Necromancer

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Necromancers are masters of the dark arts, calling on the spirits of the dead, and even death itself, to overpower enemies and assist allies. In sacrificing Health and taking curses and diseases upon themselves, they can deal large amounts of damage to those foolish enough to oppose them. Dead and dying enemies become unwilling allies in their hands. Necromancers have the singular ability to absorb Energy from an enemy’s death, and can raise a fighting force from the corpses of their foes. Curses, which often cost the Necromancer dearly, exact an even greater toll from enemies, who find that their Enchantments and healing skills are rendered useless. Due to the sacrificial nature of their methods, Necromancers must practice patience and self-discipline to survive.
–The Guild Wars Manuscripts

One who has learned to draw power from the blood sacrifice and communion with death, the Necromancer uses black magic to cast curses and raise undead minions.

–In-game description

[edit] Attributes

[edit] Soul Reaping (Primary)

For each point of Soul Reaping, you gain 1 Energy whenever a non-Spirit creature near you dies. You may only gain Energy in this way 3 times every 15 seconds.

[edit] Curses

This attribute increases the duration and effectiveness of your Curse skills, which reduce your enemies’ effectiveness in battle.

[edit] Blood Magic

Blood Magic increases the duration and effectiveness of skills that steal Health from your enemies and give it to you.

[edit] Death Magic

Increases the duration and effectiveness of skills that deal cold and shadow damage to enemies as well as those that increase the effectiveness of your undead minions.

[edit] Common usage

[edit] Energy support

Energy support necromancers, often called "batteries" or "BiPs", use the elite skill Blood is Power 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.

[edit] Orders

This 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 Healing Breeze 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. This build is most prevalent in The Hall of Heroes.

[edit] Minion masters

Often referred to as MMs, minion masters use Death Magic to animate a small army of undead creatures from the corpses of fallen enemies and allies. MMs are extremely popular in all areas of game-play taking some of the pressure off the team when being swarmed with large or numerous groups of enemies.

[edit] 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" or "SoS" . 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 mass degen and shutdown an opponent.

[edit] Life stealing

This build uses blood magic to steal life from enemies. A blood 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 Ritual, or with wells such as Well of Blood or Well of Power.

[edit] Minion bombers

Minion bombers essentially rely on the skills Animate Bone Minions and Death Nova to deal damage. The former provides cheap and weak undead minions while the latter enchants them to explode in area damage upon their destruction. They operate similarly to minion masters except they need much more micromanagement when attempting to apply Death Nova during a fight.

[edit] Necromancer/Ritualist 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 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 choose to bring Order of Apostasy to add enchantment removal pressure to the opposing team.

[edit] See also

Professions
Core: Warrior • Ranger • Monk • Necromancer • Mesmer • Elementalist
Factions: Assassin • Ritualist Nightfall: Paragon • Dervish