Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone would be able to answer some beginner Necromancer questions for me.

1. How viable is axe? I’ve played the game across Mesmer and Engineer for over 1200 hours, but have only ever encountered 1 Necromancer who uses it. What I found impressive was the fact that he was absolutely brilliant. Is it even viable in sPvP and WvW?

2. What is the main attribute that increases the damage of Wells? Is it Power?

3. Are Power/Precision builds (based on the above) also viable?

4. Do Necromancer players commonly take a stun break? I see a lot of people using all Wells, or Epidemic but ignoring something I see as key to survival. As an Engineer I use Elixir S, H and have an automated Elixir S/Condition Immunity, so am used to surviving long periods of time.

That’s it, thank you!

I hit 67 this morning so I am not an expert. I do not care for the axe. I am running a wells build with dagger/dagger and staff. I am pretty tough to kill PvE because the wells prop you up.

Axe is viable but not efficient. D/anything here is better as Daggers get more from power, atm axe is too slow and the only thing going for it is the slight range buff it has over daggers which is negated by the dagger 2 or 3 ability (the one that imobilizes)

1. Axe isn’t terribly viable, at least not for PvP. It doesn’t come close to the damage the dagger has, and the sceptre out damages it even in a power build. * But*, it is pretty good for building LF at longish range. If you’re going to use an axe, it is best used in PvE for the aoe cripple + retaliation, or in WvW for having a power weapon you don’t have to be melee range with, and for building LF.

2. Wells do scale with power, although the only well that really does any damage outright is Well of Suffering, the others are mostly just useful for their utility. If you want to make the most out of them, check out some of the Well Bombing builds on here.

3. Power/Precision is very viable, mostly in PvP and PvE (I have a hard time seeing it being useful in WvW since the dagger has no range). This type of build actually for me works best when using DS for damage, and only really using the dagger auto attack for building LF while not dropping your damage. Death Shroud can pump out a ton of damage and to a group of people, if you trait to make Life Blast pierce. With this type of build, you could actually use it in WvW, using the staff to build LF from walls while eating people alive in DS.

4. I only ever take one stun breaker, and its not even for the stun break that I take it. Its Spectral Walk. It has a long swiftness duration and almost zero downtime with Boon Duration and traits for reduced cooldown on Spectral skills. It also has a teleport function, back to the spot you first used it. Its just a bonus that it has a stun break for me. 1v1 I usually just jump into Death Shroud and use Doom if I get CC’d, it works well enough.

Lewis Burnell.2493:

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone would be able to answer some beginner Necromancer questions for me.

1. How viable is axe? I’ve played the game across Mesmer and Engineer for over 1200 hours, but have only ever encountered 1 Necromancer who uses it. What I found impressive was the fact that he was absolutely brilliant. Is it even viable in sPvP and WvW?

3. Are Power/Precision builds (based on the above) also viable?

Take a look at this power axe build. The video is also a good tutorial on some necro design ideas:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-definition-of-glass-cannon-tutorial/1193079

Do you think for WvW then, it’s much more viable to simply go for Precision/Condition Damage/Toughness?

Lewis Burnell.2493:

Do you think for WvW then, it’s much more viable to simply go for Precision/Condition Damage/Toughness?

There are essentially 2 mainstream popular builds that go around for WvW – The conditionmancer and then a power-build that relies on DS.

Having played both many times (I switch between them when I get bored) It seems it’s just a matter of playstyle and preference. Conditionmancer is nice because you don’t need to change it up a lot to go run dungeons, it can be fun to epidemic groups and watch your AoE’s tick away, it is also a good way to get a lot of kills when zerg roaming, and it’s relatively easy to play when compared to some of the power builds.

As for the power-builds they are more 1 v 1 oriented, they are harder and more intuitive to play. I may be in the minority but for both builds I just stack a full set of Khilbrons (precision/tough/condition) I’ve never had any problem running dungeons, WvWvWing (Both group and solo) with a set of Khilbrons. The only thing I ever change up is my runes and sigils depending on the build I’m trying out.

I actually quite like the axe (paired with the focus off hand). You just have to understand how to build around it, and that it is almost exclusively for a single target burst damage build.

The object with an axe build is to stack lots of vulnerability and then use Ghostly Claws (hance the focus off hand, as it stacks more vulnerability). The auto attack of the axe is very minimal damage, but unlike many other weapons, that attack is not meant to be your primary damage dealing spam attack while skills are on cd. It’s purpose is to stack the vulnerability you need to use Ghostly Claws.

The axe also works well with a build that focuses on using Life Blast in DS rather than the axe auto-attack as your main spam attack when Ghostly Claws is on cd.

So essentially a good axe build works by unloading all of your vulnerability stacking skills (axe #1, focus #4, and WoS mainly), then unload with Ghostly Claws, then go into Death Shroud and hit 3-4 times with Life Blast, then pop out of DS and either unload another Ghostly Claws (which should be off cd by now) if you have time before vulnerability falls off or else start restacking your vulnerability… rinse, repeat.

I’ve run it a bit, and it’s actually quite a viable build. It’s drawback is it’s lack of significant AoE. It’s great on a single target, but lacks when you have to deal with multiple targets.

The axe is an ok weapon. I hate it’s range though. I see it as a support weapon. Vulnerability works better the more people are doing damage.