Guild Wars 2

Goal:
I have primarily been playing dungeons with RL friends playing 2 Thieves and an Engineer, while I have been playing a Conditionmancer build. I would like to change up my build to create a playstyle that will allow me to soak up melee damage and provide a lot of PBAoE support.

Known so far:
Gear:
I intend to use Staff and Dagger/Focus/Warhorn. Warhorn seems like the weapon of choice for trash and AoE encounters, while Focus seems superior for single target encounters, but but this is a game time decision. Gear will be a mixture of Knight’s & Soldier’s stats.

Utilities:
Well of Blood
Well of Suffering
Well of Darkness
Well of Power (as default – rotated based on encounter)

Traits:
What I really don’t know, though, is how I want my traits setup, or which traits will perform well for this role. I know that I want 30 points in Blood, and Ritual Mastery (Well CD reduction) is necessary. This leaves me two major trait selections from Blood.

I have also not decided how to split the remaining 40 traits. I am most leaning towards a 30/10 or 10/30 split between Spite and Soul Reaping. 30 Spite would lean more towards damage, including Close to Death. Whereas 30 Soul Reaping would include Near to Death (DS CD reduction), for interaction with Spiteful Spirit and Deathly Invigoration. This combo should create a streaming source of group healing and self-retaliation for increased damage if I am also taking hits.

Spite build|
SR build|

Questions:
- Has anyone played a similar build / role to this successfully as a Necro.?
- What two majors should I pick up in Blood?
- Is the combination of Near to Death with effects that occur on entering DS worth the trade off of extra damage from Spite?
- Other suggestions?

Can’t think of a logical reason that a 4-Well support build wouldn’t get the Well protection talent.

alanis.6094:

Can’t think of a logical reason that a 4-Well support build wouldn’t get the Well protection talent.

Primarily because I would have to spec in and out of it anytime I decided to run Arah. Though it would be a great talent, I’ll probably avoid Death Magic until Reanimator stops sucking so hard (or ANet allows me to disable it).

I strongly suggest going 0/20/20/30/0 for your traits if you want full support. Reanimator doesn’t hurt you in dungeons (it sticks close to you if you’re not in combat. If you are, the extra damage-soak and damage are always helpful, even as small as it is). Using Greater Marks and Ritual of Protection as your Death Magic traits (3.6 seconds of protection on every well cast is nice). Using Mark of Blood, you can keep regen permanently on whoever is on the front lines (6 second regen duration on a 5 second recharge). Curses lets you grab Focused Rituals, because you aren’t always where the damage/enemy is. Enfeebling Blood on Death Shroud lets you throw Weakness on enemies with instant speed that can be used while stunned. Alternatively, Blindess causing Chill makes your Well of Darkness significantly more potent.

For Blood Magic, I would suggest one of three traits for your Adept: Well of Blood on Revive (because more wells is a very good thing and procs the protection from the death magic trait, giving your revived ally a very good situation as he gets up), Life Transfer healing allies, or Mark of Blood on dodge. Ritual Master lets you use wells more often, and the “Wells siphon health” trait makes a good Grandmaster, especially since even your non-damaging wells deal some damage with it.

Finally, these traits give you pretty good durability, as you’re getting 200 armor, 3k health, and significant healing (plus all boons you apply last 20% longer, including your Fury, Regeneration, and Protection from traits).

^ i’d recommend something similar to the above post.

cleric’s full gear staff+ dagger/x necro focusing w/ wells and sources of regeneration.

Yeah, I end up doing a ton of supporting in dungeons. I have 30 in curses instead of blood magic, but I still manage a very good support style while keeping up condition DPS.

That said, there should be someone else doing some of the support to supplement your own. You provide excellent support with this build, but your cooldowns do limit what you can accomplish.