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Guild Wars 2 Column: Every Game Needs a Necro
MMORPG.com's Garrett Fuller has a sneak peek at the Necromancer class in this latest entry in his Guild Wars 2 column. The necromancer is a force to be reckoned with due to an alarming (and very cool) number of spells and summoning abilities. Find out what Garrett has to say about everybody's favorite undead mastermind in this week's Guild Wars 2 column.
By Garrett Fuller on August 25, 2010
Every game needs a Necromancer! This week in our Guild Wars 2 column we take a look at the newly announced Necromancer class. In history we as a people are fascinated with death, no one can avoid it; everyone fears it in some way, which is the basis of our attraction to the Necro arts. Guild Wars 2 offers a Necromancer class that will bring new life to those rotting corpses and offer minions abound for players who love to order small nasties and skeletal bodies to do their bidding. Not only that you have the power over souls as well and even the ability to resurrect your comrades…isn’t that against the point of a Necromancer? Regardless, let’s take a look at the Necromancer class.
The list of skills that ArenaNet is showing off looks very promising for players. Wells give you a controlled area that can affect all targets within. Can anyone say, Totems, Totems, Totems! The write up speaks about a regeneration as well. The idea of a healing well sounds good for boosting players in a fight. Wells seem to be something strategic on the battlefield and with enough variety they should give a player some great areas to chop down loads of mobs, target a boss smack in the middle, or heal your friends if things get ugly. All I can say is they better have skulls on them.
The minion write up sounds fantastic. First you summon a minion, who goes off and fights as well as heals you. The minion runs around causing havoc and while the undead are doing their worst to your enemies you suddenly flip to a new ability. You can destroy them at will for some benefit. The example being given here talks about the minion being destroyed to heal the Necromancer. This is great and all, but what about undead bombs? Surely there will be minion spells that explode into a group of mobs and take them down. AreaNet has plenty of options here. All Necromancers have minions, but this playstyle certainly offers a lot of fun to the character. Please give us more!
Marks are also a nice touch. They sound more like traps which can be triggered at any time. These spells seem to be something that is shown off in the video, which is awesome. Having a set mark down seems to be the way to set mobs up for failure. Marks seem to be the Necromancer’s bread and butter in terms of control and direct attack spells. Nothing beats throwing down circles of power and the ground based spells also appear to have healing abilities. So the question comes to mind, are Necromancers good with healing in parties? We have already seen that every class has some form of healing. The Necro seems to have a lot of heal over time spells which benefit the party. They do mention a potential resurrection ability as well.
Last but not least, every wielder of the undead deserves Fear in their arsenal. Nothing beats fear in any game. Crowd control is critical in MMOs whether you are in PvP or fighting a boss, it always has a use. Fear is a given and will help the Necromancer make enemies run screaming. I always say that Priests and Warlock in World of Warcraft with their fear abilities are very tough to fight and make your life miserable in PvP. This is a great touch to the Necromancer and hopefully ArenaNet will find some creative uses for this ability as well.
Overall, the Necromancer is a casting force to be reckoned with. I only hope they allow the Charr to play as Necromancers. Then I will have the perfect combination, a nasty looking animal race with the power to command the Undead. For now I cannot wait to see more from this class. Watch the video if you have not already. Guild Wars 2 continues to deliver!
For the last part of that article. every race can play every profession. So yes, a Charr can play a necromancer. Also, ArenaNet has put up their reveal on their website today, complete with their skill videos.
http://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/necromancer/
"Don't belittle the SUPPORT role by calling it heal"
Other than that, good write up
Just read the book Ghosts of Ascalon and you definately love Necro's ..........
I am looking forward to playing a Necro. I have always enjoyed classes who induce fear and drain the life out of others. Oh and exploding your little bone rats to kill stuff...tasty.
Frightening!
Might roll a Necro alt, my main is gonna be a warrior.
Hoping for alot of cool minions! I really liked AoC's necromancer, had alot of cool pets imo.
I love the Necro class and will be rolling one as my main again this time around. To the author of the article, "undead bombs" were present in GW1 so they will probably make a comeback in 2 as well; it's actually featured in the necro reveal with the video Bone Minions+Putrid Explosion. Also, for the authro's sake, in the reveal was a Charr Necro and as another poster mentioned there are no race/class restrictions. It's nice to see fear make its presence known in the GW universe at it was lacking in GW1. Marks sound pretty cool as well and a nice addition to the class. Finally, Death Shroud, the necro's spectral form, sounds awesome.
Final note: The author should watch the videos on the class reveal before writing the article as many of his questions were answered.
to be honest, i never played Necromancer/warlock type class in my gaming history
but because in GW2 there will be no fixed healing class, Necro seems fun to play for me who love support
definitely going to play Necro as a Norn!
Charr Necro !!!!! YES!!! I had fun writing this article. Mostly because Necros rule!
With you 100% on that one, Charr Necro FTW! Loved the blindfold.
Fears great as long as it's balanced with other CC skills, watching the Asura necro fear the foe in to that well/mark was nice. Wells have always been great utility spells in GW, not as OP as you probably would like them but the marks sound a great mechanic, we get our own traps *evil grin*
I'm looking forward to playing with the weapon combinations, for aesthetic reasons I'm going with Axe and Warhorn right now.
I'm a very happy Necro :)
Nice post. Enjoyed the links.
Not sure about the title though. I can think of quite a few games that should not have a necro. Playboy Manager especially.
dude.. You said you hoped you could be a Charr necromancer UNDERNEATH a picture of a CHARR NECROMANCER.
epic fail.
Nice videos. While I never cared for the caster types myself, my better half loves casters and she was excited to see this bit of info. I plan on playen a melee class but she will be rolling a necro as an alt if not her first. I am sure it'll be asura too.
I could be wrong but I don't think the authors of the articles on this site adds the pictures. An editor probably adds that stuff in.
This game is getting more and more exciting by the day. Can't wait!
Charr Necromancer.
The videos for the skills featured another Necro Skill. In the video about the Locust Swarm, the Necro used Unholy Feast first.
My main in GW1 is a Necro and most of my GW2 characters will be Charr. I think the Human Kingdom in Tyria are a bunch of self-centered asses. If you read the Book, you'll understand why, specially King Alderbern, the biggest A-Hole of all human in Tyria.
I really like necros in most games and GW2 looks promising but it looks like they may be too popular. I don't like to be the common class. Guess for now ranger for me, necro later and that will probably change with the rest of the class reveals.
I've wanted to play as a Charr from release day. I took one look at them and said... "Wow, why can't I play as a Charr?"
Excellent eyes, I noticed that too. They also showed 1 additional skill during the 'Doom' video (the necro fear skill), which was a ground AoE damage spell that also seems to stun / cripple the enemies inside it. Possibly a new version of Suffering?
That's how I felt about the Norn...definitely looking forward to playing both a norn and a charr. norn warrior & Charr Necro FTW (unless they release another prof I want instead of the Necro). Warrior will be my main though, always is.
I think the Fear mechanic comes with the Doom skill. And I think that ground AoE spell is one of the Marks.
Now that I think of it, that one Charr with covers on his eyes makes sense for another thing. Doom is a Ritualist spell in GW1, so it seems that the Necro in GW2 is the combination of GW1 Necro and Rit...which explains the functionality of the Wells.
I'm about 1/2 way through that one, and yes, I do love the Necro :) Based on the book, what other classes do you expect to see?
like to roll spell casters: necro,mages, etc...FTW!
Necro is fun to play... My first demo run at GamesCom was with a Necro and I really liked how he works. Something you don't see in the class videos is his transformation into a shadow like beeing with a completly new skill set. Looks amazing btw!
Most of the classes shown at GC were fun to play (I didnt really like the ranger, but thats just me) but it took a while to get the hang out of it...
All in all there's a lot to look forward to guys!
Hmm, no comments about all the Melee goodness they're getting?
I guess the assassin & warrior fans out there just haven't realized it's possible yet ;)
Necromancer was my favorite class in the original and I'm sure I will be rolling a necromancer in Guild Wars 2 as well.
I have a necro in GW1 and she's not my favorite. Aside from being the only character to get the Survivor title (this is prior to GWEN when everyone started farming the punch-out tournament for the title), she just had waaaay too much micro managing for me. Minion summoning was a chore and trying to hex for my heroes wasn't as effective as letting my heroes hex for me.
That said, the GW2 necro looks AMAZING! Don't need bodies to summon ~and~ the skill becomes a different one when used, allowing you to keep minions out and still do something other than auto-attack with your staff. Very, very nice. The skills used in death are also a pretty cool concept. They're the masters of death after all, it's pretty fitting IMO.
although we knew abt necros from gamescom, this is still fantastic! i love the necro prof in GW1 esp the time when there was no cap for the number of minions you can control... i love their goth armors and looks and Thriller dance moves
while i am excited about playing as a ranger especially after they announced jellyfish pets for water but the necromancer is my new planned main it just looks very exciting to use all its skills look cool and fit my visual tastes and playstyle
im just happy for once in any game that has necros, they actually look pseudo-evil
Necros are cool n all, but I'm more interested in anets take on the Memser this time around. I'm expecting cool things.
Yeah in Guild Wars charrs were used necromancer skills, mostly curses like mark of pain, lingering curse, fainthearthedness, life syphon
Hm, I dont like the description of the GW2 necromancer. It seems like a simple version of the GW1 necro and they even made it worse with adding Fear. Fear is a mechanic that I never liked in other MMO's. Especially not in PVP. But also in PVE. Ppl who are too lazy to watch their positioning, get an add and then simply use fear as doorstop.I think its a lazy mechanic just like taunting for gaining aggro. Maybe nice in MMOs with weak mob AI, but not in GW2 please.
Money says Paragons don't make the cut!
ild rather have a necron nightlord then a necromancer myself, not exactly control over the dead, just living metal terminators with lightning rifles that are nearly indestructable and an insatiable urge to purge the universe of all life muahahahahahahaha
We already know paras dont make the cut.Absolutely. I hope that SWTOR will introduce Sith Necros as well...
Well, in the Star Wars: Darth Bane - The Rule of Two novel, there's a part about a Sith lord who once lived a long time ago, who created and army of bio mechanical monsters to do her bidding.
"Belia Darzu also used nanogene technology to create an army of Technobeasts which she controlled with mechu-deru, an ancient form of Sith Alchemy that infused mechanical objects with dark side energy."
"Technobeasts, also known as Metanecron, were Sithspawn created by the Dark Lord Belia Darzu, and were considered the most frightening aspect of the Sictis Wars. Using a variation of mechu-deru, known as mechu-deru vitae, Darzu was able to develop a technovirus that immediately began to turn the organic creature into a droid hybrid."
Would be awesome if BioWare could would make this into a Sith class, but since Belia Darzu was the only Sith lord to ever do it, suppose it wouldn't work as a class type for an MMO. But even still, very cool. ;)
Awesome. I LOVE Necros and I agree, there REALLY needs to be more games that include this class, or one very much like it. And more games where they actually get the Necro class right. The Necro from Diablo 2 is one of my all time fav classes to play from any game EVER.
I personally didn't like the Nerco class in the first Guild Wars. Infact, that class was the only reason I gave the game a shot. After trying the class out for about a few hours, over 2 days threw the free trial, I couldn't stand it and just quit. It was just too boring and lame of a version of Necro for me. But I'm happy to see that it looks like the Necro in part 2 will be 10 times better and more fun, and ALLOT more of what a Necro, in my mind anyway, should be.
Looks awesome in the video, can't wait to try it out. Also very glad that all races in the game can be all the classes.
Yes, every game needs a necro :)
I have a Necro/Mem in GW1 and I loved the unique curses, go Mark of Pain and a shiat load of minions to add a lot of melee damage. In GW the micro management was awesome, keeping minions up, life taps, spell blocks from the Mem. Curses...
A lot of the new abilities and the graphics rule. BUT I do agree with someforumguy that Fear is a lazy mechanic esp in PvP unless classes have matching Fear breaks/reflects of some sort. It was a pain in some ways in WoWcrack and made PvP vs Locks silly and anoying. But saying that if they balance it in some way like letting you use some skills while being Feared then great.
I usually enjoy playing evil casters but never got into Necromancers in Guild Wars. The emo rock star look didn't do it for me. The GW2 Necro looks much better but I'm still looking forward to the hopeful introduction of the Mesmer which is by far my favorite class.
If they manage to keep it viable for solo play, I will be more than pleased. i hope it wont be too supportive.
ANet has stated that they want every profession to be very versatile, so I think it's safe to say that every class will be able to play solo and as a group well. Part of the reason they got away from dedicated healers is because they don't want a players to have to rely on others players just because they chose to play a certain class. So by that same logic they also shouldn't want necros to have to rely on a party. Besides if you've ever played the original Guild Wars, you'd know necros can hold their own. :P
Looks great and I agree with what most people have said the Necro in GW1 wasn't good too much micro management as for the other classes I'm backing on the Mesmer and Assassin returning but the Ritualist, Paragon and Monk are not going to make it (imho).
Although I do see the likelihood of a Warrior-Priest hybrid - we know dedicated healers are out but they have mentioned a class that specialises in status removals I think a 'Cleric' type fits that mold! And the second 'Fighter' class hasn't been named yet :)