The fourth profession revelation for Guild Wars 2 was spoiled at last week’s gamescom 2010 event as the playable demo already included the new profession: the necromancer! But that hasn’t deterred ArenaNet from posting up an in-depth article that details the newly revealed profession and includes several clips of necromancers in action.
The necromancer was easily one of the most popular professions in the original Guild Wars games and judging by the showing at gamescom it looks to be no different in Guild Wars 2. Necromancers promise to be extremely durable casters who use buffs, debuffs and minions to wreak havoc with their enemies. But their main distinguishing feature is death shroud, which makes them take spirit form and gain a new skill bar with powerful abilities.
Necromancers may seem a lot like their predecessors in Guild Wars, but a lot has changed under the hood. I’d go so far as to name it the profession that has changed the most when compared to its Guild Wars variant of the ones that have been announced thus far. So be sure to take a look below as I delve into the information that’s been revealed thus far, both by ArenaNet and their gamescom 2010 demo!
Necromancer
- The necromancer profession is very recognizable for players of the original game. It’s still a buff, debuff and minion oriented profession, but a lot of the underlying mechanics have changed.
- Necromancers can carry an axe, dagger or scepter in the main hand. The off hand can be used for a dagger, focus or warhorn. Their only possible two-handed weapon is the staff.
- All weapon sets have skills that can gain life force for the necromancer.
- Necromancers fit in the light profession category. This means they can wear the same armor as other light professions such as the elementalist.
- Human necromancers have to pick a mask (trickster demon, skull or ghostly wraith) during character creation. This might also be true for other races.
It seems as if mask selection might be a profession-wide biography choice
Death Shroud
- This is the necromancer’s defining ability, similar to adrenaline for warriors, attunements for elementalists and pets for rangers.
- A green life force bar above the left skill bar builds up as the necromancer attacks and kills enemies. Some skills also feed life force to this bar.
- Death Shroud is activated through an icon next to this life force bar. When activated death shroud rapidly drains the life force bar and drastically alters the way the necromancer plays. The screen also turns darker while an eery green glow emerges around the edges and the Necromancer is transformed into a dark shadow.
- In death shroud a small skill bar similar to downed state for other classes replaces the regular skills. This bar contains 4 special abilities, including one that drains lifeforce from nearby enemies and a special minion that only remains active for the duration of death shroud.
- Necromancers actually leave their body behind when entering death shroud, so upon exiting death shroud they’re sucked back to their original location.
- Death Shroud also functions as the necromancer’s downed state.
These little buggers look freaky!
Skills
- Necromancers have several different minion summoning skills. These skills turn into a secondary mode after summoning and can then be used to destroy the minion(s) in return for some sort of benefit such as a health boost. Contrary to Guild Wars there is no corpse requirement for summoning minions and they do not lose health over time.
- Wells are now persistent area-of-effect buffs (e.g.: health regeneration) or debuffs. They’re spawned at the necromancer’s location. Only one well skill can be active at any time.
- Marks can be placed in a target area and are triggered manually (use the same skill) or after a period of time. An example involves a mark that damages nearby enemies while healing nearby allies.
- Necromancers can also use certain skills to instill fear in their opponents. This condition forces characters to run away from the caster and is removable.
- Doom is a skill that instills fear in a single target.
- Bone Minions summons three small minions. Its secondary usage is Putrid Explosion which explodes these minions for both damage and a disease condition to nearby targets.
- Grasping Dead is a targeted skill, which summons skeletal hands from the ground to deal damage in a straight line.
- Locust Swarm summons a swarm of locusts around the necromancer which deals damage to nearby enemies. It may have life-draining capabilities, but that’s not confirmed.
- Life Siphon sucks health from a target enemy into the necromancer.
- Ghost Armor improves a necromancer’s armor and adds life force whenever (s)he takes damage.
- An early necromancer elite skill transforms the character into a plague cloud for a short time.
- Take a look at the article on the Guild Wars 2 website for videos and screenshots of some of these skills.
Should you have missed out on the wealth of Guild Wars 2 information that’s been made public already, then you may wish to read up on the design manifesto, combat system and elementalist profession, the warrior profession and traits system #1 & #2, the ranger profession #1 & #2 & #3, dynamic events system #1 & #2, the personal story system, player personalities, death and healing, dialogue, leveling, non-combat activities #1 and #2 and activities and travel in Tyria. Also take a look at my coverage of the gamescom 2010 demo #1 and #2 with gameplay footage and a lot of new information.
Stay tuned to GameDrone for constant updates on Guild Wars 2, but also be sure to keep an eye on the on the official Guild Wars 2 website and ArenaNet company blog for the latest information and media!
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