Guild Wars 2

Hi, this is my first time at making a Necromancer, and I would really like to use the staff as the main weapon. Are there any guides/videos that describe what traits, armor, spells, and secondary weapons to get? Any suggestions would be appreciated ^.^! Thank you in advance~

Staff is a utility weapon, all builds based on staff mostly rely on soul marks and then using DS as the damage source (and indirectly staff since its the weapon that has the highest damage/attack thus giving us the strongest DS).
Also there are minion builds but they are better off maining axe even without the damage/cd trait.

I personally use 30/10/0/0/30 with staff main weap, for lots of aoe. Swapping to Axe/Focus for single. Staff is usually ‘the’ choice for 2nd weapon in any build, due to utility/no other weapon has a Combo Finisher as a necro.

Some tips:

Auto-attack piece’s thru a line. So get them in a row. It’s also got 20% ‘combo finisher’ so try to shoot it in others circles.

2, will give regen to anyone in the circle, and will allow you to aoe bleed monsters (So condi dam on a staff, even for power builds dosen’t hurt, Regen is based off there heal power not yours)

3 slows and poisons. Also gives a short time combo field, so helpful for others too. The 1/3rd less heals, can be super helpful in dungeons etc if timed right.

4 GOD. It has 100% combo finisher, tho it’s long CD, means your usually going to want to save this for when your covered in condi. (You don’t have to be in the circle to clean condi off you). It’s buggy at the moment, so it no longer removes all condi, and it’s suppose to clean condi off people in the circle. (Particularly super fun in PvP vs a condi class)

5, It’s fear, AOE in the circle. They recently nurfed fear duration, because of added burning condition. So it’s kinda mostly useless if not in a terror spec. Gains a small amount of extra time, over cast if res’ing someone who’s got a group on them.

As people said, it makes your DeathShroud power attacks (Auto/#4 AoE) stronger than any other weapon. They did add a bug, that they said they not going to fix, where you can’t swap weapons in death shroud. So swap to staff before deathshroud damage spree’s.

As for pure damage, Auto, with mobs in a line. Tho 2 on CD wont’ hurt to keep regen/bleeds stacking up. The rest, your not using on CD, using when the time is right.

Oh traits.
20% faster, wont do more damage. Just more utility.
Greater Marks, is awesome in WvW. But trait cost into that line, is prob going to hinder most builds, excluding Minions.

That was a lot of help. Thanks guys!

Bweaty.9187:

( Regen is based off there heal power not yours)

5, It’s fear, AOE in the circle. They recently nurfed fear duration, because of added burning condition. So it’s kinda mostly useless if not in a terror spec. Gains a small amount of extra time, over cast if res’ing someone who’s got a group on them.

Oh traits.
20% faster, wont do more damage. Just more utility.
Greater Marks, is awesome in WvW. But trait cost into that line, is prob going to hinder most builds, excluding Minions.

Regeneration is based on the source (as all boons and conditions have a little “applied by ____” part) so no it scales off your healing power.

The “useless” aoe fear is the strongest (fractal) skill the necro has on weapons.
Also its nerfed, not nurfed.

25% movementspeed in ds is worthless (and still is even if it helps in the queens gauntlet), rather pick up 15% cdr or piercing Life blast.

I don’t know if this sounds all right, but I guess I want to try something… I can always change it, but this is what I plan for now.

I plan to focus on the three stats of Condition Damage, Toughness, and Vitality. This is so that I can inflict conditions with my staff to open a fight, and then switch to Scepter + Dagger to inflict more bleeds and poisons. Because I’m tanky, I can withstand a lot of punishment while constantly dealing out damage over time. If I do somehow start to die, I can always activate my F1 to withstand some more damage while my poisons and bleeds continue to take effect. Thoughts? This is obviously not the best way to play necromancer, but I thought I’d like to give it a try

Don’t listen to Andele, he’s only been playing gw2 for a week or so..

Staff build:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Build-Staff-Corruption/

Bweaty.9187:

Regen is based off there heal power not yours

That’s not true.

Bweaty.9187:

They recently nurfed fear duration, because of added burning condition. So it’s kinda mostly useless if not in a terror spec. Gains a small amount of extra time, over cast if res’ing someone who’s got a group on them.

Umm… what?
Fear duration wasn’t nerfed. It has always been 1 sec on Reaper’s Mark.
And it’s certainly not useless if you don’t run Terror.

Btw Terror damage was nerfed, not because of burning though.

If doing a combination of Carrion and Rabid stats (since condi+tough+vit dont exist as a set), make sure to have at least around 30% crit chance to proc the bleed sigil and minior curse trait.
Also one big point every condi necro would mention, chip damage is pretty much the only thing that will hurt you if you play right, so making your starting build training wheels for good positioning is usually better (and allows you to plow trough content faster) than going a defensive setup that will still stick to range.
If you want more build info look at the forums or youtube for Nemesis.

Absolutely there are staff builds!

The staff is an excellent weapon to build around, and you should get used to using it early!

The first 10 points in talents you spend should be to get the 20% cooldown reduction for staff skills, and then 10 more in that trait line for unblockable marks.

When leveling use the little scorpion looking pet and the ghostly blob one, since they actually heal themselves when out of combat.

The blob makes a decent tank. You just need to keep casting Mark of Blood on him, so that he has healing from regeneration.

In time you will learn if you favor direct damage/power or bleeds/conditions for damage, the staff works with both, so it’s all good.

P.S. when leveling you may want to pick up the Vampiric Master trait, since the pet heals can add up fast.

Last time I watched my staff’s Regen, everyone’s was ticking at different numbers. Will test again if it’s not bug and actually runs of necro/caster heal power. (Still wouldn’t recommend stacking healing power as a necro even if it works)

As for fear, wasn’t there a 20% duration nurf, since burning and before pax?
Anyway, I guess I explained it wrong…
For a starting necro, the fear circle isn’t as sexy as it sounds. Sure there’s ‘situations’ that it’s really nice. Like high level fractals. Team PvP when it’s soo close. Even skiping mobs in a dungy.
But 3/4th a sec cast time, then mobs have to ‘trigger’ it. With a 40sec CD. For 1 second of CC…

Without traits/runes & the icing, it’s going to be a waste to burn this baby on CD ;-P

Your DeathShroud + Doom, is going to be your most used fear. Altho not AoE, it’s instant & get’s 2sec no icing, if close’ish to your target.

I think, were explaining the staff badly too. In that… It’s arguably our best & most used weapon. But it’s not a good ‘damage’ weapon. It will only be your mainly used weapon, in AoE/Support/Minion roles. God I’m not explaining it any better!
It’s not like a war, where you have this GSword, this is the build that makes it shine, these are the 2nd set of weapons that buff it, this is the rotation.