Well, my necromancer is nearly 70. I figure I should hit 80 in time for the second anniversary festival. Looking back, I think this will be the first time I’ve ever gotten two characters to the level cap in any MMO that weren’t a few years apart. Here are some reflections on the differences between the necro and my first 80, an engineer. They’re actually remarkably similar when you get down to the core–both are very DoT/debuff focused, and both can drastically change their play style by respecing and swapping out their slot skills–but there are some key differences that make me really like the necromancer a lot more.

What I came to realize after playing my engineer for a while is that it is not a PvE class. I really didn’t have that much group utility. Grenades are wonderful in PvP–big AoEs for hitting moving targets and tons of range, which made a casual PvPer out of me when it’s been completely uninteresting to me before–but they aren’t worth much in a dungeon, or even the personal and living stories’ bosses. I’ve tried a few PvE builds, like the so-called Pyrotank, which many engineers swear by. Maybe I’m playing it wrong, and I’m pretty sure I’m geared wrong for it (my gear is mostly condition damage focused), but it never seemed that exciting to me for PvE or PvP. The necromancer has a lot more group utility, even in the 60s. The staff is similar to the grenade kit (big AoEs at good range), but the necro’s staff skills provide better debuffs and damage. Combine that with the group heal on the 2 skill, and it makes me feel like I’m actually contributing something more than downing the boss a little faster. And if you want DoTs, a necro with a scepter can crank out bleeds at a pretty impressive rate; I usually have around 10 stacks of bleeding at any given time by myself. Granted, the engineer has a much wider variety of DoTs–burns, bleeds, and poisons, oh my!–but the necro seems to crank out DoT damage faster.

Necromancers can hold their own in PvP as well, with several condition-removing and condition-passing skills, and of course Death Shroud for damage avoidance. In fact, I feel like they’re the perfect foil for the engineer, which is probably why I got destroyed by them more than any other class.

Also, maybe it’s just because I’m more experienced with the game now (and the fact that I haven’t reached Orr yet), but I feel like I’ve died a lot less on my necromancer than on my engineer. The engineer’s survivability is more dependent on interrupting and avoiding the enemy (which is somewhat infuriating in PvP, especially if you’re a melee class), while the necromancer is a glass cannon, killing everything before it has a chance to touch him. It turns out avoidance doesn’t work that well when you’ve got a swarm of bandits all around you (protip: never do Caudecus’s Manor explorable path 2 with a pickup group… it’s bad enough with voice chat). That’s not to say that I never die as a necromancer–I’m wearing light armor, after all–but I find myself on the ground a lot less. Of course, having a blood fiend healer-pet that occasionally takes heat off of me doesn’t hurt either (though I usually end up swapping him out for consume conditions or signet of vampirism in group settings since he doesn’t last long).

Something I’m not a fan of is the new trait system. I didn’t realize until now that all of the major traits are now unlocked by some kind of achievement–mostly from obscure events. All of the characters I’ve had up to now have either been old enough to have most of the traits unlocked, or haven’t actually gotten to the new level 36 to start using major traits. They can also be unlocked by paying a fee of 10 silver to 3 gold (depending on the tier) for an unlock from your class trainer, but that’s almost more frustrating. Plus, on my necromancer, I feel like all of the good traits are in the upper tiers, whereas on my engineer I felt like I had more traits I wanted than slots to fill even from a low level. Maybe that’s just me.

All in all, the necromancer is more like the class I thought I was getting when I signed up to become an engineer. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t regret my time with my engineer, but the necromancer is just a better fit for me. I plan on popping back in with my engineer when I feel like PvPing, but I think my necromancer will be my main character now. Who knows, maybe I’ll even finish all of the zone completion? Ok, probably not for a while, but it could happen.

P.S. ArenaNet, if you’re reading this, I will pay any sum of gems you want if I can make my Sylvari look and dance like this guy:

(If you haven’t seen Guardians of the Galaxy yet, I highly recommend it. Definitely my favorite Marvel movie so far)
I wish my character slots weren’t all full, or I would definitely make a Sylvari guardian based on Groot.

After complaining in my last post about how frustrated I’ve been when trying out a few older MMOs, I’ve been reflecting on a few of the things the developers have done that make Tyria a nice place to live. Many other games have some of these features in some form or another, but Guild Wars 2 seems to nail so many little things so well.

My Bags Are Never Full

Anyone who’s played MMOs, or most RPGs for that matter, for very long has bemoaned their lack of inventory space, but I never have this problem in Guild Wars 2. Most obvious is the “Deposit All Collectables” button, which deposits all of your crafting materials to the bank instantly. I’ve never even thought of having a button like this, and even if I did I would expect it to be a premium feature (especially on a subscriptionless game like Guild Wars 2). Perhaps the most subtle quality of life feature of Guild Wars 2 is the general lack of junk. Yes, there is a little bit of vendor trash, but not much, plus any vendor will kindly pay you for your useless globs of globby gloop (yes, that’s a thing) whether they’re a weaponsmith, merchant, or an armor repair. Instead, the game throws a lot of salvage items at you. A great quality of life feature in its own right, salvage kits, turn salvage items and unwanted gear into crafting mats (which can then be deposited via the aforementioned deposit collectables button), which of course can either be used or sold. Best of all, they’re only a few copper for a stack of 15 basic ones, or a little more if you want a chance of better salvage. Guild Wars 2 makes you wonder what the point of intentional vendor trash items are. Why not just drop more gold and save me the frustration of hauling my overstuffed bags back to town to dump it off on some poor vendor?

Auction House Anywhere

This goes along with the above, but it’s so huge it deserves its own mention. Guild Wars 2 not only lets you check prices on the auction house in-game from anywhere, which would be great in and of itself, but it even lets you list your items from anywhere. This has the added effect that the auction house has virtually every tradeable item available for purchase, since no one thinks to themselves “this will be hard to sell, and I need space, I’ll just vendor it.” It will even let you buy items, but to retrieve your items or your cash you will have to track down your local Black Lion Trader in your nearest big city. It begs the question of why every game doesn’t do this. It would be too convenient? Why is that a bad thing?

Waypoints

At first I was a little disappointed that Guild Wars 2 didn’t have mounts to get me around the world faster. Yes, I’ve seen other games argue that they don’t need mounts because their content is clustered closer together, but there’s something more interesting about jumping on something that makes you go faster than on foot, be it a horse, a proto-drake, or a hoverboard (especially if it’s a hoverboard, let’s be honest). Guild Wars 2 has been the first game that has made me not miss mounts by dotting the landscape with waypoints, instant teleport points that cost a few copper or silver (depending on your level and the distance traveled) per teleport. At 80, the cost can add up quickly if you’re popping around the map catching up on your personal story, but I feel like the fee is pretty spot-on for the convenience.

Weapons Determine Skills

I’ve often wondered why games like LotRO have so many weapon types. All melee weapons seem more or less interchangeable–a club works just as well as a sword, a halberd is mostly indistinguishable from a two-handed axe–with minutely different bonuses. In Guild Wars 2, a different weapon may completely change your play style, or even your role. For instance, guardians can crank out respectable DPS with a greatsword, or heal and buff with a staff. This not only gives different weapon types a reason to exist, but it gives classes a degree of variety and customizability as well.

Stats Are Stats, Regardless of Class

“Ok, so for this class, agility increases damage, and vitality increases my mana regen, but not as much as intelligence….” Maybe I’m crazy, but I don’t think I should have to look up a translation matrix to figure out if a piece of gear is good for my class and build or not. Guild Wars 2’s gear is simple: if it says power, it increases my damage, if it says vitality, it increases my health, regardless of class or gear type. Why can’t all games be this way? It makes it so much easier to bounce between characters. At least some games like WildStar are starting to show the actual stat bonuses on the tooltip below the attributes, which is a step in the right direction, but I don’t understand why you can’t just cut out the middle man and put the stats on there. I’m sure there must be some kind of justification out there involving class balance or something, but it seems like a holdover from some ye olde time RPG mechanic.

XP For Everything!

What do reviving a player, harvesting a plant (my cabbages!), watching a flyby of a mountain, and simply walking around have in common? They’re all ways I’ve leveled up in Guild Wars 2 (probably all in the last couple weeks). Seriously, they’d give you XP for sneezing if they could. This would be an incredibly frustrating way to miss a lot of content, if players weren’t down-scaled by zone. Coupled with this, it is actually very freeing; there isn’t a distinction in Guild Wars 2 between leveling, exploring, and crafting as there is in other games I’ve played. Every activity gives XP, so no time feels wasted.

So next time you use one of these features, be grateful to the good developers at ArenaNet, and remember gamers less fortunate who have to get by without these conveniences.