I can just start up another character but darnit! then all the time spent on this one was wasted... WASTED. I guess that is part of the game. Live & learn.

Mebbe I am not playing Necro correctly or something but for the life of me I don't see how someone with all Necro spells or mostly Necro spells is going to survive against Tengu or the Undead. The Undead seem to have a resistance to hex spells(or is it another spell caster protecting them?) which negates what little power a Necros has(many of the useful & offensive spells a Necro has are hex spells) and the Tengu are melee monsters that will chew up a Necro & spit him out in less than 5 seconds. Necro are liablity to a team as they take up a slot that could be used for a more useful class...such as Monk or a Warrior or even a Mesmer(Everybody says that Mesmers are the weakest class... I do not agree. Necros are imo. H E double L just the other night I was playing & my party was using a Mesmer as a tank! And we were sucessful in the quest).

Again... mebbe I am not playing Necro correctly... but I don't see how ANYONE can be effcient as a primary Necro once they get to & past Lion's Arch.

I am so disheartend, so dispirited by this that I don't even really want to play the game anymore.

I play a N/R, and Im regreting not going R/N, becuase I don't use Soul Reaping at all, and the armor is worse than Rangers. Necromancer is usually the most unbalnced class (In this case, profession) in every MMO I have played. Necromancers need a benefit over other classes, but not something that would turn everyone into Necro primaries. Necromancers, however, are sweet ass secondaries. Hex's combines with high Curse attribute is deadly with any primary in PVP.

Now, though, I turned my N/R into a Pin Down crowd control abuser, which gives me a need for Soul Reaping, seeing as these spells do not come with cheap energy costs. as soon as i start recieving trap spells, he will be pretty deadly in PVP. I have already tested out him out in PVP, and he is a very good Anti-Charger (Which is usually a War/Mo). I use Pindown, Mark of Subversion, and Defile Flesh. That way he cannot stay close to me, cannot heal himself, and is losing health pretty quickly. Im very satisfied with my character, although they should change their special Primary attribute to something more useful.

PieXags · May 21, 2005, 07:34 PM // 19:34

I personally really enjoy the primary attribute, being a necro who specializes in death magic. Energy is needed, and every bit helps. Raising bone fiends is 25 energy, not cheap energy wise. This is also the reason I chose the mesmer as my secondary, to use the inspiration energy-stealing skills. And I must say that I don't hardly ever run out of energy, I've usually at least got 15 at all times. The only problem is corpses aren't always abundant when fighting things like elementals or the undead, but the few normal attack spells that are in dead magic get the job done, and when facing the undead you have spells that can make them your allies even if they're originally your enemies.

I think you're just trying to use the necro as a damage-dealer, someone who really gets noticed in the heat of battle as defeating a lot of enemies. Necros are meant as support-characters for the most part, and this is a game that involves a lot of parties, so it's teamwork that matters and how one works in a team. I personally do pretty damn good when I'm not working directly trying to deal a lot of damage. It sometimes take patience, restraint, and timing in order to work a necromancer (especially in my case trying to work with every corpse that drops and/or doing what I can to get them there in the first place). I usually play my character as a background character. I let the tanks go in while I sit there and work my magic with what's given to me, while my team goes and finishes them off.

Just not your style of character I'd suppose mate.

Zeru · May 21, 2005, 07:57 PM // 19:57

Necro primary plays fine in pve. A death necro/monk is one of the best pve combos out there. Up until you start fighting the mursaat swarms of minions are very powerful and good at soaking up damage. When you do fight the mursaat and later on the titans your minions die too fast so it's best to just put death nova on them and inflict pretty heavy damage as suicide bombs. And SR helps sustain your mana over prolonged fights making them nearly as viable as monks for healing.

Curses are especially great late game vs powerful physical enemies (shadow of fear/enfeebling blood any?) but it's a line which really doesn't require primary necro and is best as a secondary really.

1/2_Extreme · May 21, 2005, 08:03 PM // 20:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeru

Necro primary plays fine in pve. A death necro/monk is one of the best pve combos out there. Up until you start fighting the mursaat swarms of minions are very powerful and good at soaking up damage. When you do fight the mursaat and later on the titans your minions die too fast so it's best to just put death nova on them and inflict pretty heavy damage as suicide bombs. And SR helps sustain your mana over prolonged fights making them nearly as viable as monks for healing.

Curses are especially great late game vs powerful physical enemies (shadow of fear/enfeebling blood any?) but it's a line which really doesn't require primary necro and is best as a secondary really.

if you play your cards right, N/Mo can be a deadly combo in PvP as well

Sadye X · May 21, 2005, 08:58 PM // 20:58

I would say that if you're not seeing the full benefit of being a necro primary then perhaps you just need to retune which skills you're using in different builds until you find a combination that works for they way you enjoy playing, or what you want to contribute. And it's always possible that what a necro is capable of isn't what interrests you in terms of what you add to a group.

In the lower levels I used horrors ... as many as I had corpses for the cast, and could move through areas with ease, the bigger the fight the easier it would be in a way as it just meant for each foe I'd have another horror once it fell, and an energy boost via soul reaping etc. But then you find missions like Gates of Kryta where there's simply too many undead which means no renewable supply of corpses ...

Ever since I've been using my base build as blood / curse , then swapping in a secondary skill or two depending on my team makeup. But skills you should never overlook that are where necros excell imo are in curses. Mark of Pain is a good example ... you can drop full groups easily in a melee heavy group simply by the area damage it does. Other extremely useful area curses are Shadow of Fear, which slows attack speed of your target and their allies in the area. I use both as standards in both pve and pvp, and believe me, with proper curse stacking there's a very good reason necros are quite typically high on the priority target list.

With pve and missions I have to admit that each mission / area may require you to adjust your build to the situation, but once you've seen what you're up against from a first run, this comes as second nature. On some of the missions that I'd failed terribly with full teams of players, I've gone back in with henchies and beat, simply because I know how to cripple my foe's ability to damage my party so they can focus on taking them down, as well as helping your healers manage energy since they'll have to heal less often. I'd even completed the Ring of Fire with henchies after who knows how many fails prior, and most of them even had max dp before the end. Call it what you will, but casting Well of Blood for each corpse you see fall goes so much further than turning them into minions imo

toastgodsupreme · May 24, 2005, 08:41 PM // 20:41

So my primary is a N/Mo17 as of this posting.

I'm at Aurora Glade right now. I have to say, I feel like I'm one of the most versatile players in my group.

Let's say our group has a dedicated healer, and 2 warriors, and 2 mages. What do I bring to the table? FUN

During the first few fights, I heal my allies with Healing Breeze and throw out some single target smiting. Once I start raising my army though... I'm the first one in battle, and the only one left standing if shit hits the fan.

I survive better than most warriors. Why? My army takes the heat. If they don't have agro, then I'm negating damage to me with Dark Bond.

I may switch over the N/Ele once I acsend, just for more damage output.

Go. Pump death magic. Watch level 15 minions withstand awesome attacks. Throw death nova on ones with low heath. Use well of suffering in the middle of a juicy mob.

Sure minions are weak. But 10 of them become a problem for many groups. 15 of them is just insane.

Nikron Ke Ra · May 25, 2005, 01:02 AM // 01:02

I play as a N/E, and basically am a zerger with 14 in Death Magic and 12 in Soul Reaping, it's amazingly fun... But I dunno if 10+ mobs actually help anything, it would be nice to see their damage.

Axehilt · May 25, 2005, 10:52 AM // 10:52

Played all day today with a fresh N/Me alongside my friend's N/Mo. Really awesome combos we got going, though definitely PVE-centric.

My char is Death/SoulReaping focused. Vile Touch and Rotting Flesh make up my limited direct damage (and Disease) capabilities. Animate Bone Horror is currently my only summon spell and just about everything that dies gets animated ASAP. However in circumstances where lots of enemies crowd around a corpse I'll often Putrid Explosion it. Taste of Death is my self-heal and triggers the death of a minion, which means additional energy for both me and my bud. Currently I'm focusing on unlocking stuff so I usually have Rez and Capture Signets. Lastly, I take Dark Aura which I keep on my bud at all times.

His N/Mo is Blood/Healing/Soul Reaping specced. He keeps Mending on himself (maintained enchantments are far more doable with the influx from Soul Reaping),then jumps into the fray with Blood Renewal for additional regen. His main nukes are Dark Pact and Touch of Agony which do great damage by themselves but even better AOE damage because of my Dark Aura (adds AOE damage every time target sacrifices life). Resurrect and Capture Signet fill out his 'misc' skills. He also uses Heal Area situationally, usually to heal himself.

Lastly, he frequently puts Healing Seed on me - which works even when I take damage from Dark Aura. And since I know he'll be sac'ing health, I can stand right next to him, next to our other close range attackers and keep him healed with the AOE healing from that.

Overall this combo works pretty awesome and really flows well. Having so many minions around means something is always dying near us, which gives us both energy. If he needs energy badly (he does use constant nukes, Mending, and Healing Seed - all are fairly expensive) then I can simply sacrifice a minion for health to feed him some. Managed to get from Pre-Searing to Bloodstone Fen in about 10 hours of play.

I can definitely see what a previous poster stated about the Mursaat decisively screwing minion users over, but at least for now I'm able to dominate pretty much any group (undead groups cause us a bit of trouble since there are less corpses and they aren't affected by Rotting Flesh.)

Epinephrine · May 25, 2005, 01:31 PM // 13:31

Soul Reaping is a great ability. Truly passive. If you are playing a Necromancer/Elementalist for example, try this. Put all your attributes over in elementalist, except for a pile in soul reaping (get it nice and high - heck, soul reaping runes are cheap). Now go adventuring with a minion master in the party.