Guild Wars 2

Im looking for a good Nerco Fractals build that works well with the current meta.

http://dulfy.net/2014/06/30/gw2-necromancer-pve-guide-by-spoj/

Necro I’d say is currently the best fractals class aside from possibly Guardian. I’m guessing that dulfy link is way out of date though, so I’d take it with a grain (or maybe bottle) of salt if I were you…

Bitoku Kishi.8346:

Necro I’d say is currently the best fractals class aside from possibly Guardian. I’m guessing that dulfy link is way out of date though, so I’d take it with a grain (or maybe bottle) of salt if I were you…

New light: It is up to date.

Bitoku Kishi.8346:

Necro I’d say is currently the best fractals class aside from possibly Guardian. I’m guessing that dulfy link is way out of date though, so I’d take it with a grain (or maybe bottle) of salt if I were you…

Updated August 2, 2015 so it’s up to date.

Necro isn’t the best fractal side. It’s decent for pugs and awesome for jade maw.

Necro is definitely NOT the best fractal class, probably one of the weakest, though that will change when HoT goes live.

For now just do the best you can and wait till Reaper is available and you can be effective. Right now necro is just mainly for running heat room in the reactor fractal.

Wasabi Kitty.8247:

Necro is definitely NOT the best fractal class, probably one of the weakest, though that will change when HoT goes live.

For now just do the best you can and wait till Reaper is available and you can be effective. Right now necro is just mainly for running heat room in the reactor fractal.

You haven’t scratched the surface of necro-sploit.

Bitoku Kishi.8346:

Necro I’d say is currently the best fractals class aside from possibly Guardian. I’m guessing that dulfy link is way out of date though, so I’d take it with a grain (or maybe bottle) of salt if I were you…

My head hurts.

Troll post or serious post? Too tired to tell.

Purple Miku.7032:

Bitoku Kishi.8346:

Necro I’d say is currently the best fractals class aside from possibly Guardian. I’m guessing that dulfy link is way out of date though, so I’d take it with a grain (or maybe bottle) of salt if I were you…

My head hurts.

Troll post or serious post? Too tired to tell.

Me too :/

Necro in Fractals:

This depends HEAVILY on your build. Some pointers:
-don’t bring minions into Fractals.
-life stealing/syphoning is amazing
-stripping boons and discount condition sales are effective

A full zerk life stealing (spite/blood/reaping) necromancer is super effective. In challenging content you have a few things that you can do for other professions since Necromancer is no longer the super selfish class it once was.
-wells and marks that heal allies
-skills that pull conditions
-teleport downed allies to safety
-prevent bleed-out of downed allies, period
-trigger life-stealing for all allies

Strengths
-any fractal where there are large groups of mobs
-Dredge fractal: removing boons from these vets and elites make the fights take half the time
-Jade Maw (exploit) by syphoning health from the maw instead of relying on crystals. Don’t expect this to stick around. Even without the exploit necro has a lot of plus here, because they can stay at range without relying on projectiles, which are all reflected here.
-Drawing and managing conditions in the Cliffside fights helps your team a lot

Weaknesses:
-anything requiring a lot of mobility is troublesome (but not by much)
-you lack a lot of reliable stun-breaks, but with the health pool it seldom matters
-you hit like a wet noodle vs mai trin until you can condition effectively
-the lack of stability will make the ice fractal a challenge

Biggest problem is that siphoning is not necessary for good groups (although it can help maintain scholar’s bonus due to stray damage). Boon and condition management is too rare to warrant bringing necro for (although in some spots it IS handy). Projectile destruction can be done by almost every class, and reflection will be preferred.

So necro support/utility, while useful, is simply not as useful as warrior banners and guardian reflects and aegis. At the same time the damage is not on par with elementalist or engineer. With current meta of 2 support 3 dps, necro simply is not bringing enough to the table to be invited.

On the up side, a well played necro is a solid addition for PuGs where extra lifestealing is often put to good use as well as reasonable damage from easy rotation that will easily outdo FT camping engies and cele d/d eles.

Sadly too many PuGs insist on ‘meta’ groups even when they don’t utilize the meta composition.

Vigil.8205:

Im looking for a good Nerco Fractals build that works well with the current meta.

metabattle.com

A good necro brings a lot to the table. I tend to run dagger/x power wells in fractals and swap wells out depending on the need for stability/boon striping/condi striping/ darkness. A good necro will far out damage any poorer player due to easy rotations and the ability to apply constant pressure in full zerker and still have ~40k eHP. That said, a bad necro will hurt the party and often lead to wipe situations due to fear access and improper pets (yes some pets are good to use on some fractals, think wurm on hammer fractal). If you are needing to ask what build to use then I would highly recommend you play a necro in other pve content for a few as no one build will work for fractals necro (or many other classes).

You either use dagger if you don’t need vuln/might/critchance, if you are lacking any of these things use a DS build. Necromancer is very underrated in fractals as a class. It offers a solid projectile block, strong boon removal, strong vuln stacking, partywide life steal, blind field, very good control, good ranged damage, very good sustain, high aoe burst, strong condition removal, blink and teleport, along with carry ability with transfusion. Just some examples.

Add: Unblockable attack, unblockable CC, strong snare, pull, solid 5+-target cleave and bodyblocking. To top it off, a very simple rotation and ease of play.

I did an L50 Fractal with CPC on my Necro recently and it felt like a dream. Me? Managing projectiles? You mean the harpies in uncategorized don’t rek me? I can contribute meaningfully to Grawl boss?

It was a strange feeling.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I did an L50 Fractal with CPC on my Necro recently and it felt like a dream. Me? Managing projectiles? You mean the harpies in uncategorized don’t rek me? I can contribute meaningfully to Grawl boss?

It was a strange feeling.

With Reaper you even get RS 2, though be very very careful on harpies

Jerus.4350:

Rising Dusk.2408:

I did an L50 Fractal with CPC on my Necro recently and it felt like a dream. Me? Managing projectiles? You mean the harpies in uncategorized don’t rek me? I can contribute meaningfully to Grawl boss?

It was a strange feeling.

With Reaper you even get RS 2, though be very very careful on harpies

Chain CC them, and they are toast!

Sorry If I’m out of topic, but anyone has the reaper build for PVE?
The reaper line will boost necro’s dps , right?

gin.7158:

Sorry If I’m out of topic, but anyone has the reaper build for PVE?
The reaper line will boost necro’s dps , right?

A Lot, and there are a few variations but something like:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR4djc0QLNWTDO2AHOWyFs4qYXcMCFAaArAqywa4ZB-TBBXgAA7PK/C1N0r+zjSQSBMquK-e

or

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR4djc0QLNWTDO2AHOWyFsprwSIJEXF7ijRoAQDYFA-TBBXgAA7PK/C1N0r+zjSQSBMquK-e

Is what I was using I believe. Again, lots of small tweak options, not sure what is best yet. Warhorn better for Lifeforce regen than focus, but focus is better damage.

Haven’t completely worked out a rotation, but it’s something like 432 in GS swap Dagger, use focus/wh damage skills, and auto away. When you’ve got second Focus4 up use it and swap GS and 32 then hop into RS to mitigate the poor auto attack on GS, beat on it in that for a while, then hop out and use GS 42 again and back into Dagger, rinse and repeat.

Again, no clue if that’s optimal but that’s what I’ve come up with so far and it’s been quite nice. Not sure if any of the RS skills are worth using for damage, but they are for utility, you have a stability, you have a projectile destruction/mobility in the 2 skill, and then the 5 is an ice field and you can combo whirls with the 4 skill as well as transfusion for some nice support if you go with the blood magic build.

I’m a big fan of Reaper, I think it’ll turn out to be quite decent damage, not the best as in it surely won’t match Engi capabilities and probably not Ele, but it’ll be up there I’m quite sure (people reporting 42k gravediggers I see 25-30k in more optimal group conditions just playing through some fractals/arah but 20k+ almost for sure).

So yeah, it’s nice

Reaper does have a solid trait line and all of them actually look useful depending on situations. Against a big HP pool boss like the Vale Guardian I can see myself going for Chill of Death for more passive damage proc when he drops to below 50% HP, and maybe Chilling Victory if we have Spotter/Fury/Banner in the group. Without warhorn or staff, life force looks a bit tight on a Reaper if you don’t (obviously) pick Blighter’s Boon either. To sum up my experience, I like to play around with traits based on encounters, and Reaper seems to fulfill my demands – not to Chrono extend, but close

scratches head. We’re actually wanted in fractals? …..dear Grenth I’ve been playing the wrong content.

TheLastNobody.8319:

scratches head. We’re actually wanted in fractals? …..dear Grenth I’ve been playing the wrong content.

I wouldn’t say wanted, but they aren’t bad. They can do some stuff and do contribute. Reaper on the other hand, yeah I want one of those, well I want to play one and wouldn’t mind more in my group… 5 reaper fractals ftw! (anything hits 50% health… boom dead).

TheLastNobody.8319:

scratches head. We’re actually wanted in fractals? …..dear Grenth I’ve been playing the wrong content.

Before I played necro I was always skeptical at having one in the party, but after playing it myself I completely reject the view that it does not offer anything worthwhile to the party. Since the vampric aura change along with a new projectile block necro has become a solid defensive support class while still being able to provide very high amounts of vulnerability to the party.

Painbow.6059:

TheLastNobody.8319:

scratches head. We’re actually wanted in fractals? …..dear Grenth I’ve been playing the wrong content.

Before I played necro I was always skeptical at having one in the party, but after playing it myself I completely reject the view that it does not offer anything worthwhile to the party. Since the vampric aura change along with a new projectile block necro has become a solid defensive support class while still being able to provide very high amounts of vulnerability to the party.

I actually have to agree with that. Before I stopped playing, I always found myself to have some skills that have proven to be useful in specific encounters during a fractal run, even more so when pugging. Felt good to be able to provide something to the group in various situations.
Yesterday I found the time to try out some things and I… was pretty amazed. I mean sure, Necros are still no must have (not like they ever will be, but their design/how Anet wants them to be doesn’t really allow for this anyway imo), but they jumped up a lot in usefulness.

Jerus.4350:

I’m a big fan of Reaper, I think it’ll turn out to be quite decent damage, not the best as in it surely won’t match Engi capabilities and probably not Ele, but it’ll be up there I’m quite sure (people reporting 42k gravediggers I see 25-30k in more optimal group conditions just playing through some fractals/arah but 20k+ almost for sure).

So yeah, it’s nice

Im interested in Reaper providing the anchor role in raids while still maintaining almost top tier dps without actually using toughness on gear. So something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR4dnM0A10gt0AebCs3glcBT6Gs1qBxTxu4XEKA0AWBA-TRBVwAA2fAhyvU6AKq+zFlgkCYgdVA-e

You might even be able to get away with scholar still. Otherwise i hope for a new runeset.

Also condi reaper with death nova spam might be fun.

Interesting, I was pretty sure Reaper could go anchor role, I am really hoping for some Power Toughness Ferocity, or Power Condi Ferocity gear. Think that’ll be enough toughness though? I wonder what the threshold for agro control is. And, kitten , I think I might actually have to finish my LS stuff if I wanna play condi Engi as I have a few rabid trinket stuff.

Jerus.4350:

Interesting, I was pretty sure Reaper could go anchor role, I am really hoping for some Power Toughness Ferocity, or Power Condi Ferocity gear. Think that’ll be enough toughness though? I wonder what the threshold for agro control is. And, kitten , I think I might actually have to finish my LS stuff if I wanna play condi Engi as I have a few rabid trinket stuff.

Power Toughness Ferocity exists already… Well, Toughness Power Ferocity, close enough. Power as main stat would be interesting though.

spoj.9672:

Jerus.4350:

I’m a big fan of Reaper, I think it’ll turn out to be quite decent damage, not the best as in it surely won’t match Engi capabilities and probably not Ele, but it’ll be up there I’m quite sure (people reporting 42k gravediggers I see 25-30k in more optimal group conditions just playing through some fractals/arah but 20k+ almost for sure).

So yeah, it’s nice

Im interested in Reaper providing the anchor role in raids while still maintaining almost top tier dps without actually using toughness on gear. So something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR4dnM0A10gt0AebCs3glcBT6Gs1qBxTxu4XEKA0AWBA-TRBVwAA2fAhyvU6AKq+zFlgkCYgdVA-e

You might even be able to get away with scholar still. Otherwise i hope for a new runeset.

Also condi reaper with death nova spam might be fun.

that’s an interesting build but I’d take spite signet instead of corruption well, and maybe corrupter’s fervor for more dmg :P

Sublimatio.6981:

spoj.9672:

Jerus.4350:

I’m a big fan of Reaper, I think it’ll turn out to be quite decent damage, not the best as in it surely won’t match Engi capabilities and probably not Ele, but it’ll be up there I’m quite sure (people reporting 42k gravediggers I see 25-30k in more optimal group conditions just playing through some fractals/arah but 20k+ almost for sure).

So yeah, it’s nice

Im interested in Reaper providing the anchor role in raids while still maintaining almost top tier dps without actually using toughness on gear. So something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAR4dnM0A10gt0AebCs3glcBT6Gs1qBxTxu4XEKA0AWBA-TRBVwAA2fAhyvU6AKq+zFlgkCYgdVA-e

You might even be able to get away with scholar still. Otherwise i hope for a new runeset.

Also condi reaper with death nova spam might be fun.

that’s an interesting build but I’d take spite signet instead of corruption well, and maybe corrupter’s fervor for more dmg :P

I’m just gonna go with the obvious “You’ll have to change it up depending on the encounter anyway” :P

Also, might be a bit off topic, but do you get a stack of decimate defenses whenever you hit an enemy with a new skill or does it stack whenever you deal damage? I’m mainly looking at Death Spiral here (I assume you apply 6x 2 stacks of vuln), so you’d get 5 stacks off a mob, which would be pretty ridiculous and the main reason why I think it doesn’t work like this. lol Also, is there an ICD/stack cap/what’s the duration on each stack?

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

I’m just gonna go with the obvious “You’ll have to change it up depending on the encounter anyway” :P

Also, might be a bit off topic, but do you get a stack of decimate defenses whenever you hit an enemy with a new skill or does it stack whenever you deal damage? I’m mainly looking at Death Spiral here (I assume you apply 6x 2 stacks of vuln), so you’d get 5 stacks off a mob, which would be pretty ridiculous and the main reason why I think it doesn’t work like this. lol Also, is there an ICD/stack cap/what’s the duration on each stack?

I’m obviously assuming a ~7minute raid boss fight (for this build, I wouldn’t use it anyway cuz of blood magic)

You don’t stack decimate defenses – you only stack vuln. Depending how much vuln the mob has at the moment you hit, your crit chance adjusts accordingly

Sublimatio.6981:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

I’m just gonna go with the obvious “You’ll have to change it up depending on the encounter anyway” :P

Also, might be a bit off topic, but do you get a stack of decimate defenses whenever you hit an enemy with a new skill or does it stack whenever you deal damage? I’m mainly looking at Death Spiral here (I assume you apply 6x 2 stacks of vuln), so you’d get 5 stacks off a mob, which would be pretty ridiculous and the main reason why I think it doesn’t work like this. lol Also, is there an ICD/stack cap/what’s the duration on each stack?

I’m obviously assuming a ~7minute raid boss fight (for this build, I wouldn’t use it anyway cuz of blood magic)

You don’t stack decimate defenses – you only stack vuln. Depending how much vuln the mob has at the moment you hit, your crit chance adjusts accordingly

^^ This, which is why I typically hit GS3 before gravedigger in my GS rotation, just make sure things are stacked up before I go for the big hit.

Sublimatio.6981:

NovaanVerdiano.6174:

I’m just gonna go with the obvious “You’ll have to change it up depending on the encounter anyway” :P

Also, might be a bit off topic, but do you get a stack of decimate defenses whenever you hit an enemy with a new skill or does it stack whenever you deal damage? I’m mainly looking at Death Spiral here (I assume you apply 6x 2 stacks of vuln), so you’d get 5 stacks off a mob, which would be pretty ridiculous and the main reason why I think it doesn’t work like this. lol Also, is there an ICD/stack cap/what’s the duration on each stack?

I’m obviously assuming a ~7minute raid boss fight (for this build, I wouldn’t use it anyway cuz of blood magic)

You don’t stack decimate defenses – you only stack vuln. Depending how much vuln the mob has at the moment you hit, your crit chance adjusts accordingly

Fair enough.

Ah, I see, makes sense. Not sure why I interpreted the description as “you stack decimate defenses” and not as “you get higher crit chance the more vuln stacks are on the enemy.”

So how good is reaper’s dps? is it at mid-tier? I wanna roll one but still doubtful ha3…
*looking for another class to explore coz maining 1 or 2 classes is boring

gin.7158:

So how good is reaper’s dps? is it at mid-tier? I wanna roll one but still doubtful ha3…
*looking for another class to explore coz maining 1 or 2 classes is boring

About Mid as far as I know right now. Thing is there’s still a bit to explore. Like is there a rotation to get higher dps? Or is it simply dagger till 50% then GD spam, at that it’s about mid (like guardian level), but if we can up that above 50% damage, it’ll be pretty solid. There’s still some details I’d like hammered out, still some strangeness that I don’t really “get” in how they designed it (Unlike DS apparently it always uses a “hammer” weapon strength, where DS uses whatever you’re using). Assuming someone cares to explore it in depth (I wish I had that kind of devotion again) it’ll probably be a couple weeks after release before we know what it’s really capable of.

One thing that’s going to throw a wrench in things for a lot of professions is alacrity. Rev doesn’t gain much as it’s very focused on the 1 skill, engi will be a nightmare trying to keep up with timers with alacrity, and necro GD spam gains little (more nightfall/wells). Compare to say Ele which will get more lava fonts and meteors which are a huge part of it’s damage, or even Guard which will get faster skills (are ICD’s affected by alacrity?). Anyways, that’ll be interesting.

Jerus.4350:

One thing that’s going to throw a wrench in things for a lot of professions is alacrity. Rev doesn’t gain much as it’s very focused on the 1 skill, engi will be a nightmare trying to keep up with timers with alacrity, and necro GD spam gains little (more nightfall/wells). Compare to say Ele which will get more lava fonts and meteors which are a huge part of it’s damage, or even Guard which will get faster skills (are ICD’s affected by alacrity?). Anyways, that’ll be interesting.

Interesting questions goes and uses the power of science I will be back!
EDIT: Ok so after some science here are the results
ICD’s are implemented in 1 of 3 ways.
1.) An invisible buff (Has no effect)
2.) An Internal Cooldown on the Buff (Has no effect)
3.) Recharge on a skill. (Does have an effect)
Sometimes a skill uses more then one of the above. If it ever uses #1or#2 it wont do anything. If I only uses #3 then it does work.
Overall a bit unclear I’ll talk to skills team tomorrow about it.
Note: My science was done with a warrior. In which Defy Pain recharged in 40s while under the effects of alacrity (only uses #3). Where Last Stand always took 40s. (Uses #1 &#3)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3n4gj3/does_alacrity_or_chill_affecting_traits_icds/cvlcuyq

Thanks, good information to know. Sounds like the Radiant Fire for Guardians won’t be affected then? Wouldn’t help as it’s kind of on swap anyways, but was curious as maybe it triggers while in GS? I don’t know, but thanks.

Hiya, I’d like to share my own build that I use for fractals:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBLRtG2IHN0SjV3gzNwfjDjhamCLQOQDioYIi/cAcAA-TxRFABCr+DAnEAiV+lwTAQQlgps/gv6HIFAMjtA-e

How it works:
* Use Blood is Power is combination with dagger 4 (4bleeds and 2 torment on enemy)
* Use Warhorn 5, Well of Suffering and then go DS 4 for burst of direct damage (plus bleeds on crit)
* Use Corrosive Poison Cloud (CPC) whenever you can. It’s really high dps. Weakness doesn’t affect condi damage.
* Combine Consume Condition with CPC for better heal.
* Cast Blood is Power and CPC and then plague to send all conditions to the enemy using the Curses Minor trait.
* Always cast scepters 2-3 whenever you can.

Some changes to the build I use:
* Change Well of Suffering with Well of Power, very useful when fighting the Legendary Shaman.
* Change Well of suffering with Plague Signet if you find dagger 4 isn’t enough to cleanse your condis.
* Use Pandemic when fighting bosses with loads of adds (Legendary Shaman for example)
* Swap traits: Lingering Curses with Parasitic Contagion when your party dies too fast. (lowers damage, but you’ll be incredibly tanky)
* If your group has the tendency to get downed, get Tranfusion (trait) instead of Vampiric Rituals. It’s a life safer for fractals such as Cliffside.

Other tips:
* Go DS when you try to heal a downed ally.
* Go DS when you fall into a ravine (chances are you will not get downed)
* Bosses that go invuln. are often not invulnerable to condis. Mossman and Shaman are good examples.

But most of all, try to have fun!

Apparently, necro has gain some very nice (unintended) utilitity https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3o7t0z/mai_trins_cannons_are_corroded/

I speculate that it would work at Old Tom? Ventari’s tablet works at Old Tom but not the cannon phase.

Iris Ng.9845:

Apparently, necro has gain some very nice (unintended) utilitity https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3o7t0z/mai_trins_cannons_are_corroded/

I speculate that it would work at Old Tom? Ventari’s tablet works at Old Tom but not the cannon phase.

Heh, I was wondering why it worked in the cannon room in Thaumanova, thought they just changed that. Guess that’ll be fixed.

Iris Ng.9845:

Apparently, necro has gain some very nice (unintended) utilitity https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3o7t0z/mai_trins_cannons_are_corroded/

I speculate that it would work at Old Tom? Ventari’s tablet works at Old Tom but not the cannon phase.

It works on Old Tom, had a PuG yell at me just yesterday for using it because “it’s clearly unintended and an exploit the projectiles are meant to be tanked, so stop exploiting”.

Laar.5476:

Iris Ng.9845:

Apparently, necro has gain some very nice (unintended) utilitity https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3o7t0z/mai_trins_cannons_are_corroded/

I speculate that it would work at Old Tom? Ventari’s tablet works at Old Tom but not the cannon phase.

It works on Old Tom, had a PuG yell at me just yesterday for using it because “it’s clearly unintended and an exploit the projectiles are meant to be tanked, so stop exploiting”.

:D “ok, tank it, I’ll be right behind you”

Bear Force One is there to carry my kitten . Bark Skin + Troll Unguent = OP as balls.

How’s about a Hazmat suit? No buff needed, 1 minute duration, delivered straightly from our master race Asura. Speaking about exploits at Old Tom is like, 3 years too late.

Regarding CPC.

It will get fixed. We argued that mesmer should keep warden as the only true projectile block for a unique thing only mesmers could provide. They nerfed it anyway.

spoj, when are you getting a necro alphard quaggin dance going? :b

Unlikely because it will get fixed before HoT and i cant be bothered to log in for more than 5 minutes atm. :P

spoj.9672:

Unlikely because it will get fixed before HoT and i cant be bothered to log in for more than 5 minutes atm. :P

Lazy bum! I joke, I hear ya, typically an arah path or a fractal… MAYBE both each night… or nothing.

spoj.9672:

Regarding CPC.

It will get fixed. We argued that mesmer should keep warden as the only true projectile block for a unique thing only mesmers could provide. They nerfed it anyway.

I will say that it makes Necro amazingly fun and awesome for Mai Trin. I also especially love it for Old Tom! Don’t even need Rocky!

Taku.6352:

Bear Force One is there to carry my kitten . Bark Skin + Troll Unguent = OP as balls.

Has bark skin been fixed yet?