Can we get some of what made Necromancers amazing in GW1 for Necros in GW2?

[Oldirtbeard.9834]

I have heard that back in GW1 Necros were preferred much the same way as Druids are these days, could we get the balance team to pick over the GW1 Necromancer and help provide Power Reaper with tools to make it Optimal in End Game Instanced PVE?

 

I meant PVE, for some reason I typed PVP, oops.

[Kain Francois.4328]

> @"Oldirtbeard.9834" said:

> I have heard that back in GW1 Necros were preferred much the same way as Druids are these days, could we get the balance team to pick over the GW1 Necromancer and help provide Power Reaper with tools to make it Optimal in End Game Instanced PVP?

 

There are a few reasons Necromancers were considered Healers.

 

1. Necromancer had a primary attribute soul Reaping, which granted them a buttload of energy each time something dies. This was massively overtuned for much of Guild Wars history, and still is to this day. It meant that Necromancers could continuously spam heals.

 

2. The heals themselves were not Necromancer skills but Rituallist skills that had really good scaling.

 

Combined a Necromancer's near-infinite mana, with Ritualist heals, you can imagine why N/Rt was such a good healer.

 

However, it was useless in PvP, so don't get your hopes up. This was explicitly a PvE spec.

 

If you wanna heal as a Necro in GW2, go scourge. It's used in some anti-meta comps. Barrier itself is super useful to the team even when you aren't a dedicated healer.

 

Replying to thread title, other things that made Necromancer amazing in GW1:

 

- Extremely powerful minions.

 

- The ability to make enemies blow up when they die, dealing massive AoE damage using skills like Putrid Bile, Icy Veins, and Putrid Explosion.

 

- Powerful Curse spells. Think Confusion of GW2, on *steroids*, and aoe. The curses line also had near-exclusive access to Cracked Armor, which is GW1's version of Vulnerability, only it was extremely lucrative in the day.

 

- Discord. Spike foes with powerful single target, armor-ignoring damage.

 

- Amazing support through Blood Magic, with spells like Blood is Power that restore the team's energy and allow them to keep pumping spells. (BIP actually made a recent 2018 resurgence in the meta)

 

Necromancer also had great uses in PvP. Such as a literal suicide bomber build that let you blow yourself up to deal massive aoe damage and conditions, useful in things like Jade Quarry and Alliance Battles where you respawn frequently.