Guild Wars 2

In all stages of the game, pvp, wvw, pve, i find myself always taking well of suffering (sometimes even for condi builds, since vuln improves condi dmg too), for it’s fairly high dmg and vuln stacks.
I’d like to try some alternatives, especially for wvw roaming, where it’s rather difficult to pin a target onto a well. Sigils may be good, but i like going tanky, and so i take bm; that means that at grandmaster i either take the wells trait or just waste a trait.
Should I take spite or soul reaping instead of bm? So far it seems that bm gives good survivability, and often tends to outshine death magic (which doesn’t mitigate that much dmg, i mainly take it for the “toughness is converted to power” trait), but the grand master traits, for solo roaming, are either so-so or just useless.

Depends what build you’re running. If you’re power, WoS is quite good even if your target doesn’t stand in it for very long. Just one tick hurts pretty badly. Still, if you’re roaming, Wells are kind of sub-optimal for that exact reason ~ most people won’t stand in them long enough for them to do significant damage.

If you’re condition, I highly suggest using a minimum of 2 Spectral skills.

You should try using Spectral Grasp if you haven’t. It’s a bit clunky but it’s low cooldown, applies a long Chill and grants a generous amount of Life Force, especially if traited for Spectral mastery.

There is 2 way to play tanky :
- obviously the well builds with blood magic.
- spectral builds.

It’s up to you to decide if you prefere to play more with the shroud to do damage or out of the shroud.

Taking dagger for the most part, a liking the almost permanent swiftness with warhorn, i tried taking blood magic. It gives good sustain, and damage with wells… when I’m against mobs (camps) in wvw. Against players, the grandmaster traits are a waste.
I tried some spectral build, but i feel somewhat squishier, and dagger seems to lose effectiveness without life steal, although it’ll always be better than axe.
Could you suggest me one, or more, tanky spectral build?

Try making Shroud dancing Power build if you want. Rather different from regular wellspam Power and most of these build don’t take any well whatsoever.

I’m playing this ATM

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBLRhG2IHNUbjN3gxNwhjjlhSeBLwOP/gA4apBxSkqA-TFSBABBt/gWK/q4IAUp6PT8AAwT/QkKBB4kAIKoMC-w

It’s not very good against a camp or mobs but it’s not that bad against player. It may also be because I’m used to the specific playstyle of this build since I’ve ran something similar for the last 2 years. Anyway, In 1v1 you should be able to win almost all profession even if it’s a full glass that take you off guard.

Just remember that locuste swarm, spectral armor and spectral walk still grant you LF when in Shroud.

Try taking Spite, Soul reaping, and either Death Magic or Blood Magic. Run minions, Spectral, Signets, or a combination. Lots of choices besides wells.

Curses is great for roaming 1v1, plague sending is very good and throws people off (including mesmers), and weakening shroud can save your life. A lot of power necros don’t look at Curses but if you want to roam, give it a try.

Blood Magic is still good, sometimes you don’t use wells for their damage as much as the protection if offers for yourself. When a Thief or Mesmer suffocates you by being in your face, dropping Wells on yourself gives you Prot and it’ll inevitably hit them as they try to come in for a pop. Not to mention it siphons a lil hp to help with sustain. Works better if you know when they’re going to try and come in for a hit though.

Death Magic to me feels the weakest when it comes to roaming for a power build. I like Death Magic when I’m with a group. But by myself, I feel it’s just missing something and I’ve performed better roaming with either Blood Magic or Curses.