Guild Wars 2

I want to start by saying I’m still sorta new to the game, having just begun about a week ago.

So I currently have 3 characters built: A MM+condi hybrid necro, a power greatsword warrior and a turret engineer. After hearing how turret engi builds have become a complete joke because of nerfs, I have shelved that build and don’t plan on playing that until turrets are more useful again. I’m doubtful they ever will be, but whatever.

I’ve been in the Heart of Maguuma jungles since getting my necro to 80 and boosted my warrior to that point. The biggest problem I keep seeing there is that most of the maps there are barely full so I have to try doing a lot of these events alone. My warrior can barely manage most of them and I have to work hard on my necro to make it work. A lot of these events require groups, but most of the maps barely have enough people to do them.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to work towards a build capable of doing it alone. If I have to shoulder most of these events on my own, I’m gonna need to make a build that can do it. Additionally, this build needs to be capable of handling itself during raids and fractals with people, because I don’t want to be seen as a burden to the team.

Does such a build exist? I could really use some help.

PS. I’m skeptical about wanting to run anything related to elementalist. Looking at a DPS meta site, they dominate the charts. After hearing what the devs did to turret engineers and pure MM necros, I’m wary about playing something that’s begging to get pulverized by the nerfhammer. I’m not saying I refuse to run one if it’s the only answer to my problem, but I do want to avoid it if there’s options available.

reading your post left me a bit confused..I’m still unsure what you’re looking for exactly, but i’ll give it a try.
First thing first, the nerfs hardly affect solo content, they usually address issues found in pvp and endgame pve and they tend to fix just that. Turret engi was a thing in pvp I believe quite a while ago, not organized pve; so you should still be able to spam turrets when running solo, even more so since they made non-aggroed friendly AI receive 90% less damage (or something among those lines)

Which events are you talking about? The meta events can’t be soloed, so finding an organized map using LFG tool is priority

Raid builds differ vastly from open world builds, because they rely on group synergy rather than solo utility, so finding a build that covers both is kind of a long shot. As you figured out yourself necro is a good way to do it, but if you’re having trouble with necro I’m sad to inform you that’s pmuch as easy as it gets. Unless you’re running a bad build in which case you might wanna share it so alternatives can be suggested

Nordom.3485:

reading your post left me a bit confused..I’m still unsure what you’re looking for exactly, but i’ll give it a try.
First thing first, the nerfs hardly affect solo content, they usually address issues found in pvp and endgame pve and they tend to fix just that. Turret engi was a thing in pvp I believe quite a while ago, not organized pve; so you should still be able to spam turrets when running solo, even more so since they made non-aggroed friendly AI receive 90% less damage (or something among those lines)

Which events are you talking about? The meta events can’t be soloed, so finding an organized map using LFG tool is priority

Raid builds differ vastly from open world builds, because they rely on group synergy rather than solo utility, so finding a build that covers both is kind of a long shot. As you figured out yourself necro is a good way to do it, but if you’re having trouble with necro I’m sad to inform you that’s pmuch as easy as it gets. Unless you’re running a bad build in which case you might wanna share it so alternatives can be suggested

I thought the 90% damage reduction only applied to AoEs. From my experience running my turret engineer only in PvE, direct damage tends to kill them in a couple hits. When you compare them to necro minions which can take a lot of damage, that’s bad. Trying to run an engi build entirely using turrets in open world is only going to give you a couple seconds of uptime before all the enemies wipe them out. Trying to fight a mob of enemies with a rifle while waiting for your deployables to go off cooldown is aggravating to say the least.

As for the map meta, most of my concerns come from smaller events that branch from it. For example, in the first jungle map, my problems mostly come from trying to defend Pact camps from being taken over by mordrem. I can take the camps on my necro easily on the offensive, but I struggle on the defensive. Nobody is ever around when trying to defend the camps, because this map is almost always empty. Not kidding, I’m often getting multiple instance migration prompts in the course of one hour. It’s not as bad in the auric basin due to the meta event there and how lucrative the rewards are, but it’s real bad in the earlier map.

The same issue extends to hero point bosses there. I’ve never seen anyone around to fight the Mark 1 Golem or the Champion Coztic Bladedancer and they’re both a nightmare to combat alone. I can’t do it at all on my warrior. I know they’re designed to be fought as a group, hence the “[Group Event]” tag on them, but hardly anyone goes there.

As for my necro, here’s the build I’m running: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vREQNArYWjM0QTN2VDu1AHOOCGC5ZaZMJIaOvnD-TBBMABdo87B1fQUJIA6ZAA-e
Some things to note:
1. All equipment except scepter and offhand dagger are rare quality.

2. I haven’t installed any runes or sigils, because I’m waiting to get exotic or better equipment. I was going to use Superior Rune of Thorns (or of the Krait) on all armor, Superior Sigil of Agony on scepter and Superior Sigil of Corruption on dagger. I was considering swapping one of the sigils for demon summoning, because I want minions.

3. Given that I’m still new to the game, I have no real understanding on quick ways to make money, so getting all of this is going to be a long-term goal that is a high priority to achieve.

4. I am willing to make changes to this build, but as a massive summoner nut, I want to maintain a heavy minion build as best as I can. If I have to sacrifice a minion to better optimize my kit, I’ll have to deal with it.

You might be better served to concentrate on Core Tyria maps until you have better gear, and a better understanding of your characters and the game.

There’s a lot to be said for Core Tyria. You could also try the post-release HoT maps. There may have less populations issues, and, in my opinion, are a lot easier.

Welcome to Tyria, and good luck.

The reason you always find yourself on an empty map in the night cycle is because players use LFG to jump to a map that is organizing for the meta. The result for players who don’t know any better is that they find themselves alone while another map fills up and completes the meta.

You can use the boss timers on the gw2 wiki to learn when the bosses spawn and use LFG to jump to an organized map at some time before the boss events begin. If you don’t do this, you’re likely to find yourself on the wrong map most of the time.

For necro open world I think you can do whatever you want. They are quite strong with a power or condi build. Although, I think solo survival-wise the condi build is probably stronger because you can take the trait in curses that restores 10% of your damage as healing. Still, you should do well if you wish to go the power reaper route. If you need more healing, take blood magic as it offers constant healing on top of whatever else you have going on.

Also, make sure to use the “Rise!” shout you learn with the reaper spec. The minions are a great distraction as there are usually many of them, but the real benefit is that they reduce your damage taken by 33% while attacking.

Pizzarugi.7352:

I thought the 90% damage reduction only applied to AoEs.
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As for the map meta, most of my concerns come from smaller events that branch from it. For example, in the first jungle map, my problems mostly come from trying to defend Pact camps from being taken over by mordrem. I can take the camps on my necro easily on the offensive, but I struggle on the defensive. Nobody is ever around when trying to defend the camps, because this map is almost always empty. Not kidding, I’m often getting multiple instance migration prompts in the course of one hour. It’s not as bad in the auric basin due to the meta event there and how lucrative the rewards are, but it’s real bad in the earlier map.

The same issue extends to hero point bosses there. I’ve never seen anyone around to fight the Mark 1 Golem or the Champion Coztic Bladedancer and they’re both a nightmare to combat alone. I can’t do it at all on my warrior. I know they’re designed to be fought as a group, hence the “[Group Event]” tag on them, but hardly anyone goes there.
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3. Given that I’m still new to the game, I have no real understanding on quick ways to make money, so getting all of this is going to be a long-term goal that is a high priority to achieve.

4. I am willing to make changes to this build, but as a massive summoner nut, I want to maintain a heavy minion build as best as I can. If I have to sacrifice a minion to better optimize my kit, I’ll have to deal with it.

I could be wrong about the AI, or it doesn’t apply to turrets, I’ll have to check, but I could swear that was the case..

About the meta, the “map is closing” sometimes doesn’t mean it’s empty, it’s usually after the meta cycle is completed and rarely when there’s too few people. Anyways, changing maps is usually a good idea even more so using the lfg tool. Also advertising the hero point you’re going for in map chat is also a great idea, there’s usually a couple of people that are gonna join you and in it’ll make it a lot easier to kill..

..3. it seems you already know about the tarir multimap :p that’s a lucrative endeavor..

4. I would strongly recommend checking out the skills blood is power and epidemic.
Blood is power →deathly swarm is a very good combo with long lasting bleeds, even more so since you have minions drawing condis off you. Also when facing multiple opponents epidemic is the most broken skill necros have access to, so it’s strongly recommended you make use of it. Lastly I would personally change the elite for summon flesh golem; it’s still a minion but has a longer and stronger lasting impact than lich form.