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Guild Wars 2 Necromancer Class Revealed
"A Necromancer feeds on life force," reads the official Guild Wars 2 site. Sounds good to us.
The second caster class to be announced, Necromancers have a variety of positional effects, minions, and the ability to fight on beyond their own death for a limited time. As cool as the dramatic fireballs and ice storms that Elementalists throw around are, Necromancers may have them beaten in the badassery department.
Necromancers use wells and marks to generate static area effects. They can have a single well active at a time. The example given is Well of Blood, which significantly increases the regeneration rate of allies within its radius. Marks work a little differently. These spells are targeted on the ground and have a variety of effects, like the enemy-damaging Mark of Blood (I'm sensing a theme here) that also speeds nearby allies' regeneration.
Necros also get minions, which do their master's bidding in death as in life. For instance, the Blood Fiend (okay, ArenaNet, we get it already) heals its master every time it strikes an opponent and can be sacrificed for a larger heal. All pets will have an associated skill that becomes active only when the pet is summoned.
Death Shroud is going to drive enemy PvPers nuts. This intrinsic class ability lets Necromancers fight on using the life force they've built up during combat even after their own body is destroyed. Should the Necro get a kill in the Death Shroud state (or expend his stored life energy), he is bound once again to his own flesh.
I'm not going to lie. This class sounds awesome, just like the other announced Guild Wars 2 classes do. At some point ArenaNet is going to have to let us play the freaking game already.
For more Guild Wars 2 talk, check out this week's Respec Radio podcast, where I hold forth at great length about the game's dynamic PvE content. You can get largely similar information in written form in the huge novel I wrote about it from Gamescom, if you're more into reading than hearing Andy and me make fun of Phil's guild.
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