Guild Wars 2 Necromancer Profession Overview | GW2PC

Necromancer Profession Quick Summary
Skill Type	Life Force/Death Shroud
Specials	Marks, Minions, Wells
Traits	Soul Reaping, Blood Rituals, Minion Mastery
Armor Type	Light Armor
Weapons	Two-Handed: Staff Main-Hand: Axe, Scepter, Dagger Off-hand: Focus, Dagger, Warhorn Aquatic: Spear, Trident
Creation Options	Choose facial marking.

Background

The Guild Wars 2 Necromancer Profession in derives its identity in their dark arts, draining life and energy of enemies, and summoning the dead. The Necromancer stands as a balanced caster with a large pool of support skills such as Marks and Wells, but also capable of withstanding the most critical fights with a secondary form using Death Shroud. As a Necromancer, you must effectively manage your Life Force and minions, and weaken your enemies by inflicting conditions and drain their life.

Weapons

SLOT	WEAPON	DESCRIPTION	# OF SKILLS
Main-Hand	Dagger	Steal health, gain Life Force.	3
	Scepter	Inflict conditions.	3
	Axe	Close range damage.	3
Off-Hand	Focus	Remove conditions.	2
	Dagger	Crippling, Mark.	2
	Warhorn	Support buffs, Inflict conditions.	2
Two-Handed	Staff	Inflict conditions, Mark.	5
Aquatic	Spear	Bleeding, Crippling	5
	Trident	Sinking	5

Skills

Life Force – This is a unique type of energy mechanic exclusive to Necromancer. Life Force is built up from use of skills and enemy kills. Once enough Life Force is built up, Death Shroud may be activated.

Death Shroud – Once activated, the Necromancer assumes a spectral form that uses up Life Force that had been built up as a secondary HP bar. In this form, a number of special skills are available.

Under the effect of Death Shroud, these skills replace slots 1-5 in the skill bar.

Land
	Life Blast	Blast a foe with accumulated life force, dealing more damage the more life force you have.
	Life Transfer	Damage nearby foes and steal their life force.
	Doom	Make your foe flee in fear.
	Dark Path	Flash to target area and blind nearby foes.
	End Death Shroud	Leave your death shroud and return to your normal form.
Underwater
	Wave of Fear	Terrifies all foes in front of you.
	Draw Conditions	Draw conditions from nearby allies to yourself
	Dark Water	Cloud the water around your target, blinding and poisoning all foes near that location.
	Life Blast	Blast a foe with accumulated life force, dealing more damage the more life force you have.
	End Death Shroud	Leave your death shroud and return to your normal form.

Traits – Necromancers learn traits by performing rituals:

Soul Reaping – General character improvements such as power, vitality, and enhancements to Death Shroud and Life Force.

Blood Rituals – Enhances sacrificial skills and conditions.

Minion Mastery – Enhances summoned creatures.

Specials – These are unique necromancer skills that enhance skills.

Type	Description
Marks	Ground-targeted spells that can either enhance a party or detriment enemies. They are placed and set to trigger automatically after a period of time. May be manually activated.
	Mark of Blood	Inscribe an area with mark of blood, damaging enemies, and placing a regeneration boon on allies.
	Putrid Mark	Inscribe an area with a putrid mark to transfer conditions from allies to foes.
	Reaper's Mark	Inscribe area with a reaper's mark that inflicts vulnerability and bleeding.
Minion	When a minion is summoned, a secondary skill becomes available which can either enhance a minion's ability or destroy it to receive a beneficial effect.
	Bone Fiend	Summon a bone fiend that attacks foes at range.
	> Rigor Mortis	Fix your bone fiend in place and make its attack immobilize enemies.
	Bone Minion	Summon 3 bone minions.
	> Putrid Explosion	Explode a bone minion.
	Summon Blood Fiend	Summon a blood fiend that transfers health to you with each attack.
	> Taste of Death	Consume your blood fiend to heal yourself.
	Shadow Fiend	Summon a shadow fiend to fight for you.
	> Haunt	Command your shadow fiend to teleport to an enemy.
	Summon Flesh Wurm	Summon a flesh wurm that stays in one place to attack enemies.
	> Necrotic Traversal	Kill your flesh wurm and teleport to its location poisoning foes.
	Jagged Horror	Summon a jagged horror.
	>No Skill	No skill allows you to summon more than one. Maximum 8.
Wells	Control the area around you that affect targets within the skills' range. Only one well skill may be activated at any time.
	Well of Blood	Summon a well of blood to heal nearby allies.
	Well of Suffering	Make a well of suffering, hurting all foes within range.
	Well of Darkness	Target area pulses, blinding foes with each pulse.
	Well of Power	Transfers conditions on allies into boons.
	Well of Corruption	Convert enemies' boons into conditions

Combat Styles (GW2PC Discussion/Speculation – Subject To Change)

 
1. Minion Master
Similar to what Necromancer minion summoning in GW, your goal is to effectively manage the your minions and knowing the right time to use their secondary skill to damage enemies.

 
2. Boiling Curse
You take an offensive stance and focus on conditions and enhancing buffs for the party. Activation of a Well and placement of Marks are your friends. You will also need to extensively switch between weapons to inflict conditions.

Guild Wars 1 Vs 2 Differences

•  No corpses required to summon minions
•  Introduction of Life Force/Death Shroud mechanic

Thoughts

The biggest change to the Guild Wars 2 Necromancer Profession from the original Guild Wars to Guild Wars 2 is elimination of corpse minion summoning, which was annoying and very exploitable. Minions now have a their specific secondary skill which are useful in specific situations and need to be mastered to be an effective Necromancer. The addition of the Life Force mechanic is basically just like the Warrior adrenaline, but Death Shroud is what makes the Necromancer in Guild Wars 2 not very squishy, it’s like an extra life for you to reap havoc.

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