Guild Wars 2 Necromancer

Life Force

Death Shroud

Minions - Minions have always been a Necro's best friend and the GW2 Necromancer continues the tradition with minions such as Shadow Fiends, Flesh Wurms, Bone Minions, Bone Fiends and Blood Fiends available for summoning to decimate her enemies. In Guild Wars 2 there are several important changes to how the minion master works. One of the main differences is that Minions in Guild Wars 2 are not created from corpses. Instead, the type of minion created is determined by the skill used and the level of the minion is based upon the level of the necromancer that created it.

Also new in GW2 is that every minion-summoning spell will have an associated secondary spell that replaces the initial spell on the skill bar immediately after the minion has been summoned. This secondary spell destroys the minion while providing a powerful effect to the necromancer.

For example, the Necromancer's healing skill, "Summon Blood Fiend", creates a minion that heals its master while it attacks (like Vampiric Horror's in the original guildwars). After the minion has been summoned, the "Summon Blood Fiend" skill is replaced by the skill "Taste of Death", which allows the necromancer to destroy the minion and recover a larger chunk of health.

You may think that this means you can only create one minion from each minion-creating skill on your skillbar at any one time, however some skills, such as "Bone Minions" can give you three minions, plus an additional two using traits. You can also have a Blood Fiend and a Bone Fiend. What's even better is thet, with the Elite skill "Lich Form", you could even have a dozen minions following you before it ends!

Another important change with GW2 minion masters is that if you're out of combat and switch out one of your minion skills, you will lose the minion you've already created as anytime you unequip a utility skill you lose all benefit from that skill - including minions.

Two key Necromancer Traits are "Minion Mastery", which increases the damage output of your minions, and "Necrotic Efficieny" which dictates how many minions you can summon.

Keep in mind that not all necro skills have been revealed yet, so the Guild Wars 2 version of the minion army will still be a mighty force to contend with!

Wells - These are created at the Necromancer's location and are persistent spells that allow a necromancer to control the area around her, affecting targets within the skill's range. Much like wards and wells in the original Guild Wars, wells do not move.

"Well of Blood", for example, applies a regeneration boon to all allies within it (similar to the original Guild Wars skill). The difference with Guild Wars 2 is that a necromancer can only have one well skill active at any one time.

Marks - A new addition to the Necromancer arsenal, marks are ground-targeted spells with a variety of potent effects. "Mark of Blood", for example, gives health regeneration to nearby allies while also damaging enemies.

Reaper's Mark poisons, bleeds, and makes things vulnerable that walk into it.

When you place a mark, the skill switches to an "activate mark" skill.

Marks will trigger after a set period of time, but a necromancer can always trigger their marks as needed by hitting the skill again.

The number of marks a necromancer can have active is limited by how many individual mark skills she brings.

Fear - Necromancers use this removable condition, which is not available to any other profession, to make an enemy run directly away from the necromancer for a short period of time (fear lasts 2 to 5 seconds in PvE and 2 seconds in PvP).

How often fear can be used depends entirely on the skill that inflicts it, so it will vary from skill to skill.

Boss monsters are currently immune to fear, but this is something that may change over time with skill balancing.

For example, the spell "Doom" will inflict fear on a single target.