Guild Wars 2

Good news everybody

I want to present the build I’ve been running on my necro lately. I have no idea if it is currently being used by others, or if it is a niche. The trait composition is certainly used, but the armor and all-round build, may not. It is really strong in some aspects, but does have a few cons, which I will go through later.

Note: This is a build, I’ve only used in solo roaming. So I don’t know if it’ll work outside of that composition

Firstly I’d want to take a sec to explain, why exactly I’ve been using this build. If you want, you can skip ahead to the build.

Introduction/Story
I’ve been playing my mesmer for the past while, and ofc been going through many different builds. While roaming solo in WvW (which is the only thing I do), I got thrashed by another mesmer and I asked for his build, and interestingly he was playing a hybrid with similar stats to my own, even though I was solely condition focused. After that I tried out the build and to be honest, it was awesome. The best of both worlds! I found that I no longer absolutely need to land that particular burst, or that one, and likewise I found I didn’t need to land any particular condition to beat people.
But, I began to yearn for my female necro face-tank, the whole playstyle just is awesome, with DS n all. However I was quickly reminded why I rerolled mesmer. You can’t get out of sticky situations and it isn’t as explosive as the mesmer hybrid I’ve been rolling. Until, I adapted my necro build, to the same principle as my mesmer.

To go with as much rabid gear as needed, to get a lot of condi dmg. And to have good power, crit % and crit dmg, while retaining a substantial amount of toughness. And this is the build I’ve settled at, and it has worked quite well.

The Build
So here’s the build Dietzen’s Necro Roamer.

Whoah hey buddy, what’s this!? And general things you can change
Armor and Jewelry
I’ve got a couple of pieces of dire equip to get some vitality. You can change this rabid if you like (3 pieces in my build, so that would be in the area of 100-120 precision extra).

If however you’d like more vitality, feel free to change rabid to dire.
In essence, you can switch the gear to suit your distinct level of need. I’m considering to go full rabid, at the cost of some health. It isn’t completely set in stone.

Runes and Sigils
I use runes of the ogre for the power, crit dmg, extra dmg % and the rock dog (which is awesome), so all around good rune to boost the dmg you do. Feel free to go with whatever you love the most.

Weapons
A/F (Berserker) – Fire/5% crit chance, fire is good for the burst and crit % means more procs of dumbfire, bleeds and the fire proc.
S/D (Rabid) – Earth/Condi stack, earth for more pressure and condi stacks for condi dmg ofc I go with earth due to having fire on axe, as I don’t like to have on-swap sigils mixed with on-crit sigils.
Again, if you feel like having geomancy/hydromancy or whichever sigil, it could work. However these do give a very good pressure and burst.

Why the build is like this
30/10/0/0/30 – It looks like a standard DS zerker shooter build, but it is not.
I operate within the principle that whatever I do, has to hurt. This means, both weapon sets has to hurt, DS1-5 has to hurt. But the build also has to be defensive enough to survive a thief and necro. Yes I said necro, who doesn’t fear a necro’s condi spammage?

Drawing upon my mesmer hybrid, the spec landed like this, due to wanting power/condi duration (spite 30, as well as dumbfire), condition dmg and precision (Curses) and crit dmg (Soul Reaping).

30 Spite gives me:
Longer focus range and shorter CD’s. Focus #5 is great and focus #4 is awesome dmg followed by axe #2.
Axe Training for obvious reasons. And dumbfire for added condition dmg.

10 Curses gives me:
20% bleed duration, which should land my crit bleeds at 3 seconds, from the ingame tooltip. Without it, it would be 2 1/3 I think it was. (at least it wasn’t a full 3 seconds)

And 30 Soul Reaping gives me:
15% reduced CD’s on DS skills, which is just pure awesome, because I use DS both as direct dmg DS1, and to catch people DS2, aoe dmg DS4 and ofc condi dmg DS5. Shorter CD’s just means, more usage.
DS CD reduced by 30%, means recharge (from in game tooltip) lands at 6 seconds. I don’t know if the tooltip is 6.5 seconds, but it says 6 ingame.
And ofc 50% increased crit chance in DS.

I also chose my weapons based on my hybrid mesmer, a weapon set that gives direct dmg burst and a condition set. Axe/focus gives the burst, with focus #4 followed by axe #2 dealing upwards of 5k dmg if everything hits (remember sigil of fire here). For condition, obvious choice is scepter/dagger, with spammable bleeds and poison, as well as a low recharge cripple and LF generation ability. Off dagger for condi transfer and ae weakness and bleeds.

Generally I will start off by charging focus5 from far away due to the long cast time, then go into DS (still getting used to the necro again, so sometimes I forget, and keep in axe/f) and start to pound with DS1 and DS2, without loosing too much LF, I will exit DS and start the burst rotation with axe/focus. Focus4 —> axe2. After the burst, switch to scepter/dagger for condition pressure.
With 61% crit dmg and 70% condition duration (90% for bleeds), there is a significant overall damage pressure.

The build works really well, because, if if you miss some of the more potent moves and abilities, you still do collateral dmg. I might miss a great deal of my axe2, but by then I’ve put up fire and a couple of bleeds, and by the time I switch to s/d they tick for more and I’ve started to apply more bleeds. Vice versa, if lots of my bleeds miss, I still do a lot of DD.

Stats (first number is for a/f, second is for s/d)
Attack: 2900 / 2700
Crit : 42 / 37%
Crit dmg: 61% / 51%
Armor: 2250 / 2378
Health: Around 20k
Condi duration: 70% (90% for bleeds)
30% extra LF

Pros
Good DD and condition dmg, not as good as pure forms, but very good nonetheless.
Takes advantage of every skill as it’s disposal.
Good condition clear in dagger4, well of power and consume conditions.
Good survivability in ok toughness and vitality and amount of DS.

Cons
A pure condi necro is lethal, and I fear em, also do on my mesmer.
Stun lock warriors are also a pain, but manageable.
Thieves as always, I’m not particularly good against em, but I’ve downed a lot with this build lately, more than they have being downing me.
Not as much DD or as much condi dmg, as pure specs.

A note
Although I do mention that you can switch things out, I do recommend going with this setup, because it is just awesome, only alternating the few dire pieces for rabid.

A last note
Elite skill, I use snow leopard form, because as a solo roamer getting caught by more enemies than you can down, you sometimes need a get out of jail free card. If by chance you’re not a norn, go with whichever elite suits you best

Whops, I must have been tired. The whole dire vs rabid discussion was a bit off, I mentioned you get more toughness from rabid, than from dire, whereas it’s a discussion of precision vs. vitality. My mistake

Thats funny,its the same build I use but two different types of play styles.I go for more DMG with a Condi Spike at the start.Ill have to try this one tonight.

My build I use.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQMQNAnYWlMay2WsRdDG+EC0j3rWAxoCHD1j1hd+QA-j0CBYjCiEEQkFgEBAJfFRjtMsIasqaCy6aYqXJ1aeIaW0pWGA/xA-w

Nice with almost all celestial! do you feel you do enogh DD? With only axe as the hard hitter or do you rely on DS for that?
I’ve found a nice thing, I start with focus5 and then focus4, immediately after I go into DS for damage, the cool thing about this is, while in DS you still get the LF genereation from the focus 4 bounces, so the first couple of seconds you don’t loose all that much LF

I start off with BiP to dagger 4 into axe 2,then right in to DS for fear then Life blast.The DD is good,LB hits for 4-7k.

I like Focus myself,I use it sometimes when im not running BiP.Ive been messing around today with a D/F Blood build,it’s crazys how much Focus 4 hits for up close.