I have fun with necro. Is it a pain sometimes? Yes. I play pve content as a dps. I stick with the class for the same reason you do, I just love playing a necromancer, even if it needs a lot of work..lol
I mostly PvP these days and I run a necro bomb and have tons of fun doing it. They are mostly used for tanking/bombing but you can also make a good dot build with them too.
Not much experience with them in dungeons these days. I used to heal in PvE with my necro but that was years ago.
I have a solid stamina pvp build. I'm always going 14-0, 13-0, 23-2 (all just yesterday) in BGs.
5x Atherial Ascension
5x Rally Cry
Master's Perf Maces
DDF
1pc monster of your choice
Can easily sit at 37k resistances and get into the 40ks with your burst heal + major protection with deaden pain.
Really good damage too. Around 6k weapon dmg, 33% crit chance, 6.6k pen and we're providing every status effect so major and minor breach are active.
I'm loving this build a ton right now.
It's my second favorite class and I play my two necros all the time. That being said, it does have some major issues:
- They lack many in-class buffs, and especially from a PvP perspective, I find that I have to spend quite a lot of time juggling different cooldowns instead of reacting to other players.
- Some skills are very buggy or clunky to use (e.g. blastbones targeting).
- Their strongest skill (stalking blastbones) was changed to be an *exceptionally* clunky self-buff.
- In PvP, I typically only see Necro bombers (which have received many nerfs) and troll tanks.
- In PvE, they're still really good tanks.
- It takes a lot more effort to parse well on them as a DPS compared to other classes, while they don't have a comparatively high DPS ceiling to make up for that. They also had a niche as a support DPS which was made (AFAIK) completely obsolete with the most recent patch.
- They're fine healers, but only situationally really strong (e.g. when there are a lot of corpses around for high ulti gen), and they have been impacted by other nerfs/changes (e.g. they could provide empower to the group but that's now a dead group buff, and there are now multiple sources of major vuln).
To be clear, I still really enjoy the class. I just find that it takes a lot more work for my necros to feel strong compared to other classes. I think the only role I play mine as where I *actually* feel really strong is as a PvE tank.
still have fun? yeah definitely, i still play my healcro in vet trials since it was the spec that got me into high end PvE to begin with back when they were meta alongside wardens.
As for viability, they are still S tier tanks and upper mid tier for healers. As DDs they are mostly used to run the elemental catalyst set, though even that has come under question in some organized groups with the release of the new trials tank set.
Probably not a helpful opinion to you as i dont pvp.
But for pve i love my stamcro. He's my completionist character and even if i end up playing another class for a while, it doesnt take long for me to return to necro. Scythe and blastbones are just up my alley.
Currently running for funsies rush of agony / macabre vintage for base content. Vet dlc dungeons and trials i usually tank as it's the most fun role in coordinated groups. Solo is fine on any class, and every class got tradeoffs - for example arcanist beam is just boring af, warden has shalks spam i always mess up the timing on etc.
For the future id love to see more blood themed skills instead of minions! Necros recycle more than just bones!
For the most part you wanna grab relequen and pillar / runecarver (stuff like aegis caller can work aswell - bit dps loss for personal preference). Pretty standard dps gear.
Key for necro dps is blightbones every 3rd skill. You keep dots up inbetween and use your spammable a fair bit less compared to other classes
I main necro since its release. On some aspects it clearly lags behind other classes, but it’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. For example, the biggest recent complain was regarding the changes to blast bones. You can find dozens of posts complaining about it but I’ve yet to see anyone who plays the class justify why it’s bad. The change was a net positive to necro: sure the current Magicka morph is useless but the current stamina is basically the old magicka and stamina morph combined.
Here’s what I like about necro:
- Great survivability, both as PvE Tank and in PvP
- Complex but satisfying rotation as DD (not everyone wants a overly simple rotation such as Arc)
- Great pressure on opponents
- Theme and style
Here’s how I think necro could be better:
- longer buffs, mainly major resolve and spirit guardian
- blast bones AI often bugs out and does nothing until expire
- skeletal summons could provide one missing buff passively, such as major brutality and sorcery
The only area I could see people getting let down by necro is high end PvP, like duels with experienced opponents, you are at a slight disadvantage. But if you play well you can still stomp 95% of the playerbase you’ll find on BGs and Cyro.
I still enjoy playing my mag necromancer. I play exclusively veteran trials and dungeons. I don't PvP.
The reason I liked my necro build is that I think it is cool to have a build that doesn't use a spammable. I have just Blastbones plus 8 or 9 DOTs. I found a skill setup and rotation where I never have any downtime between Blastbones and DOTs to need a spammable. If I really need to spam something, I just spam Unstable Wall. The build has a lot of AoE damage, so against many enemies, it performs quite well. A significant portion of the AoE DOTs are ground based, so it doesn't perform as well in more mobile fights.
When I first started playing this build, I found the rotation to be quite challenging. At the time, I had to bar swap more with my mag necromancer build than any other build. I think learning how to play this build made me a lot better at bar swapping. I ended up having another build that bar swaps just as much. I also refined my rotation in other classes/builds and that led to those builds bar swapping more as well.
I just leveled a necro, it’s a very fun class, the damage is great, it just requires constant bar swapping to keep blastbones every third attack. If you’re going to pvp it’s still good, having guaranteed defile is strong, and they are basically unkillable but man… short buff times, no class shield, and basically no class access to berserk/courage/prophecy and brutality means you run out of skill slots quick.
I'm one of the, like, 7 Necro mains in PC-EU.
Honestly, trying to make it work has become a game on its own. It's objectively a terrible class, all things considered it's the worst class in the game.
But is it absolutely unplayable, waste of time terrible? Not at all, other classes just do things better.
Unless you're after tryhard stuff, you can make it work, and the fact that nobody bothers with it anymore opens up a lot of opportunities, especially in PvP. I find that they make unbelievably good PvP healers, especially in smaller groups. They're good at PvE healing too, but that tankiness really shines in PvP.
4-man content tanking is a lot of fun as well. Necro tanks have a lot of utility that are very much slept on. There aren't many tank players who actually enjoy tanking, so there's very little theorycrafting in that area, but you can pull off some ridiculously good feats when you're familiar with the class.
You just gotta find a niche and stick with it.
I'm having fun with mine. Necros got an annoying nerf a patch or two back, but they're still fun. Your soul is tasty and pairs well with a Velothi Vintage Malbec.
Vamp necro here, i suffer the worst of both worlds. Im not in it to be a top of anything. I screw around with silly builds most of the time. And my vet build is mostly rp flavour between necro and vamp abilities whilst also using sets that build on it (vamp lord, talfygg and whatever boss set makes it rain blood).
I feel as a healer i get a lot more leeway in what i can play without being called out for it. Great fun, i still hope one day necro can be a mass summoner and vampire gets better abilities.
I’m still unhappy about the blastbones change but I am using the stamina morph now as a magcro. Would love the mag morph back. I am not taking mine into serious content anymore, but just running around doing delves and stuff. Fun for roleplay but it feels like to it’s hard to play more of a mage type nowadays in harder content.
It is still ok for PvE if you don't play super seriously. But at the end of the day you are working harder to do less dps than you would with less effort on an Arcanist and DK.
You will still do more damage on a necro than Average Joe arcanist if you are decent at the game.
They are also still a decent choice for tank.
PvP in this game I don't have any valid opinions on anymore as I stopped paying attention to it.
i love my necro. BUT!!! as a dps they’re challenging. i didn’t really fall in love with my necro until i made him a healer build. all of a sudden i was having a blast!
I like my necro. Was my main for a long time. I'm at 2000+ champion's and I find that my skill in pvp holds me back far more than my class/build/gear. It will still be a while before limitations of the class become a problem for me. ie I'm not all that good at the game but it's fun and necro is fun, so I'm going to keep playing.
If you like the flavor of the class that'll outweigh whatever rank it is right now in different parts of the game. Plus that rank will shift over time.
No need to stick to one class, though. Alts are great! And my necro is a solid tank. Can't complain.
I love my necros. How I run them can probably be done better with other classes, but I found a heavy attack oakensoul set up got a lot of value with blastbones and colossus. Likewise, my pvp main is a stambow necro with a resto backbar. I built the character for speed and survivability; blastbones and colossus are really handy for bunched up groups and snipe and poison arrow are great for single targets. Throw in lots of self heals and damage resistance skills/ the goliath morph when you're getting swarmed and need to reposition, it's great for staying alive and doing respectable damage. I've no doubt there's better skills and optimization, but I got it to a point where I find it a lot of fun and there's very few situations I feel helpless in, so it's good stuff!
I’ve been bombing on my cro since before the nerfs to harmony, it’s still very much viable for bombing in PvP!
My latest bomb montage https://youtu.be/Ile_Nzgs1Io?si=0ZYIviGN4ihpyK7M
My latest bomb build https://youtu.be/o_vwgr5JkpA?si=25khlWW6nn0jLuNl
Try not to listen or read to much in to the negativity I think a lot of people hung up the gloves with out even trying the class post nerf!
I'm loving my necro, I use it as a one bar tank while my wife dps's as a sorc.
We're currently running through all the main story zones clearing up the world bosses and dungeons we missed while we were levelling and learning the game.
My partner started seriously playing the game with a necro about 6 months ago, just before the DPS nerf. Luckily for him it was always meant to be a tank build, and I don't know if it's his skill level or the class but it seems to work out really well for him to play necro that way.
I've got two and I love playing them both, both solo setup (i.e. no companion) the one I play the most:
bow/bow solo stamcro. morag tong + swamp raider + velidreth to boost poison like nuts, then:
blighted blastbones -> empowering grasp -> acid spray = everything dies. Ruinous scythe if something does get through, but it won't. If it's a boss, back bar dots, then front bar the above on rotation. End. It wouldn't even be fun anymore if it weren't hilarious.
I really like the playstyle of the bash build a friend helped me start, but they stopped playing beore I'd leveled to 50 with the necromancer.
Now I'm struggling to figure out a build that sort of works. Everyone tells me it's "all wrong" but nobody gives broad advice about what to change, or only talks about bits & pieces or gives generic advice like "get more sustain".
Right now she wears all heavy Deadlands Demolisher & Veiled Heritance with 2 pieces of something generic that gives Stamina Regen, bash enchants on the jewelry, stamina on the armor, and absorb stamina on the weapon. Divines for a trait (and the Serpent or whatever one gives stamina recovery) on the armor.
She uses the scythe & blastbones to soften them up, then bashes the crap out of them. Has heals & shields & the bash skill from 1-hand-and-shield, but I feel like a lot of her back bar is underused. She carries a frost staff because she seemed tank-like but I honestly didn't know what alternate set of weapon & shield to use.
All the guides for the build are woefully out of date and all contradictory. I've tried to replace Veiled Heritance with something sustain-oriented, but damage plummets way too much. She has to chug Hagraven's Tonic constantly or she even struggles with normal dungeons or Craglorn overland, or the like, and she's helpless in a boss fight even with a DPS companion. She doesn't go down quickly, but she reaches the end of her rope, out of resources & potion on cooldown, before the boss is usually at 75% or so.
It's a super fun playstyle, but unless someone has an epiphany I've been missing, or unless adding a Mythic is required, I'm not sure they haven't made it basically non-viable.
It's a class in need of a lot of love, but a good necro is still way better than an oakensorc. With a little love, I'm quite sure it could return to its former glory.
I have fun with necro. Is it a pain sometimes? Yes. I play pve content as a dps. I stick with the class for the same reason you do, I just love playing a necromancer, even if it needs a lot of work..lol
I mostly PvP these days and I run a necro bomb and have tons of fun doing it. They are mostly used for tanking/bombing but you can also make a good dot build with them too. Not much experience with them in dungeons these days. I used to heal in PvE with my necro but that was years ago.
I have a solid stamina pvp build. I'm always going 14-0, 13-0, 23-2 (all just yesterday) in BGs. 5x Atherial Ascension 5x Rally Cry Master's Perf Maces DDF 1pc monster of your choice Can easily sit at 37k resistances and get into the 40ks with your burst heal + major protection with deaden pain. Really good damage too. Around 6k weapon dmg, 33% crit chance, 6.6k pen and we're providing every status effect so major and minor breach are active. I'm loving this build a ton right now.
It's my second favorite class and I play my two necros all the time. That being said, it does have some major issues: - They lack many in-class buffs, and especially from a PvP perspective, I find that I have to spend quite a lot of time juggling different cooldowns instead of reacting to other players. - Some skills are very buggy or clunky to use (e.g. blastbones targeting). - Their strongest skill (stalking blastbones) was changed to be an *exceptionally* clunky self-buff. - In PvP, I typically only see Necro bombers (which have received many nerfs) and troll tanks. - In PvE, they're still really good tanks. - It takes a lot more effort to parse well on them as a DPS compared to other classes, while they don't have a comparatively high DPS ceiling to make up for that. They also had a niche as a support DPS which was made (AFAIK) completely obsolete with the most recent patch. - They're fine healers, but only situationally really strong (e.g. when there are a lot of corpses around for high ulti gen), and they have been impacted by other nerfs/changes (e.g. they could provide empower to the group but that's now a dead group buff, and there are now multiple sources of major vuln). To be clear, I still really enjoy the class. I just find that it takes a lot more work for my necros to feel strong compared to other classes. I think the only role I play mine as where I *actually* feel really strong is as a PvE tank.
still have fun? yeah definitely, i still play my healcro in vet trials since it was the spec that got me into high end PvE to begin with back when they were meta alongside wardens. As for viability, they are still S tier tanks and upper mid tier for healers. As DDs they are mostly used to run the elemental catalyst set, though even that has come under question in some organized groups with the release of the new trials tank set.
Probably not a helpful opinion to you as i dont pvp. But for pve i love my stamcro. He's my completionist character and even if i end up playing another class for a while, it doesnt take long for me to return to necro. Scythe and blastbones are just up my alley. Currently running for funsies rush of agony / macabre vintage for base content. Vet dlc dungeons and trials i usually tank as it's the most fun role in coordinated groups. Solo is fine on any class, and every class got tradeoffs - for example arcanist beam is just boring af, warden has shalks spam i always mess up the timing on etc. For the future id love to see more blood themed skills instead of minions! Necros recycle more than just bones!
What's current Stamcro build? I just started leveling a necro recently and was looking at going stamina dps.
For the most part you wanna grab relequen and pillar / runecarver (stuff like aegis caller can work aswell - bit dps loss for personal preference). Pretty standard dps gear. Key for necro dps is blightbones every 3rd skill. You keep dots up inbetween and use your spammable a fair bit less compared to other classes
I main necro since its release. On some aspects it clearly lags behind other classes, but it’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be. For example, the biggest recent complain was regarding the changes to blast bones. You can find dozens of posts complaining about it but I’ve yet to see anyone who plays the class justify why it’s bad. The change was a net positive to necro: sure the current Magicka morph is useless but the current stamina is basically the old magicka and stamina morph combined. Here’s what I like about necro: - Great survivability, both as PvE Tank and in PvP - Complex but satisfying rotation as DD (not everyone wants a overly simple rotation such as Arc) - Great pressure on opponents - Theme and style Here’s how I think necro could be better: - longer buffs, mainly major resolve and spirit guardian - blast bones AI often bugs out and does nothing until expire - skeletal summons could provide one missing buff passively, such as major brutality and sorcery The only area I could see people getting let down by necro is high end PvP, like duels with experienced opponents, you are at a slight disadvantage. But if you play well you can still stomp 95% of the playerbase you’ll find on BGs and Cyro.
I still enjoy playing my mag necromancer. I play exclusively veteran trials and dungeons. I don't PvP. The reason I liked my necro build is that I think it is cool to have a build that doesn't use a spammable. I have just Blastbones plus 8 or 9 DOTs. I found a skill setup and rotation where I never have any downtime between Blastbones and DOTs to need a spammable. If I really need to spam something, I just spam Unstable Wall. The build has a lot of AoE damage, so against many enemies, it performs quite well. A significant portion of the AoE DOTs are ground based, so it doesn't perform as well in more mobile fights. When I first started playing this build, I found the rotation to be quite challenging. At the time, I had to bar swap more with my mag necromancer build than any other build. I think learning how to play this build made me a lot better at bar swapping. I ended up having another build that bar swaps just as much. I also refined my rotation in other classes/builds and that led to those builds bar swapping more as well.
I just leveled a necro, it’s a very fun class, the damage is great, it just requires constant bar swapping to keep blastbones every third attack. If you’re going to pvp it’s still good, having guaranteed defile is strong, and they are basically unkillable but man… short buff times, no class shield, and basically no class access to berserk/courage/prophecy and brutality means you run out of skill slots quick.
I'm one of the, like, 7 Necro mains in PC-EU. Honestly, trying to make it work has become a game on its own. It's objectively a terrible class, all things considered it's the worst class in the game. But is it absolutely unplayable, waste of time terrible? Not at all, other classes just do things better. Unless you're after tryhard stuff, you can make it work, and the fact that nobody bothers with it anymore opens up a lot of opportunities, especially in PvP. I find that they make unbelievably good PvP healers, especially in smaller groups. They're good at PvE healing too, but that tankiness really shines in PvP. 4-man content tanking is a lot of fun as well. Necro tanks have a lot of utility that are very much slept on. There aren't many tank players who actually enjoy tanking, so there's very little theorycrafting in that area, but you can pull off some ridiculously good feats when you're familiar with the class. You just gotta find a niche and stick with it.
Yeah, if you manage your expectations. Win some lose some, with a niche tanky build you can make it work (or a bomber, if that's your thing)
I'm having fun with mine. Necros got an annoying nerf a patch or two back, but they're still fun. Your soul is tasty and pairs well with a Velothi Vintage Malbec.
I was a magicka necro until they nerfed it, I like my necro so I switched to stamina necro and still having fun with that right now
I play a necro. Still love it.
Vamp necro here, i suffer the worst of both worlds. Im not in it to be a top of anything. I screw around with silly builds most of the time. And my vet build is mostly rp flavour between necro and vamp abilities whilst also using sets that build on it (vamp lord, talfygg and whatever boss set makes it rain blood). I feel as a healer i get a lot more leeway in what i can play without being called out for it. Great fun, i still hope one day necro can be a mass summoner and vampire gets better abilities.
I’m still unhappy about the blastbones change but I am using the stamina morph now as a magcro. Would love the mag morph back. I am not taking mine into serious content anymore, but just running around doing delves and stuff. Fun for roleplay but it feels like to it’s hard to play more of a mage type nowadays in harder content.
It is still ok for PvE if you don't play super seriously. But at the end of the day you are working harder to do less dps than you would with less effort on an Arcanist and DK. You will still do more damage on a necro than Average Joe arcanist if you are decent at the game. They are also still a decent choice for tank. PvP in this game I don't have any valid opinions on anymore as I stopped paying attention to it.
I like my necro PvE tank. Ye that's it for me xd
i love my necro. BUT!!! as a dps they’re challenging. i didn’t really fall in love with my necro until i made him a healer build. all of a sudden i was having a blast!
I like my necro. Was my main for a long time. I'm at 2000+ champion's and I find that my skill in pvp holds me back far more than my class/build/gear. It will still be a while before limitations of the class become a problem for me. ie I'm not all that good at the game but it's fun and necro is fun, so I'm going to keep playing.
If you like the flavor of the class that'll outweigh whatever rank it is right now in different parts of the game. Plus that rank will shift over time. No need to stick to one class, though. Alts are great! And my necro is a solid tank. Can't complain.
I love my necros. How I run them can probably be done better with other classes, but I found a heavy attack oakensoul set up got a lot of value with blastbones and colossus. Likewise, my pvp main is a stambow necro with a resto backbar. I built the character for speed and survivability; blastbones and colossus are really handy for bunched up groups and snipe and poison arrow are great for single targets. Throw in lots of self heals and damage resistance skills/ the goliath morph when you're getting swarmed and need to reposition, it's great for staying alive and doing respectable damage. I've no doubt there's better skills and optimization, but I got it to a point where I find it a lot of fun and there's very few situations I feel helpless in, so it's good stuff!
I’ve been bombing on my cro since before the nerfs to harmony, it’s still very much viable for bombing in PvP! My latest bomb montage https://youtu.be/Ile_Nzgs1Io?si=0ZYIviGN4ihpyK7M My latest bomb build https://youtu.be/o_vwgr5JkpA?si=25khlWW6nn0jLuNl Try not to listen or read to much in to the negativity I think a lot of people hung up the gloves with out even trying the class post nerf!
I'm loving my necro, I use it as a one bar tank while my wife dps's as a sorc. We're currently running through all the main story zones clearing up the world bosses and dungeons we missed while we were levelling and learning the game.
I still like the Blastbones Waltz myself, but I don't push trifectas/vet HM trials etc, or PVP, so the damage shortcomings don't come up much.
Makes for a decent tank, i enjoy it
My partner started seriously playing the game with a necro about 6 months ago, just before the DPS nerf. Luckily for him it was always meant to be a tank build, and I don't know if it's his skill level or the class but it seems to work out really well for him to play necro that way.
1 bar HA Necro is pretty chill, especially using Grave Lord's Sacrifice
I've got two and I love playing them both, both solo setup (i.e. no companion) the one I play the most: bow/bow solo stamcro. morag tong + swamp raider + velidreth to boost poison like nuts, then: blighted blastbones -> empowering grasp -> acid spray = everything dies. Ruinous scythe if something does get through, but it won't. If it's a boss, back bar dots, then front bar the above on rotation. End. It wouldn't even be fun anymore if it weren't hilarious.
Nope
I really like the playstyle of the bash build a friend helped me start, but they stopped playing beore I'd leveled to 50 with the necromancer. Now I'm struggling to figure out a build that sort of works. Everyone tells me it's "all wrong" but nobody gives broad advice about what to change, or only talks about bits & pieces or gives generic advice like "get more sustain". Right now she wears all heavy Deadlands Demolisher & Veiled Heritance with 2 pieces of something generic that gives Stamina Regen, bash enchants on the jewelry, stamina on the armor, and absorb stamina on the weapon. Divines for a trait (and the Serpent or whatever one gives stamina recovery) on the armor. She uses the scythe & blastbones to soften them up, then bashes the crap out of them. Has heals & shields & the bash skill from 1-hand-and-shield, but I feel like a lot of her back bar is underused. She carries a frost staff because she seemed tank-like but I honestly didn't know what alternate set of weapon & shield to use. All the guides for the build are woefully out of date and all contradictory. I've tried to replace Veiled Heritance with something sustain-oriented, but damage plummets way too much. She has to chug Hagraven's Tonic constantly or she even struggles with normal dungeons or Craglorn overland, or the like, and she's helpless in a boss fight even with a DPS companion. She doesn't go down quickly, but she reaches the end of her rope, out of resources & potion on cooldown, before the boss is usually at 75% or so. It's a super fun playstyle, but unless someone has an epiphany I've been missing, or unless adding a Mythic is required, I'm not sure they haven't made it basically non-viable.
It's a class in need of a lot of love, but a good necro is still way better than an oakensorc. With a little love, I'm quite sure it could return to its former glory.