Guild Wars 2

Necromancer is my third 80, and i have no clue how gear and which build is pick. Maybe i just should buy berserker gear? Or maybe go to conditions? Links to good builds are welcome

Magic find minion necro is OP, I heard.

Beserker. 30/25/0/0/15

I was on the same boat as you a couple weeks ago. I had 3 level 80s already the necro was the 4th, and I decided to go with what’s unique among each of my characters. For example my thief and my warrior are both glass cannon zerkers, as DPS is their best attribute. My guard is an AH based anchor guard with high survivability. Thus I went with a condi necro since none of my other toons are condi based, and necros do condi better than any other class.

This is not to say any other necro builds aren’t as strong or stronger, I just picked it because none of my other characters can do it as well!

Another plus was that a condi necro gear is pretty cheap, most of the gear you can get from temples (except chest and boots) and those you can get from TA or CM or Badges of Honor, etc.

The gear is all rabid, including weapons and trinkets. 3 superior runes of krait and 3 afflicted. Superior sigil of earth and corruption on sceptor/dagger, superior sigil of whatever you want on staff.

Slot skills: Blood is power, Epidemic, and whatever you want.

Traits: 30 into curses is a necessity, the rest is up to you. (For example you can go 0/30/20/20/0 for the “Fearmancer” build in wvw, you can opt to go 10/30/0/30/0 instead for the “classic” condimancer build with high survivability instead).

EDIT: There is the “hybrid” build that nemesis has a tutorial on which is also quite popular – incidentally he also has a condimancer build if you want to take a look. I used the hybrid to level up but I found that I rarely used the single target DPS much and most of the time I used my necro for AoE, world completion, etc. The gear for the nemesis hybrid is a bit more expensive since it requires a lot of allstat gear.

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

Necromancer is my third 80, and i have no clue how gear and which build is pick. Maybe i just should buy berserker gear? Or maybe go to conditions? Links to good builds are welcome

It would help readers if you were more specific about venue: PVE (open world or dungeon), WvW (solo or zerg), PvP.

I think it depends more on your play style, I play a glass cannon build but I’m constantly told (by people who are not playing Necromancers) that I should be a Condition Build.

Assuming you want a build for PvE, as you wouldn’t have needed to level to 80 for WvW or sPvP, I’ll talk you through my power build. Bare in mind all builds are flawed in some respect and some more than others but for me I find the best defense if a good offense. If you are good at dodging then this is the build for you.

Traits are 30, 10, 0, 0, 10.
Spite:
Spiteful Talisman – increased ranged for focus and CD reduced by 20%
Axe Mastery – Increased axe damage and CD reduced by 20%
Close to Death – +20% damage while health is below 50%

Curses:
Weakening Shroud – Cast Enfeebling Blood on nearby targets when entering DS

Soul Reaping:
Path of Midnight – CD of spells in Death Shroud reduced by 15%
Near to Death – CD of Death Shroud reduced by 30%
Deathly Perception – +50% crit chance while in Death Shroud.

Healing Spell:
Consume Conditions

Utility Spells:
Well of Suffering – High damage and stacks vulnerability
Well of Corruption – Does damage and converts boon to conditions on enemies, remember that stability converts to fear
Blood is Power – For optimal pew pew. 10 stacks of might.

Elite spell:
Flesh Golem – the knockdown can make sure the enemies stay in your wells and also make is easier to kite.

The weapons I use mainly is Axe/Focus for Vulnerability. My second set of weapons at the moment is Dagger/Dagger but I switch it with the staff sometimes depending on what I’m doing.

Dagger 4 removes 3 conditions from you and put them on the target. Dagger 3 is immobilize and dagger 2 is a small heal with damage.

Axe 2 is the hard hitting spell that you want to cast after stacking vulnerability on the target with focus 4 and Well of Suffering.

The filler spell I use is Death Shroud 1 but some prefer to use dagger 1 but what ever you prefer there I guess.

Have fun as Necro!

youlostthegame.8102:

I think it depends more on your play style, I play a glass cannon build but I’m constantly told (by people who are not playing Necromancers) that I should be a Condition Build.

Assuming you want a build for PvE, as you wouldn’t have needed to level to 80 for WvW or sPvP, I’ll talk you through my power build. Bare in mind all builds are flawed in some respect and some more than others but for me I find the best defense if a good offense. If you are good at dodging then this is the build for you.

Traits are 30, 10, 0, 0, 10.
Spite:
Spiteful Talisman – increased ranged for focus and CD reduced by 20%
Axe Mastery – Increased axe damage and CD reduced by 20%
Close to Death – +20% damage while health is below 50%

Curses:
Weakening Shroud – Cast Enfeebling Blood on nearby targets when entering DS

Soul Reaping:
Path of Midnight – CD of spells in Death Shroud reduced by 15%
Near to Death – CD of Death Shroud reduced by 30%
Deathly Perception – +50% crit chance while in Death Shroud.

Healing Spell:
Consume Conditions

Utility Spells:
Well of Suffering – High damage and stacks vulnerability
Well of Corruption – Does damage and converts boon to conditions on enemies, remember that stability converts to fear
Blood is Power – For optimal pew pew. 10 stacks of might.

Elite spell:
Flesh Golem – the knockdown can make sure the enemies stay in your wells and also make is easier to kite.

The weapons I use mainly is Axe/Focus for Vulnerability. My second set of weapons at the moment is Dagger/Dagger but I switch it with the staff sometimes depending on what I’m doing.

Dagger 4 removes 3 conditions from you and put them on the target. Dagger 3 is immobilize and dagger 2 is a small heal with damage.

Axe 2 is the hard hitting spell that you want to cast after stacking vulnerability on the target with focus 4 and Well of Suffering.

The filler spell I use is Death Shroud 1 but some prefer to use dagger 1 but what ever you prefer there I guess.

Have fun as Necro!

Well, thanks, bro

Just a note to remember. Using DS for dps is some of the worst dps you can do. Which is why 30/10/0/0/30 is a bad build for dungeons when going for damage. I can understand it for a solo purpose due to stability in DS and that flexibility you have with DS traits, but for group based stuff its a bad build. Also axe #2 is not good dps either, the channel time is way too long for the amount it hits for.

spoj.9672:

Just a note to remember. Using DS for dps is some of the worst dps you can do. Which is why 30/10/0/0/30 is a bad build for dungeons when going for damage. I can understand it for a solo purpose due to stability in DS and that flexibility you have with DS traits, but for group based stuff its a bad build. Also axe #2 is not good dps either, the channel time is way too long for the amount it hits for.

Do you know what the numbers look like for full berserker 30,25,0,0,15 vs 30,10,0,0,30 using dagger and ds1? Does the increase in precision make up for the loss in crit damage?

The increased precision and target the weak more than make up for it. Plus with points in curses you can take banshees wail which is a pretty big dps increase along with weakening shroud which does damage while granting fury while flashing DS, also makes target the weak more effective due to weakness. Soul reaping on the other hand doesnt have any dps increase traits worth taking over curses. Even with deathly perception life blast isnt good dps. Its less than 1 life blast per second due to aftercast. Dagger on the other hand completes a full rotation in just over 2 seconds and does a hell of a lot more.

Heres the thread where some number were worked out. Page 3.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Engi-tested-on-destroyer-Two-ele-too/page/3

I got higher numbers when calculating dps before but i suspect i used a lower armour value. Guang is pretty much known for being the king of excelwars 2 on the dungeon forums. Dont know exactly how he gets his numbers but he does know what hes talking about when it comes to calculating sustained dps of a rotation. He mentioned on a gw2guru thread that life blast dps with deathly perception was about 7.2k dps which is quite a bit lower than dagger.

spoj.9672:

The increased precision and target the weak more than make up for it. Plus with points in curses you can take banshees wail which is a pretty big dps increase along with weakening shroud which does damage while granting fury while flashing DS, also makes target the weak more effective due to weakness. Soul reaping on the other hand doesnt have any dps increase traits worth taking over curses. Even with deathly perception life blast isnt good dps. Its less than 1 life blast per second due to aftercast. Dagger on the other hand completes a full rotation in just over 2 seconds and does a hell of a lot more.

Heres the thread where some number were worked out. Page 3.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/dungeons/Engi-tested-on-destroyer-Two-ele-too/page/3

I got higher numbers when calculating dps before but i suspect i used a lower armour value. Guang is pretty much known for being the king of excelwars 2 on the dungeon forums. Dont know exactly how he gets his numbers but he does know what hes talking about when it comes to calculating sustained dps of a rotation. He mentioned on a gw2guru thread that life blast dps with deathly perception was about 7.2k dps which is quite a bit lower than dagger.

But with dagger you have to stay in melee range

For DPS:
DS build based on crit damage and Dperception > Dagger crit build
Base power dagger (so low crit) > DS based power with Dperception
Also DPS…

The main difference between 30/10/0/0/30 aka DS and 30/25/0/0/15 aka dagger is that DS has superior overall dps when your group doesnt supply you lots of might/precision/extra conditions and when meleeing is undesireable from dps point (arch diviner is a pain as melee). Basically its better for pugs. Dagger shines over it when you can fully count on party members to provide lots of precision and might and possibly conditions to feed on Target The Weak. For solo situations they handle stuff at around same speed.

Andele.1306:

For DPS:
DS build based on crit damage and Dperception > Dagger crit build
Base power dagger (so low crit) > DS based power with Dperception
Also DPS…

Please enlighten us. What do you think DPS means?

If you guys seriously think your doing good damage with lifeblast ill just leave you to stew in your ignorance. I generate a fair amount of might with sigil of strength and if i didnt id still be doing more damage than the DS build. I did another vet giant kill after getting scholar runes and a bloodlust sigil. Killed it in 19 seconds with a poor rotation, I believe thats 3 seconds faster than the DS build which was self generating might and vuln a lot better. Lifeblasts hit harder on my build aswell, they just crit slightly less often. So really 30/10/0/0/30 is just superior DS dps but it still doesnt beat dagger in any situation. Even if you have interrupt dagger dps or whatever. If your a bad player I can understand that using dagger might be a dps loss but thats not what were discussing.

Conditions + Fear = win

spoj.9672:

Andele.1306:

For DPS:
DS build based on crit damage and Dperception > Dagger crit build
Base power dagger (so low crit) > DS based power with Dperception
Also DPS…

Please enlighten us. What do you think DPS means?

If you guys seriously think your doing good damage with lifeblast ill just leave you to stew in your ignorance. I generate a fair amount of might with sigil of strength and if i didnt id still be doing more damage than the DS build. I did another vet giant kill after getting scholar runes and a bloodlust sigil. Killed it in 19 seconds with a poor rotation, I believe thats 3 seconds faster than the DS build which was self generating might and vuln a lot better. Lifeblasts hit harder on my build aswell, they just crit slightly less often. So really 30/10/0/0/30 is just superior DS dps but it still doesnt beat dagger in any situation. Even if you have interrupt dagger dps or whatever. If your a bad player I can understand that using dagger might be a dps loss but thats not what were discussing.

dagger IS NOT AN OPTION, hell, if i want be melee berskerker – i’ll go to my warrior.

Just keep in mind that if you go condition damage you are USELESS is any group. That’s not a necromancer thing either, any class that heavily invests in condition damage is useless in any sort of group content, because your teammates will constantly overwrite most of your conditions whether they want to or not.

And dagger is the absolute best weapon for a necro. If you don’t want to use a dagger then you might as well skip necromancer alltogether (unless you really want condition damage, then get a scepter and keep yourself in 1v1 fights only).

PS. If you don’t want to go melee berserker, then you’re out of luck, because ALL classes are supposed to go melee berserker in dungeons. Blame Anet for being terrible at designing their dungeon mechanics.

PMilkos.9103:

Just keep in mind that if you go condition damage you are USELESS is *any* group. That’s not a necromancer thing either, any class that heavily invests in condition damage is useless in any sort of group content, because your teammates will constantly overwrite most of your conditions whether they want to or not.

And dagger is the absolute best weapon for a necro. If you don’t want to use a dagger then you might as well skip necromancer alltogether (unless you really want condition damage, then get a scepter and keep yourself in 1v1 fights only).

PS. If you don’t want to go melee berserker, then you’re out of luck, because ALL classes are supposed to go melee berserker in dungeons. Blame Anet for being terrible at designing their dungeon mechanics.

More mindless zerker spam... *hint hint these are the kind of people that caused all the necro nerfs because oh no something can kill a zerker build with 0 defensive slot ins, we just wanna skip everything/faceroll win in pvp*

Andele.1306:

PMilkos.9103:

Just keep in mind that if you go condition damage you are USELESS is any group. That’s not a necromancer thing either, any class that heavily invests in condition damage is useless in any sort of group content, because your teammates will constantly overwrite most of your conditions whether they want to or not.

And dagger is the absolute best weapon for a necro. If you don’t want to use a dagger then you might as well skip necromancer alltogether (unless you really want condition damage, then get a scepter and keep yourself in 1v1 fights only).

PS. If you don’t want to go melee berserker, then you’re out of luck, because ALL classes are supposed to go melee berserker in dungeons. Blame Anet for being terrible at designing their dungeon mechanics.

More mindless zerker spam… hint hint these are the kind of people that caused all the necro nerfs

Because zerker necro is soooo strong… You really do come out with the stupidest posts sometimes. Anyway can you answer my question. What do you think dps means?

Andele.1306:

PMilkos.9103:

Just keep in mind that if you go condition damage you are USELESS is any group. That’s not a necromancer thing either, any class that heavily invests in condition damage is useless in any sort of group content, because your teammates will constantly overwrite most of your conditions whether they want to or not.

And dagger is the absolute best weapon for a necro. If you don’t want to use a dagger then you might as well skip necromancer alltogether (unless you really want condition damage, then get a scepter and keep yourself in 1v1 fights only).

PS. If you don’t want to go melee berserker, then you’re out of luck, because ALL classes are supposed to go melee berserker in dungeons. Blame Anet for being terrible at designing their dungeon mechanics.

More mindless zerker spam… hint hint these are the kind of people that caused all the necro nerfs because oh no something can kill a zerker build with 0 defensive slot ins, we just wanna skip everything/faceroll win in pvp

*Hint hint I don’t even have a berserker necromancer – I have a celestial one, based around wells and lifesteal and critical damage. That’s because I mostly do open world PVE.

spoj.9672:

Andele.1306:

For DPS:
DS build based on crit damage and Dperception > Dagger crit build
Base power dagger (so low crit) > DS based power with Dperception
Also DPS…

Please enlighten us. What do you think DPS means?

If you guys seriously think your doing good damage with lifeblast ill just leave you to stew in your ignorance. I generate a fair amount of might with sigil of strength and if i didnt id still be doing more damage than the DS build. I did another vet giant kill after getting scholar runes and a bloodlust sigil. Killed it in 19 seconds with a poor rotation, I believe thats 3 seconds faster than the DS build which was self generating might and vuln a lot better. Lifeblasts hit harder on my build aswell, they just crit slightly less often. So really 30/10/0/0/30 is just superior DS dps but it still doesnt beat dagger in any situation. Even if you have interrupt dagger dps or whatever. If your a bad player I can understand that using dagger might be a dps loss but thats not what were discussing.

My killtime without scholars was around that too (~19sec) and my rotation was far from complete (I even used one axe auto at start).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXdGjHVR8mw

And I already stated the advantages of both builds groupwise earlier this thread.

Targuil.3741:

spoj.9672:

Andele.1306:

For DPS:
DS build based on crit damage and Dperception > Dagger crit build
Base power dagger (so low crit) > DS based power with Dperception
Also DPS…

Please enlighten us. What do you think DPS means?

If you guys seriously think your doing good damage with lifeblast ill just leave you to stew in your ignorance. I generate a fair amount of might with sigil of strength and if i didnt id still be doing more damage than the DS build. I did another vet giant kill after getting scholar runes and a bloodlust sigil. Killed it in 19 seconds with a poor rotation, I believe thats 3 seconds faster than the DS build which was self generating might and vuln a lot better. Lifeblasts hit harder on my build aswell, they just crit slightly less often. So really 30/10/0/0/30 is just superior DS dps but it still doesnt beat dagger in any situation. Even if you have interrupt dagger dps or whatever. If your a bad player I can understand that using dagger might be a dps loss but thats not what were discussing.

My killtime without scholars was around that too (~19sec) and my rotation was far from complete (I even used one axe auto at start).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXdGjHVR8mw

And I already stated the advantages of both builds groupwise earlier this thread.

Ill do some more tests tonight, because after seeing the calculated dps for the 2 builds it really doesnt make sense that life blasting keeps up so well.

spoj.9672:

Targuil.3741:

spoj.9672:

Andele.1306:

For DPS:
DS build based on crit damage and Dperception > Dagger crit build
Base power dagger (so low crit) > DS based power with Dperception
Also DPS…

Please enlighten us. What do you think DPS means?

If you guys seriously think your doing good damage with lifeblast ill just leave you to stew in your ignorance. I generate a fair amount of might with sigil of strength and if i didnt id still be doing more damage than the DS build. I did another vet giant kill after getting scholar runes and a bloodlust sigil. Killed it in 19 seconds with a poor rotation, I believe thats 3 seconds faster than the DS build which was self generating might and vuln a lot better. Lifeblasts hit harder on my build aswell, they just crit slightly less often. So really 30/10/0/0/30 is just superior DS dps but it still doesnt beat dagger in any situation. Even if you have interrupt dagger dps or whatever. If your a bad player I can understand that using dagger might be a dps loss but thats not what were discussing.

My killtime without scholars was around that too (~19sec) and my rotation was far from complete (I even used one axe auto at start).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXdGjHVR8mw

And I already stated the advantages of both builds groupwise earlier this thread.

Ill do some more tests tonight, because after seeing the calculated dps for the 2 builds it really doesnt make sense that life blasting keeps up so well.

Did it take into account that wells and locust will always crit due to deathly perception?

I believe so.

Anyway I think a risen giant isn’t thAt good of a test for dps..it’s more of a burst damage test. In the video, I noticed he was using food/potion and sigil which matters alot. Furthermore I believe that for solo purposes the ds built is much better cause it can self stack might and vulnerability. But in a party situation with buffs and condition applying from other classes, dagger should outperform the ds built.

Sutcliffe.5491:

Anyway I think a risen giant isn’t thAt good of a test for dps..it’s more of a burst damage test. In the video, I noticed he was using food/potion and sigil which matters alot. Furthermore I believe that for solo purposes the ds built is much better cause it can self stack might and vulnerability. But in a party situation with buffs and condition applying from other classes, dagger should outperform the ds built.

It out performs it solo aswell. Did some more kills today. With a better rotation my slowest times were 19 seconds. The rest were faster. Only thing which slows it down is really bad rng with giant stomps (had the giant chain stomping 5 times in a row from the start at one point so i just reset and tried again rofl) or just getting really unlucky with crits (not an issue at all in a dungeon group).