What race should i pick for a necromancer (esp. scourge)? (closed)

I once had a sylvari necromancer, but i deleted her to create a charr necro. Now, after a few weeks of rethinking my decision, i'm not so sure any more.That's where you come in. Please help me find the perfect race for creating a necromancer with a focus on aesthetics (fashion wars ftw!) and voice acting (pls don't make my ears bleed).Some race/gender combos will not be in the poll, because i don't like them to begin with, but i will make a 'other' option, so you have a chance to convince me otherwise.I will wait until the balance patch hits before i create and lvl a new necro (maybe the patch makes me want to play something else ;) ).

I love the look of a human male, but that voice... ugh. I can't do it. Human female looks great in armor, but you would have to hear about how she could outrun a centaur 10 times a minute (is it only elementalist that says this?). So, until they give me a male human with a male sylvari voice, I would go with female sylvari. Male sylvari looks good except for that insanely goofy run animation when his weapon is sheathed.

My Necro is a Norn Female and she looks amazing, slightly tanned skin with white tattoos. I’ve gone with blue and dark purple colour schemes to match Nevermore and Ad Infinitum.I deleted my first Human necro for an Asura necro, then she was deleted in favour of Sylvari, then I deleted the Sylvari because it wasn’t quite right either. I made my Norn necro last year and it’s perfect. I’ve always had a necro too since I started playing 5yrs ago, so the previous iterations weren’t young characters either.

@Haleydawn.3764 said:My Necro is a Norn Female and she looks amazing, slightly tanned skin with white tattoos. I’ve gone with blue and dark purple colour schemes to match Nevermore and Ad Infinitum.I deleted my first Human necro for an Asura necro, then she was deleted in favour of Sylvari, then I deleted the Sylvari because it wasn’t quite right either. I made my Norn necro last year and it’s perfect. I’ve always had a necro too since I started playing 5yrs ago, so the previous iterations weren’t young characters either.

I forgot about Norn female. They look amazing in almost any role.

Make a Male Charr necro. They can be the cutest looking necros in the game. Isn't my necro, Rotfur Killslash, just the most cute and cuddly thing you have ever seen?

And by cute I mean terrifying, and by cuddly I mean nightmare-inducing!

I'm one of those people who thinks any race/profession combination can work. My necro is a male norn with a Raven theme (going to have Nevermore eventually). Before that I had a male asura who was interested in combining necromancer and golemancy. (I didn't realise until after I'd make that decision that Oola did the same thing.)

But I voted for male sylvari because they seem to have one of the least objectionable voice actors (at least I never see people complaining) and because I think you could do some really cool, creepy necro themes with the sylvari glow. Plus their natural curiosity and unusual life cycle makes necromancy a natural choice IMO.

My personal advice is to know what you want before you create the character and go through the effort of leveling it up. I currently have 41 characters, 5 of which are necromancers. Each time I make a character though, or on the very rare occasions I redesign one, I know exactly what armor, dyes, hair, race, etc I want before they're ever even made. You say your looking at creating a scourge in particular, pick a theme first and foremost or a center for your look. Do you want it to have more of a sand/desert theme? Maybe theres a particular armor or weapon skin you like and really want to use with it? For example the new Arcane Rifle that just came out is part of the inspiration behind my newest character, a Holomancer. Choose the idea you want to center on then build around it. Try the look on different characters using the wardrobe before you actually commit to anything, see how it looks on the different races, use your empty character slot to just make new characters and run them through the starter zone then take em to pvp for the wardrobe if you need to. This way your sure of what you want and know that when you finally complete it you'll be satisfied with your look.

If you decide on a theme or a center for your look feel free to hit me up by the way. I absolutely adore fashion in this game so I like chatting about it with other people. ^^

@Haleydawn.3764 Your Norn looks stunning! ;)

@CaelestiaEmpyrea.2617 This Charr is indeed terrifying and i get the feeling your pic is swaying the votes in favor of Charr characters. Maybe he had too little cuddles when he was young and thats why he turned out like this? Then again he's a charr, so... ;P

@Moonlit.6421 That is somewhat of a problem for me actually. I often jump between themes for my characters. Take my thief for example: started out as a Caithe-themed character with D/D, then came HoT and i enjoyed Daredevil so much that she went to be a staff-wielding edgelord in bladed armor (shame i didn't find a fitting staff in my price range). Then she went to being a bloodstone-crazed beast herself on the start of LWS3 until, ome weeks ago i finally bought the Reaper of Grenth outfit i wanted for a long time and now she is a black/green reaper-like appearence wielding Last Resort. You might ask why i don't just buy more character slots and make every version of this char a standalone version, but truth be told i am too lazy to lvl and properly gear them.As for the scourge: i have a few vague ideas for themes, but i like the style of my characters evolve over time (as with my Daredevil) and this development has so far served me very well, so i will wait and see what fits this future character the best.^^Thank you for your offer btw, i might hit you up on your offer when i find the time!

I believe that any race/gender combo is viable if you have the theme or fashion to pull it off.I also find that it helps to have a proper background for the character in mind to help guide some of the aesthetics. My charr female is a necromancer (Reaper) for the Blood Legion that got assigned to be an ambassador, so trying to find a look that fits the theme (military/diplomat) has been an interesting challenge.

In addition I think the charr (both male and female) has great casting animations, and feels really good with a more aggresive playstyle of the necro.

As for voiceactors I think all of them have their ups and downs, but find most of them good enough for me. I'm not really bothered by anyone except Human male, which is a bit too off for me. Can't really put my finger on it.

Can’t go wrong with Charr. ;)

@"Moonlit.6421" That is somewhat of a problem for me actually. I often jump between themes for my characters. Take my thief for example: started out as a Caithe-themed character with D/D, then came HoT and i enjoyed Daredevil so much that she went to be a staff-wielding edgelord in bladed armor (shame i didn't find a fitting staff in my price range). Then she went to being a bloodstone-crazed beast herself on the start of LWS3 until, ome weeks ago i finally bought the Reaper of Grenth outfit i wanted for a long time and now she is a black/green reaper-like appearence wielding Last Resort. You might ask why i don't just buy more character slots and make every version of this char a standalone version, but truth be told i am too lazy to lvl and properly gear them.As for the scourge: i have a few vague ideas for themes, but i like the style of my characters evolve over time (as with my Daredevil) and this development has so far served me very well, so i will wait and see what fits this future character the best.^^Thank you for your offer btw, i might hit you up on your offer when i find the time!

Ah I see, thats certainly a fair point since I was looking at it from my personal side instead of how others might do it. I typically am that person who makes a new character for every new look lol, though I do a lot of WvW so I use tomes/bday scrolls to level up my characters because I'm also way to lazy for that lol. I see what you mean though, and even a few of my characters have evolved over time or been altered to better fit their backstory/idea. I wish you the best of luck with your design and hope it turns out great and you are more than welcome to hit me up any time. If you pick a design soon you should post it on here so all the voters can see who you went with. ^^

Here's two of my necros, just for the heck of it.

(Links bc I still can't figure out images on this forum -w-")

Sylvari female. It's pretty and take root is the only viable elite racial for condi builds.

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:Sylvari female. It's pretty and take root is the only viable elite racial for condi builds.

You shouldn’t be touching racial skills anyway, period. For the love of Odin don’t base your choice on racial skills...!

If you want to follow Lore, the original scourges were Elonians. So in my books Human's with the Elonian customization is your best bet.

@Oglaf.1074 YOUR charr was/is the original reason why i wanted to reroll the race to begin with! Cool to see you here. ;)And btw i never chose a race because of racial skills anyway and i don't see a reason to start with it now or ever, so don't worry. If i remember correctly the 'take root' skill was solely a thing because of condi druids for raids, right? That kind of hardcore minmaxing isn't my thing at all.^^

@Moonlit.6421 I'll definitely post my final concept idea when i settled for a race. I have a few ideas based on what will win in the end, but my wardrobe is limited as is my gold. So i will first test some things out. Might i add that your necros look really cool? Cause they really do!^^

@Yereton.8647 I've read some chats and forum posts on what fits the lore of the necromancer before and i think many people made solid arguments for the case that every race has good reasons for the existence of necromancers. So i figured the lore wouldn't be a problem in picking a race and just went for aesthetics instead. Thanks for your input nonetheless, it's very appreciated as is every post here for me! :)

@Yereton.8647 said:If you want to follow Lore, the original scourges were Elonians. So in my books Human's with the Elonian customization is your best bet.

But we’re many years past that now and Necromancy is spread far and wide..?

I don’t see how that is “following the lore” at all.

@Lostyx.6035 said:@Oglaf.1074 YOUR charr was/is the original reason why i wanted to reroll the race to begin with! Cool to see you here. ;)And btw i never chose a race because of racial skills anyway and i don't see a reason to start with it now or ever, so don't worry. If i remember correctly the 'take root' skill was solely a thing because of condi druids for raids, right? That kind of hardcore minmaxing isn't my thing at all.^^

Wooo, I’ma muse!

Keep in mind that while I fell in love with the Charr skull mask, the other races also have some cool starter masks. I’d definitely play around in the character creator to check ‘em all out. ;)

Sylvari have another particularly cool one, as I recall.

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:Sylvari female. It's pretty and take root is the only viable elite racial for condi builds.

Wasn’t take root gutted last year? Pretty sure it was.

I can already tell you that most people will advise you their favorite race. I advise Norn. Their big, badass. They can show of their armor and weapons in all magnificent large scale glory. A Norn devoted to Spirit of Raven would be my pick ;-)

@Haleydawn.3764 said:

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:Sylvari female. It's pretty and take root is the only viable elite racial for condi builds.

From 10s to 3s bleeds. It's still 30 ranged stacks(5 turrets, 6 hits/turret) + 3 seconds invuln, that comes with 5 aggro targets.

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:

@Haleydawn.3764 said:

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:Sylvari female. It's pretty and take root is the only viable elite racial for condi builds.

Someone bench marked it on a condi Ranger;Entangle 34.4k - Sylvan Hound 35.3k - Take Root 33.5kYou can watch it here

It definitly had it's hay-day. That's very over now, and shouldn't have any influence picking a race for a particular profession.

@Moonlit.6421 I'll definitely post my final concept idea when i settled for a race. I have a few ideas based on what will win in the end, but my wardrobe is limited as is my gold. So i will first test some things out. Might i add that your necros look really cool? Cause they really do!^^

Looking forward to it! And yah I understand, funds can be a very limiting factor. I've spent more than I care to know on this game lol and I'm still working on it.Also daw thanks! >w<Both of those guys were pretty much built around their helms. Snixx my little asura is wearing the demonic mask starter skin which has a cool effect, particularly on asura, depending on their eye color which is why his eyes are a bright green and look like snake eyes. Dagdar is a sylvari, not that you can tell lol, who was based around the reapers hood and using the white to contrast with the dark inside of the hood and the typically darkness necromancers seem to put out. (Sorry I'm rambling ;w;)

@Haleydawn.3764 said:

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:

@Haleydawn.3764 said:

@Daniel Handler.4816 said:Sylvari female. It's pretty and take root is the only viable elite racial for condi builds.

You are thinking of Raids and linked a Ranger build. I am thinking of owPvE Necro where it is still much better than Plaguelands or Ghastly Breach in both range and functionality.

Everything works in owPvE though so it’s hardly a great argument xD

Please don't derail this topic with talk about what skill is better or worse than another. I wasn't asking for that information, just your opinion on aesthetics and voice.

If you desire to argue about what skill's better in which situation, i suggest you go to the necro subforum and discuss it there.