Literally the only viable route for necromancer in PvP is Conditions. Unlike Warrior where I can choose heavy-tanking, Crit-Build, or Condition-Build. Necromancer, is only viable with Conditions.

I tried five different heavy-crit based builds for necromancers, but the damage just isn't there. You're not going to see the same returns that you'll see from say a Ranger, Warrior, Guardian, or Thief.

Next I tried a Survivability Fear, Stun, Root, Snare, Toughness/Vitality/+Healing build to maximize the Necromancer's lifetapping. That essentially fell on its face completely as the build couldn't keep up with the tons of dps being thrown at it in 1v1's.

Lastly, I broke down and went with a full Bleed/Poison build and found that it is reasonably effective, but still takes time to kill your opponent. Essentially, 90% of the time a Necromancer is only trying to "Out Last" his opponent while they get slowly melted by dots.

A very lackluster feeling overall from necromancer despite its "Awesome" appeal :(!

Its a class based on debuffing and conditions.....to be expected? I think so.

On another note, I ran around with a 79 necro last night who was a running a dagger/aoe build and he had no problems rounding 4 or 5 mobs up at a time and burning them down in a few seconds in melee.

I'm not dominating anyone, but I do OK in PvP and PvE I have no trouble with mobs 4 levels or so higher at level 40. If I have a friend or two with me even higher is still pretty easy. I die in dungeons fast unless I hold to the back line and use caution, but I get my skills off and do a lot of damage if I act like a chicken and not like a Leroy.

In PvE I run a pet/AE build that's 2 hand staff and scepter/dagger and it works well. I'd like to dominate, but I don't get crushed. I use a lot of AE location skills which get tricky because you have to focus on your cursor. If I'm kiting I need to have the cursor in front of me and inside the turn.

Like the OP I've come to the conclusion that in PvP conditions are my only option. I don't mind so much though. I can usually hold my own, and when I can't it's usually because I mis-key my skills and not any fault in the class. I use my flesh golem in PvP because the knockdown.

Minion build is actually a pretty viable build I would think, unless I keep fighting terrible people I've done pretty good with it, but it's not as fun as a condition build and casting epidemic on enemies.

With a minion build I can get up to 30k health, max toughness, and pets have pretty good dps, problem is when they die you have to wait for the cooldown and it's a matter of surviving until then, but if we are talking about thieves/eles/mesmers I've seen them go down pretty damn fast. Traits are also pretty straight forward just make sure you pick minion related and that they siphon health and draw conditions.

I also tried a death shroud build and it wasn't that bad, not the greatest either.

Edit: This is mainly talking about sPvP, I didn't even try it on PvE because I knew minions would suck without the traits.