Guild Wars 2

Hello.

So, let’s skip the introduction and get to the bottom of this: we aren’t the fotm class. And when I say fotm, I mean flavour of the month. No, not even close. Necro is OK, so and so, average. But definitely, people are not so happy to see you in high level Fractals.

I managed to complete lvl 48 the other day with my hybrid cond/burst build (scept/dagg & axe/focus), almost glass cannon apart from 3 celestial and one carrion Jewels, plus 10 traits in Vitality. Only got downed like 3-4 times, maybe was lucky, maybe the party was good, maybe that extra HP that Necros have helped.

Anyways, things get freaking difficult after lvl 48 (they are already kinda hard) so I need to optimize my gear and traits accordingly. The problem is that I searched the internetz and didn’t find anything useful q.q

So, would a pure condition build with Carrion gear be OK? Or maybe with Prec-Tough-Cond dmg? Or Power-Tough-Vit?

Am I correct to assume that you have a regular group for such a high level? Or do you join random ones?

As to the build, I’m kinda curious to see how many people on the forum are even as close to 50 as you and can give first hand advice.
Just to clarify one thing: by difficult, do you mean the boss fights (since there’s not enough agony resistance available atm) or just making it through the regular mobs?

I just recently posted my build, to which I can attest that it works at lvl 40-45. The gear is a carrion soldier mix, but it’s a staff build… so I could imagine that a switch from a completely different build would do more harm than good if you’re not used to the playstyle.

One question, why bother with fractals anymore? And even that high level ones? Only the svanir and underwater ones are actually fun…

psofia.7945:

So, let’s skip the introduction and get to the bottom of this: we aren’t the fotm class. And when I say fotm, I mean flavour of the month. No, not even close. Necro is OK, so and so, average. But definitely, people are not so happy to see you in high level Fractals.

I posted this on reddit, and I’ll repost it here. Learn to make yourself invaluable and use what makes the class special, and people will be shocked at just how great you can be. I surprise every pub I play with by how good a Necromancer can be in Fractals 48+. My friends and I have made my necromancer a staple in our L79 runs, although really, nothing changes at levels higher than L48 except that mobs become L84 and maw instakills you if you’re silly enough to do an even level. Everything else is the same.

“I play Fractals 48 every night on my Necro. I might not have a reflect, but the entire team gets spammed boons from my conversions and the enemies lose boons like Protect due to my conversions. I maintain permanent cripple on bosses like the Ettin and Archdiviner, along with Chill, giving team members room to breath. I can pop any number of skills to inflict huge lengths of spammed blind and reduce dps far more than a projectile reflect would in similar situations. I can pop an instant-cast interrupt and have saved teams before by doing so on a boss that would otherwise have killed a critical other member of the team. I can do all of this, and I can still out-tank Warriors that run with me when I need to.

The people I run with nightly have come to ask me to bring my Necro over my Guardian or Mesmer or Warrior because I speed things up. The fact that some players aren’t properly using their class does not mean that the class is bad or inferior, it just means that people aren’t giving it as much thought as it deserves."

I also followed up with another answer to someone else’s question:

“Rabid gear with 20 points in Death Magic so I can get both Greater Marks and Staff Mastery and 20 points in Blood Magic for Ritual Mastery makes for a very tanky condition damage build. All of this combined with DS makes for a build that is able to take hits as well as if not better than most other classes can. The best part is that the 20 points in Toughness and Toughness from Rabid armor translate to higher condition damage with Undead runes, so it isn’t hurting my dps any.”

Except that by running rabid gear, you required a large share of the bleed stacks to be available to you. If you run with more than one incidental bleeder, your DPS is quite literally in the tank. I don’t presume to know fractals over level 40, as that is about where I am, but the discussion of Fractals comes down to the following formula:

Take a guardian, a mesmer, and then three of anything else, so long as they bring enough DPS, and there are not multiple condition heros in the remaining 3.

I think necro is a huge asset in certain fractals. Its very strong DPS (in a condition build) in ascalon/underwater, and its boon stripping is great in dredge, and its chill/cripple with high condition duration is good on pretty much all of them.

Condition necro is a great addition to a fractal group so long as you: Already have a Guardian and/or mesmer, some AOE buffs from other classes (say a second guardian or a warrior), and no other classes bleeding at any significant level.

Take a condition ranger into the group, and then the next slot being filled by a rabid necro is a horrible idea. Of course the rabid necro is better than the condition ranger in fractals, but that is beside the point.

Having been in groups that tried to do mesmer and 3x guardian, I can tell you that never works as well as people hope. Reflect is good, but lack of debuffs/raw DPS makes some fights last way too long, and even the cushion of the extra guardians isnt worth it.

Personally I run rampagers. I do much more damage, don’t tank my DPS if someone else is helping me hit the bleed cap (too much), and I can get nice damage from my wells in addition to their added side effects. Not as tanky as rabid, but that makes it more challenging. Plus I don’t feel like a useless drag on ice fractal (buildings dont bleed), and dredge end boss (who doesnt take bonus damage from bleeds). I guess you could always man the buckets, but what fun is that!

Hey again.

@flow
No I don’t have a stable group yet. And yeah, I know I need to find one XD Few people in the guild are over lvl 40 and we have one person who has done lvl 80, so it shouldn’t be that hard.

@Rising Dusk
I wouldn’t be playing a necro if I wasn’t happy with it or if I didn’t like it. It’s just that it is obvious that we aren’t a popular class and we don’t belong to the top classes of the game. I’ve played and observed long enough to be able to say this.

Now, as an oldfag 4chaner, I’m not very familiar with redshi… eh, I mean reddit! Do post a link to your guide though!

Also, need to do some research on those tanky and support builds you are mentioning, since I didn’t think very much of them. Plus, I don’t really like the Staff… But I guess it’s necessary to succeed in those higher Fractal levels!