Guild Wars 2

I had a bunch of Arah tokens kicking around my bank so I decided I’d run it just a few more times to get a set of Knight’s armor for my Necro so I could try out the direct-damage thing with her. I’ve done a pure Rabid build with her pretty much forever so I thought it’d be a nice change of pace.

Problem is, I’m finding it harder to get that stats and traits I want and, well, the plan I have for her build is kinda a mess. Here’s the build I have in mind at the moment. I plan on using it mostly in WvW and dungeons. I wanted to test it out in the Mists but it’s hard to replicate the stats exactly (there doesn’t seem to be a Toughness/Power/Precision amulet).

Any suggestions? It’s such pretty armor, I would love to have a build for it.

Rrgh, I can come up with ideas, but I’m not sure they’re any good. Have you considered a variation on wells with this? It seems like the direct-damage style of wells would still have enough power from your build, and the siphons could work nicely with your high toughness. Maybe even take Ritual of Protection so that after you clump up your enemies and start chaining wells you’re nigh-unkillable?

Another idea (that’s admittedly pretty silly) is taking 30 in curses for the weakening precision, weakness on death shroud and banshee’s wail traits, along with a warhorn off-hand instead of your current dagger, and basically pursuing a debilitating condition strategy.

The problem with a lot of these is that I end up leaving your staff completely out in the cold.

Either take 30/0/10/0/30 or 0/30/10/0/30 for target the weak. Or if you dont mind losing greater marks or avoiding the staff completely go 30/10/0/0/30 or 10/30/0/0/30. If your building like that I would recommend wells and spectral walk for a stunbreak. When you dont need a stunbreak take blood is power for extra damage.

You can provide some good condi support with a knights wells build. Plague signet + consume conditions. Well of darkness + chilling darkness trait. Weakness on crits aswell. Plus boon stripping on focus, well of corruption and corrupt boon. Only for when you need it though. Not many bosses/mobs use boons. These are all ideas from a dungeon stand point.

spoj.9672:

Either take 30/0/10/0/30 or 0/30/10/0/30 for target the weak. Or if you dont mind losing greater marks or avoiding the staff completely go 30/10/0/0/30 or 10/30/0/0/30. If your building like that I would recommend wells and spectral walk for a stunbreak. When you dont need a stunbreak take blood is power for extra damage.

You can provide some good condi support with a knights wells build. Plague signet + consume conditions. Well of darkness + chilling darkness trait. Weakness on crits aswell. Plus boon stripping on focus, well of corruption and corrupt boon. Only for when you need it though. Not many bosses/mobs use boons. These are all ideas from a dungeon stand point.

Yes, I would definitely go 30/0/10/0/30. Or 30/0/20/0/20. The former for max damage, the latter if you want to be able to get more staff CDs or minions when needed.

Might on DS1, Mark 10%, and 20% more when less than 50%. Greater Marks, DS1 gives vuln, marks give 3%, and Stability.

I would actually do a mix of berserker and knight. You just need the knights for the toughness that berserker lacks. While berserker will provide the majority of the damage in dungeons. You’ll get a nice 50%+ crit bonus damage. Your precision will be ~35-40% which is good enough. The 20% increased damage for less than 50% is huge for a boss. And the 5% increased damage ikitten0% life force is also huge in dungeons when you dont need to swap to DS anytime and just keep daggering.

I would do runes of Strength, consume conditions, blood is power, signet of spite, and last can be whatever, i do locust signet just cause mobility is needed versus some bosses and its convenient. All your damage is autos, auto like a boss. Boost auto damage with might stacks.

Hmm, my concern about swapping in some zerker gear is that I’d end up too squishy. I already feel pretty squishy and my current build has a pretty heavy investment in Blood. The +20% damage sounds tempting, though, I must say.

Blaine Tog.8304:

I had a bunch of Arah tokens kicking around my bank so I decided I’d run it just a few more times to get a set of Knight’s armor for my Necro so I could try out the direct-damage thing with her. I’ve done a pure Rabid build with her pretty much forever so I thought it’d be a nice change of pace.

Problem is, I’m finding it harder to get that stats and traits I want and, well, the plan I have for her build is kinda a mess. Here’s the build I have in mind at the moment. I plan on using it mostly in WvW and dungeons. I wanted to test it out in the Mists but it’s hard to replicate the stats exactly (there doesn’t seem to be a Toughness/Power/Precision amulet).

Any suggestions? It’s such pretty armor, I would love to have a build for it.

Vampirism works best with Knight’s gear, and you can use your amulet for extra damage, or extra toughness.

You could also try running what I do, ill run a 0/30/10/20/10 or 0/20/10/20/20(depending on if I want marks to generate life force or not) and also 0/30/0/20/20 when I use axe instead of staff as my wep swap. it actually works quite well, been running those variations for a long time now even using my grandmaster slot in curse for spectral attunement instead of applying weakness since it does have it benefits(and also even tho the endurance debuff from weakness is nice, weakness wont lower dmg from zerker builds much since if all they do is crit their dmg never gets lowered). weakness is way more effective in pve imo since mobs don’t crit that often.

sorry for the wall of text kind of in a rush, reason it works for me with my armor set up is even tho my attack sits around 2800-2900 I have a high crit chance 41%(46% counting sigil)(56% counting sigil+potion+food) and more crits=more lifestealing=more dmg+survivablility so it all works out.

hopped into game real quick, using my axe trait setup as mention above(to give u an idea) my stats are, with no food or anything extra besides gear

attack=2828
crit chance=41%
crit damage=76%
armor=2,521
hp=22,972
healing power=260
condition damage=360

You get used to running beserker on necro pretty quick. I actually think its easier than a beserker warrior because of DS. Then again i havent been playing warrior nearly as long. Warriors tend to have less reliable condition removal and if using hb you get locked in place which can be quite risky at times. Necro’s can constantly move while dpsing and condition cleanse is much better. If you dont have any condi cleanse, just go DS until the conds run out. Necro’s can also duck in and out of melee while still maintaining pretty consistant dps. Which makes them a lot more risk free. Only issue is the lack of dodges which is a pretty big weakness in some dungeons.

Hmm. So would going half Knights, half Berserker armor and trinkers work?

Blaine Tog.8304:

Hmm. So would going half Knights, half Berserker armor and trinkers work?

If your set on knights. Go for zerker trinkets and weapons. Knights on the armour.