New player with Necro leveling questions

I've been trying to read up on the available builds but have some questions. From what I am reading, some people use pets and others use a power build? Then I read that power builds are not taken seriously and don't work well late game. So the first question is, do most people running a necro use pets? I don't have a preference really. I just want to make sure that whichever build I choose, that it will work late game. I get that while leveling I can try different builds. I am just a bit confused about which skills I should be focusing on. If I use pets, do I use different skill trees then a power build? I thought about just throwing points in Spite for now since it appears that many builds use spite. I didn't put a lot of points in the regular skills and saved them for Specializations so now I hae 27 points but should I be loading up in skills or investing in Specializations? I've been wearing gear with power/precision and using a dagger/warhorn. I've added a few points to get Signet of the Locust. I've added points to get Well of Suffering and then just a few points in Minions up to Bone Minions but haven't actually used any pets yet. I just haven't figured out the differences between a build using pets and builds that don't. I've played Necros in other games and they normally heavily rely on pets. Any input here would be great. I have some links bookmarked to a few builds but haven't found much info on where to invest points during leveling.

just getting to level 80 no matter what you do, you automatically get exactly as many points as you need to unlock the entire core spec. wich you need to do to unlock elite specs. so just dont worry much about what you need for endgame when spending your points while leveling.

dagger damage is kinda bad. Get axe, staff.And as MUDse said don't worry of Hero Points. If you want to unlock more as you go, there are Hero Challenges on maps each will grand you 1 point and bit of exp.

here is just an example for power core necro traits with minions. https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Necromancer_-_Power_Minion_Master

I think you have it backwards, most people want power necro not condi necro , especially if it isn't scourge elite spec. Death shroud scales much better with power damage.

The only time condi is wanted is against things with extremely high toughness and no phases.

GW2 necro is not like other games necro.

The minions are basically passive dots that occassionally die. Flesh golem is excellent, so is Shadow Fiend (for the life force gain on the active skill), but the rest are pretty meh. Minion master is an easy and fast leveling build though so feel free to use it if you like it.

Your two biggest build choices are Power damage or Condition damage. If power, your main weapon will be Axe/Warhorn and your main trait line will be Spite. If condi, your main weapon will be Scepter/Dagger and your main trait line will be Curses. Which is better for leveling is really preference. Condi is better at AOE, but power works better with Death Shroud. Condi works well with Corruption type skills (especially Blood is Power) and power works well with Well skills or Signets. Both work well with minions.

Don't be afraid to experiment. That's what leveling is for. Also, you may not know this, but you can go to the PVP lobby and test builds on the target dummies there to see what you like.

Some clearification as two users said axe is better than dagger for leveling.

Of course it is not. Dagger deals significantly more damage than axe, generates more life force and hits two targets. The only thing that is strong on axe in PvE is skill 2. But this skill has an 8s cooldown and hits only one target. That's useless for fighting groups of trashmobs that die in 2 seconds.

How important is the meta for OP? The levelling experience is quite easy on purpose, so you can use "anything" and it'll still work. That way you try out different weapons / utilities as you level up, so that at 80 you can have a good idea of what you want to roll.

Of course, that's not that true now that we get elite specializations which change basic game mechanics, but still... ^_^;

Unless one is raiding or aiming at fractal challenge motes, any build put together with some thought (as in, making sure it's coherent in respect to utilities + weapons + stats + traits) should be good enough for most content (I don't include PvP / WvW since class balance is a whole other issue in there).

@KrHome.1920 said:Some clearification as two users said axe is better than dagger for leveling.

Of course it is not. Dagger deals significantly more damage than axe, generates more life force and hits two targets. The only thing that is strong on axe in PvE is skill 2. But this skill has an 8s cooldown and hits only one target. That's useless for fighting groups of trashmobs that die in 2 seconds.

Not that it really changed anything, but axe 2 with action cam is fun, but doesn't provide any benefits , just something silly

You have SotL. Keep it on all the time.Recommend you put points toward minions in DM and points in Spite. Grab dagger's trait in Blood Magic, too. After that, go for Soul Reaping.

Minions do the same damage regardless of what armor you have. Use them. They hold aggro and provide more defense than any equipment stat's or traits in PvE besides shroud.

Use axe/focus as your ranged weapon, then swap to dagger/War horn or dagger/dagger.