Guild Wars 2

Greetings, I have seen similar posts prior to this one, but I wanted to ask the Necro community what you truly thought about a Hybrid spec.

Currently I run a Hybrid Power/Condition/crit spec, which in my opinion looks like 20/30/0/0/20, which gives me a balance between power, condition dmg/duration, and some crit. It also gives me some Death Shroud focused abilities which makes it more useful bouncing in and out of shroud when i have enough bleeds stacked, or to fear an opponent/mob. I also see DS #4 ability hitting for up to 4500+ dmg, and about the same for Axe #2. Have not really tried dagger because I am not a huge fan of dagger on Necro (I have an 80 thief and i cry when i see the damage he does with a dagger in WvW). Staff putrid mark can crit for 4k as well, and i get 3500 – 3800 crits on lich #1 attack.

SKILLS: I typically run BiP, Epidemic, Well of Suffering as my utility skills (though I will add another well and drop epidemic if im single target focusing, or drop the well and run a spect skill in wvw for a break stun).

Weapons: Main weapon set is scepter/dagger, secondary set is staff or sometimes axe/focus, which is entirely situation dependent. I like Sigil of bloodlust on the scepter (stack it to +250 power to help out) and Sigil of agony on the dagger (sometimes i run geomancy). On the axe I run exquisite rubies that give power, perc and crit dmg.

Gear (which is a mix of Kebron (perc, toughness, condition dmg) and Arah (which is transmuted from the WVW badge armor and focuses on Power, Toughness, Vitality). I am working at getting a full Arah set, which i will Trasumute to work with a well rounded attribute lineup, but I will focus on Power, Condition Dmg, Toughness, with vitality and percision coming in second. Earrings are a mix between beserker and chrys (condition dmg, power)

Runes: I bounce between aflicted/krait, or just a full set of undead. Both are good for getting condition damage up there. I tried Lich but did not like it, enjoyed the increased toughness with undead.

Stats: Depending on which weapons I am running im averaging about 1750 in power (2000 solid with maxed bloodlust), 1550 percision (40 crit/40), 1250 toughness, 1250 vitality. Close to 3k attack power (2850 on average), 2k armor, and about 21500 hps. Condition dmg is about 1150 or so, and I tick for like 103 dmg, 121 dmg with BiP, and 130+ with BiP, and stacks of might from DS lifeblast (1 hit with life blast gives you 5 stacks might). I will bounce in and out of DS to get the +5 might stacks regularly, and I will just keep BiP going off constantly. With scepter 4, any bleed/poison/weakness i put on myself, gets sent back at the target. I use scepter 3, kills, and axe abilities to generate life force, so i dont seem to have a prob with life force.

Anyways, I just wanted to see what you guys thought of the build. I tried extremes of both, and was never satisfied. For example, with power builds, I hit hard, sure, but i got slammed if i overextended in WvW, and my damage was never enough to really burst someone down, unless they were solo. With pure condition build, I would cry when I would see all my conditions ticking at 145 or so just get erased after I worked hard to get them stacked (also DS was useless as it’s damage was mediocre, and i ended up using it as an escape mech. plus i never build life force).

A balanced approach allowed me to be both. I ended up being more satisfied. Maybe I am weaker than the extremes, but I seemed to kill more, last longer, and was much more of a menace to an enemy.

PS: PLease for the love of god and all that is unholy change the staff autoattack sound, speed and graphic. Holy crap, i feel like I am kitten-slapping myself when i fire off autoattacks with staff one. Sorry about the rant at the end.

I think a hybrid approach is valid but requires much more skill to pull it off.

For a hybrid spec instead of the scepter I suggest dagger/dagger, ok you loose the bleed and the poison but the fast hit of a dagger will generate quite a few bleeds if using the sigil of earth + the curses 5 point trait, while giving a massive increase of direct damage

My only prob with dagger is having to be so close in wvw and in dungeons. I like being able to control my distance a bit with scepter/dagger, and even with axe. And for a dagger build, I thinky ou have to sink a lot in blood magic to make it work. I just always end up feeling like a weaker thief with daggers when i do the damage, and I overextend in wvw too much. I am not saying the damage is not better, but I feel I loose some utility. That is just my opinion however. I will give it a try again.

I was looking at it from a PvP point of view where over 50% of the time your in melee range (even if you like it or not)

Critmancer build thread. WVW.

Condition + Crit/Power hybrid

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/WvW-Critmancer-Build-Power-Condition/first#post198743

This is the thread for it. There is just too much and I didn’t want to spam multiple posts with a build guide.

This was my post on the build thread.

It is pretty much the exact same thing. And it is very viable

Read through some of my updates for different types of situational burst and utility. I;ve been running this build since I posted it on the forums.

You can effectively 1v1/XvX/Keep +tower sieges/Defense and everything by just changing utility skills and maybe a trait or two.

EDIT: I haven’t even leveled my Axe skill. I dislike any other weapon other than Scepter Dagger and Staff. The rest have no business in my playstyle.

@Merch – Yes this can be an aggressive spec even without Axe

yup im not a fan of axe myself not sure why that comment was directed at me
axe may have a place in a support/tank builds but even then it comes up short

The build itself can be a very in your face type of Necro, at least that’s how I like to play it. Was just replying to your post about being in melee range which in WvW can be dangerous at times haha.

That’s why I make sure to have LF generating methods in case I need to quickly restack for an “oh kitten” situation.

I should have said sPvP not just PvP fights are much closer range in the 5v5 and 8v8s compared to WvW