Guide to playing as a necromancer

Overview
The Necromancer is an extremely flexible profession that can fulfill a variety of roles. The major roles expected of necromancers currently in PvE are Spiteful Spirit necromancers (also called SS), Minion masters (MM for short), and in certain cases Spoil Victor necromancers (SV for short). Major roles expected of necromancers in PvP currently are Hex shutdown, and Orders. However these popular builds only show a fraction of what necromancers are capable of. Because of their popularity it is advised to tell your team when you plan on doing something else.

Soul Reaping (Primary Attribute)
This is the primary ability of a necromancer. Whenever any creature in range dies, the necromancer receives energy equal to the rank of Soul Reaping. This is a direct and powerful, but at times unpredictable way of energy management. The energy gain this way is limited to 3 times every 15 seconds, counting from the first kill that gives energy. After the 15 seconds have passed, the 3 charges reset and the cycle is complete. If the Necromancer is at full energy and a creature dies, none of the energy gain charges will be used up.

There are only eight Soul Reaping skills, three of which are elite. A particularly useful Soul Reaping skill is Signet of Lost Souls, which can be used for active energy management.

Curses
A curse Necromancer uses his abilities to weaken foes so that his allies can easily kill them, or to hinder them in many ways. Shadow of Fear and Enfeebling Blood will render a group of fighters useless. Barbs and Mark of Pain can amplify damage on a foe. Some curses skills also deal direct, armor ignoring damage like Spiteful Spirit, Feast of Corruption and Desecrate Enchantments.

Blood Magic
Blood magic revolves around manipulating the health of all those involved in a battle, through stealing from foes, transferring to allies, and sacrificing your own. Many skills like Shadow Strike or Vampiric Gaze steal life from foes, ignoring armor and most defensive skills completely. Several blood magic skills require a sacrifice of the necromancer's own health. Caution is advised since health sacrificing skills, combined with damage pressure from foes, can prove a burden for your team's healers if not properly controlled. The Blood Magic line also contains the powerful skills Blood Ritual and Blood is Power, which are used to boost the energy regeneration of other party members.

Death Magic
Death magic revolves around the use of corpses in a variety of ways, but also includes skills that deal cold damage and cause harmful conditions. The most widespread usage of death magic is to create undead minions. For a detailed description see Minion Master. Another effective component of Death magic lies in the skill called Discord in which a player, or hero, can deal massive amounts of damage quickly and repeatedly; this skill is most frequently coupled with minion spawning skills, conditions, hexes, and some ritualist skills to destroy many types of foes. Other useful skills makes corpses or dying foes explode for potentially devastating damage across the whole enemy party.

PvE
As the section "play styles" will elaborate, necromancers have a very big array of play styles which all have their advantages and disadvantages. When optimizing your build, it is hugely important for a necromancer to know what he's facing. This is because most playstyles of the necromancer are very conditional. For example: a minion master can be both a decimating offensive and defensive force, but if there are few or no corpses available in the area, he or she will quickly find themselves useless and vulnerable. Knowing your playstyle's strengths, weaknesses and what you're up against is the key part of being a necromancer.

The 2 best known playstyles are minion master (MM) and Spiteful Spirit (SS). These will also be the ones you will be asked to play most frequently by other party members. In high end PvE, Blood Is Power (BiP) necromancers are very often requested too.

A minion master is comprised of a few Animate skills under Death Magic and uses other spells to keep his or her minions alive or to deal more damage. See minion master for more specific details.

A Spiteful Spirit Necromancer is commonly used to deal large amounts of AoE damage against several foes.

A Blood Is Power Necromancer (BiP) is commonly used in high end PvE missions. The builds used by teammates (most notably monks and elementalists) tend to be very energy intensive. Using the skill Blood is Power, a BiP can keep up the energy of an entire team indefinitely. The downside of the skill (being the health sacrifice) is commonly countered by lowering the maximum Hp to 55 or even 1 (in which case no health will be sacrificed at all). Obviously, a BiP necromancer will stay far behind his team.

PvP
In PvP, necromancers are commonly used to spread massive health degeneration to the other team using such skills as Lingering Curse and Suffering. Necromancers are commonly used as a form of defense by causing massive pressure through degeneration, moderate damage or adding to the pressure of the enemy monks. They can also be used in offensive builds such as blood spike. Blood spike builds usually consist of many necromancers with a monk backline to heal, and sometimes a flag runner. They are commonly used in GvG due to the mechanic of Life Stealing and nullifying the opposing teams Protection Prayers monk. With the enemy team only having one healer, they usually collapse to the pressure of the many self-sufficient necromancers.

Necromancers have several PvP strong skills. Pain of Disenchantment can remove up to 3 enchantments and deal 100+ damage. Wail of Doom can hinder powerful spells to deal very little damage, and high healing spells to heal for almost nothing.

Staying alive
Depending on how you play, your survival strategy will be vastly different. For example while using blood magic and curses, using skills like Enfeeble and Faintheartedness to lower the damage of enemy attackers and then using life stealing skills to regain health is one way. When playing as a Minion Master you can use your minions as a shield, such as physically blocking melee fighters with numerous melee minions and using skills such as Dark Bond to migrate damage to your minions, and skills from your secondary profession to heal yourself. Try to stay out of harm by means of kiting. When using standard armor without increased armor rating, it is advised to avoid getting attacked directly. Proper movement and positioning can reduce the damage taken from melee and ranged attackers.

What to avoid
Some skills have rather long casting times. When using these keep an eye on enemy interrupters which usually come in the form of Rangers and Mesmers.

If you are using minions, enemy area of effect damage can quickly decimate your army as your Minions do not avoid AoE damage like Heroes and Henchmen do.

Watch out for large groups of fast attackers, your best bet is to send your party out first so you are not the main target.

Minion master

 * A minion master, often abbreviated to MM, is a type of necromancer build which relies primarily on the use of animated undead creatures from the corpses of fallen enemies and allies. Generally, a minion master relies directly on minions for damage, trying to keep up a large army of powerful minions, useful elite skills include Order of Undeath (which briefly buffs minion damage), Animate Flesh Golem (which gives you an infinitely reusable minion) and Aura of the Lich (which increases Death Magic rank, can animate a minion without a corpse, and can quickly animate numerous minions when corpses are present). In PvE, necromancers tend to use Ebon Battle Standard of Honor which, if well placed, can hugely increase the damage output of all minions. Minion masters are generally restricted to PvE and Alliance Battles because of the small amount of corpses to animate within PvP.

Minion bomber

 * The minion bomber is a minion master variant which relies on Death Nova (and, for ritualist / necromancers, Explosive Growth) to deal damage, animating large numbers of cheap minions using Animate Bone Minions, often accompanied by Animate Shambling Horror. For elite skills Animate Flesh Golem, Aura of the Lich or Jagged Bones can be used to reduce reliance on corpses, while Icy Veins can be used to provide non-minion-based damage. This playstyle is generally assigned to heroes, who (unlike most players) have no trouble at all targeting minions with Death Nova.

Suicide bomber

 * Saccers utilizes health sacrificing skills in conjunction with Death Nova, Dark Aura, and Contagion to literally sac oneself to death, resulting in additional damage by Death Nova.

PvXwiki Examples - Aura of the Lich Minion Master - Jagged Bones Minion Bomber - Order of Undeath Minion Master - Contagion Bomber

Spiteful Spirit shutdown

 * This type of PvE build, often abbreviated SS, relies upon the Prophecies Curses elite skill Spiteful Spirit, often accompanied by Arcane Echo. It is particularly useful against large groups of tightly packed foes. Because it only needs 1 or 2 skill slots and isn't Energy-intensive, running a Spiteful Spirit build allows considerable freedom in skill selection and attribute distribution.

Lingering Curse (and Other Curses)

 * Another common necromancer build uses curses (hex spells) to drain an enemy's health or inflict damage whenever any enemy attempts to attack or use spells. One such build uses the elite hex spell Spiteful Spirit, more commonly referred to as an "SS". This build excels at wreaking havoc on enemy groups and is commonly used throughout the game. Combined with a mesmer secondary, a cursing necromancer can cause mass degeneration, shutdown an opponent or use Arcane Echo to copy Spiteful Spirit for more damage.

Spoil Victor shutdown

 * This type of PvE build, often abbreviated SV, relies upon the Factions Blood Magic elite skill Spoil Victor. Spoil Victor is particularly useful against healers, multi-target attackers, bosses and small groups of powerful foes. Like Spiteful Spirit necromancers, Spoil Victor necromancers have considerable freedom in skill selection and attribute distribution. Keep in mind that SV will only work when you (or another party member) has less health than the hexed foe, so it is useful to decrease your maximum health by a manageable amount and use the Monk Core skill, Protective Spirit. Having minions out is very useful to have since the minions usually have low health, boosting the utility of Spoil Victor.

Contagion pressure

 * Mainly in Heroes Ascent, necromancers can be the center of a very effective condition spreading build, centering around the skill Contagion. Necromancers can use Foul Feast to remove conditions from their team members (or from a monk with Martyr) and spread them around all foes in the area with Contagion. Due to the small recharge time of Foul Feast, 2 necromancers "juggling" conditions around can cause a condition pressure that practically no defensive basis can succesfully remove.

Discord damage
PvXwiki Examples - Echoed Spiteful Spirit Nuker - Discord Smite Support - Spoiled Victor Elite Tome Farmer

Battery support

 * Energy support necromancers, often called "batteries" or "BiPs", use the elite skill Blood is Power (or the non-elite Blood Ritual) to supply their allies with energy. For casters such as the Elementalist and the Monk this is extremely beneficial as it allows them to continue using their skills without running out of energy. Batteries are very popular for supporting Bonding Monks and Nuker Elementalists in areas like the Fissure of Woe. Often BiP necromancers use equipment to reduce their maximum Health, thereby reducing the sacrifice amount, however this makes it necessary to stay back and avoid aggro, which is impossible in some missions and dungeons. BiP Necromancers are more common in PvE.

Cultist's Fervor support

 * This orders build uses spells which affect the entire party, such as Order of Pain and Order of the Vampire as well as bringing some Energy support spells. Orders necromancers also usually bring some form of a self-heal because both spells require a large amount of health sacrifice. Such necromancers also usually bring Well of Blood to heal allies, as well as a single damage-dealing skill.

Restoration healer

 * Due to the large sum of energy that necromancers are usually hauling, the N/Rt has been a breakthrough in healing for the PvP and PvE portions of Guild Wars. These necromancers usually bring elite skills such as Weapon of Remedy, Preservation, or Spirit Light Weapon to heal their party. Some of these healers will also choose to bring Order of Apostasy to add enchantment removal pressure to the opposing team.

Life stealing

 * This build uses blood magic to steal life from enemies. A Blood Magic necromancer tends to be very self-sufficient; dealing damage and healing the caster simultaneously. They can also do their part as a support hero, with skills like Blood Bond and Blood Ritual, or with wells such as Well of Blood or Well of Power.

PvXwiki Examples - Signet of Lost Souls Monk Healer - Signet of Lost Souls Ritualist Healer - Orders Necromancer

Choice of secondary professions
Being versatile, the necromancer can be played with any secondary profession. However choices are somewhat dictated by the desired play style, and it is also possible to completely ignore a secondary profession by using only necromancer skills and attributes.

Monk, Ritualist or Paragon is often used to provide a reusable Resurrection skill.


 * Warrior: Protective shouts or stances from tactics are useful for defense.
 * Ranger: Mainly used if some spirits are needed by the party.
 * Monk: Benefits especially minion masters with some strong healing skills, protection prayers (Protective Spirit) are useful for builds that run on low HP for sacrificing or even 55-HP farm builds. The minion master build requires keeping minions alive, and AoE healing skills such as Heal Area make this easier.
 * Mesmer: If there is a free slot, some interrupts are also quite useful. Many Domination Magic skills can be used in conjunction with skills in the Spiteful Spirit build, such as Empathy and Backfire. Necromancer hexes and Mesmer hexes can work very well together as many of them do similar things. The Mesmer skill Arcane Echo can also be extremely helpful for a Spiteful Spirit or Spoil Victor build by allowing the caster to apply the hexes to multiple foes at once.  The skill Epidemic is also an excellent addition to the many necromancer skills that cause and transfer conditions.
 * Elementalist: Sometimes used for energy management or for support with some wards that protect against damage. Some builds include Earth Magic wards to support the backline.
 * Assassin: Sometimes used by builds that need running skills or defensive skills. Some hex spells, such as Augury of Death, and conditioning skills are often used in PvP areas in spike builds that deal additional damage based on conditions.
 * Ritualist: A Necromancer also makes an extremely capable healer basing on reaping and restoration magic.
 * Paragon: Sometimes used to support the party by bringing some chants or shouts. "Fall Back!" and "Go for the Eyes!" can be used with minions.
 * Dervish: Strong, efficient self-heals supports minion masters which sacrifice life very often. Many minion masters use the Dervish enchantment Mystic Regeneration as a form of self healing to counteract the life loss from Blood of the Master. This combination can become increasingly stronger with more enchantments like Dark Bond and Infuse Condition.