Guild Wars 2

So after playing my class the “optimal” way for a while (aka conditionmancer), I got bored and leveled a gaurdian. Now I am back to my necro, usuing staff and septar + dagger. Sooooo boring. So I decided to go back to my old Axe + Focus and dual daggers. So much more fun! Gotta say, to heck with the idea of being optimal. I use all minions and those weapons. My question is now what gear stats I should get to go with it? Obviously I will want power, but I don’t think I need condition any more. Any suggestions?

I wouldnt bother with any condition damage if you arent focussing on it. Condition duration on the other hand still does a lot for us (chill/weakness/vulnerability).

DD is considered a poor choice by most of us meleemancers. Dagger 4 and 5 are generally accepted as conditionmancer abilities.

Instead, try DF/DW (with SW for permaswift) or AF/DW (with SW for permaswift). When you switch to axe, use 2 and 3, then both focus abilities, then axe 2, then switch to dagger again.

Minions are kitten. Not sub-optimal, not “a little bit dodgy”, they are outright kitten. Buggy, weak, unresponsive, poorly designed. Feel free to use them if you want, but they’re garbage.

Instead, try full PVT gear and WoC/WoS/SW. Then root, wellbomb and dagger 1 people/monsters to death.

Some of us even have full explanations and stuff of how to build a decent meleemancer in our sigs.

Minions are fine in the right situations, just know what those are and only use them in those situations. As for what to use in a minion-heavy build: toughness/vitality, these will give you near 30k hp/3k armor. Your focus is on minion damage, therefore your only job is to stay alive long enough for them to kill things; especially since no stat you have effects them (only traits). Since toughness/vit go hand in hand with power in gear, build the power, and make sure you are not using damaging conditions.

Also, like others said, DD isn’t very good, DW/AF (make sure to bring condition removal) or DF/staff (use the staff for when you can’t/don’t want to be in range, use 4 for condition removal, and the abilities give general utility that you can spam out then switch back to DF).

Edit: just to specify, MM builds are ONLY good in s/tPvP bunker builds, PvE in low-AoE situations, and very small-group WvW.

Hey SupahSpankeh, could you elaborate on your post above, especially fill in the words you use acronyms for? Thanks.
-Random

SupahSpankeh.8452:

DD is considered a poor choice by most of us meleemancers. Dagger 4 and 5 are generally accepted as conditionmancer abilities.

Instead, try DF/DW (with SW for permaswift) or AF/DW (with SW for permaswift). When you switch to axe, use 2 and 3, then both focus abilities, then axe 2, then switch to dagger again.

I’m running DD and the reasons for including that second dagger are getting access to the aoe which does enough dmg to get you credit from mob farming or wvw zerg fights, and because the #4s blind is long enough to be good without duration increases so it’s useful for a power build, plus it’s bounces for more aoe.

The staff and minions work hand in hand, and to be honest the reason I hate the staff is its 1st attack, it is so slow and dull. I am specced purley into my minions yes, 20 spite, 30 death, and 20 blood. Though I really only needed the extra 10 death to get the staff skill, so I may change that…and I don’t get a couple of the acronyms?

Dagger-Dagger is fine for Power builds. Not as much damage as Dagger-Focus for the lack of Reaper’s Touch, but you trade that for the utility of Deathly Swarm (Condition Removal + Blind) and Enfeebling Shroud (large AOE Weakness).

Random.6734:

Hey SupahSpankeh, could you elaborate on your post above, especially fill in the words you use acronyms for? Thanks.
-Random

On the paragraph with weapon skills:
D → Dagger
F → Focus
W → Warhorn
SW → Spectral Walk

Latter on:
PVT → Power Vitality Toughness gear
WoC → Well of Corruption
WoS → Well of Suffering
SW → Spectral Walk

Looks like soldiers armor would be right up my alley? Main stat is power with minors being vitality and toughness. Not to mention that there are also ascended items with those stats. And I am really not sure about the Warhorn, it just feels…not worth it? The locust is only good for the swiftness which isn’t very helpful in combat, and the daze is nice but isn’t the most effective thing.

Afropenguinn.3675:

The staff and minions work hand in hand, and to be honest the reason I hate the staff is its 1st attack, it is so slow and dull. I am specced purley into my minions yes, 20 spite, 30 death, and 20 blood. Though I really only needed the extra 10 death to get the staff skill, so I may change that…and I don’t get a couple of the acronyms?

The Grandmaster death trait for poison fields is amazing in PvP, especially since you should be focussed on node defense. In PvE you can probably be okay with the staff skill, but I’d still look at the Grandmaster traits again.

I’d suggest keeping dagger/something in your build, you can switch between staff and axe/something depending on what you prefer. Warhorn is good because it gives an AoE cripple (no more kiting minions), swiftness (lets you get in range for dagger hits), and some AoE damage, plus an AoE daze. That daze is really helpful because it lets your minions all mob up, and gives you 2s for your minion-based CC to come back up.

IMO, the best minion synergy is axe/focus because of the vulnerability stacks you can maintain, meaning mo minion damage. Just play around with it, minion builds do have a bit of flexibility when it comes to weapons, depending on game-type and personal playstyle.

And yes, stack full power/toughness/vitality, if you have any other stat in your build, you are doing it wrong.

Afropenguinn.3675:

And I am really not sure about the Warhorn, it just feels…not worth it? The locust is only good for the swiftness which isn’t very helpful in combat, and the daze is nice but isn’t the most effective thing.

You’re still missing a WHOLE component of Locust Swarm: Point-blank Area of Effect Cripple. That’s Swiftness for you and Cripple on your target, i.e. an 83% movement speed advantage!

And Daze not effective? That only means you’re spamming the skill mindlessly. Once you experience the satisfaction of interrupting a heal or Hundred Blades or Unload, you’ll never say Daze is not effective.