Guild Wars 2

I’ve seen numerous references to “bunker” necros. I’m curious if anyone has actually seen such a necro in sPvP. I was thinking something using retaliation and death shroud might be able to pull it off, especially with 30 points in Soul Reaping. Too bad I can’t pick up both 30 point majors in SR though.

Suppose I tried something like this:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V18cZ;1kHFJ0F4FJVJ0;9;4T-9-T46B;15;359B6Nk0-N;0OZG5OZG56gq

What sort of results should I expect?

Also, the consensus build is a conditions necro in SPvP. I’m not seeing anywhere near the amount of damage people say it deals. Am I doing something horribly wrong? Is there a reason Carrion gear isn’t used more often, in combination with Feast of Corruption, to add a little more burst?

Basically I’m running around in SPvP trying to figure out what a necro can/should do. I’m struggling to reach a conclusion.

Hmm..forgot to swap the utilities out in that proposed bunker build. Maybe Signet of Undeath and Plague Signet?

Also the conditions question is totally separate. Not connected to that build. In case it wasn’t clear.

Well I play a bunker necro in sPvP, but nothing really resembling your build (which looks more like an axe/deathshroud power build I’ve seen floating round the forums a lot.)

So while my build isn’t much like yours, I’ll at least share my general experiences playing full bunker. I actually tried this build as a joke, just to see how stupidly hard to kill I could make myself and pretty much just kitten, Then I found it working disturbingly well.

I run mainly wells with a staff primary weapon (and yes, they actually do work in PVP with decent timing and a bit of luck) and a dagger/warhorn as my secondary weapon.

As a group support class/style, it’s absolutely outstanding. Ripping boons off enemies, conditions off allies, regeneration/chills/fears/blinds all over the place, it’s a tremendous force multiplier. (Good use of plague can massively swing the odds of a fight in your teams’ favour as well.)

In 1v1s, I rely mainly on just wearing them down slowly. My burst damage is pretty much nonexistant, but you’d be surprised how little that’s mattered. Guardians and the occasional ele or thief (the bunker condition ones, I think, which stealth every 5 seconds or so) are realistically not killable but they utterly failed to kill me either.
Other than encounters like that which relied more heavily on being able to burst, I win a fairly high percentage of 1v1 fights.

Necro has all the right ingredients for a very strong defensive setup, make use of them and you’ll get surprisingly good results. Sorry I can’t offer much advice on your build, because frankly I have no real experience playing something so deathshroud heavy, but just so you know bunker necro builds can and do work hilariously well with a bit of practice and playing to your strengths.

Best of luck in sPvP you’re playing a heavily underrated class.

Captain Epicfail.8730:

Well I play a bunker necro in sPvP, but nothing really resembling your build (which looks more like an axe/deathshroud power build I’ve seen floating round the forums a lot.)

So while my build isn’t much like yours, I’ll at least share my general experiences playing full bunker. I actually tried this build as a joke, just to see how stupidly hard to kill I could make myself and pretty much just kitten, Then I found it working disturbingly well.

I run mainly wells with a staff primary weapon (and yes, they actually do work in PVP with decent timing and a bit of luck) and a dagger/warhorn as my secondary weapon.

As a group support class/style, it’s absolutely outstanding. Ripping boons off enemies, conditions off allies, regeneration/chills/fears/blinds all over the place, it’s a tremendous force multiplier. (Good use of plague can massively swing the odds of a fight in your teams’ favour as well.)

In 1v1s, I rely mainly on just wearing them down slowly. My burst damage is pretty much nonexistant, but you’d be surprised how little that’s mattered. Guardians and the occasional ele or thief (the bunker condition ones, I think, which stealth every 5 seconds or so) are realistically not killable but they utterly failed to kill me either.
Other than encounters like that which relied more heavily on being able to burst, I win a fairly high percentage of 1v1 fights.

Necro has all the right ingredients for a very strong defensive setup, make use of them and you’ll get surprisingly good results. Sorry I can’t offer much advice on your build, because frankly I have no real experience playing something so deathshroud heavy, but just so you know bunker necro builds can and do work hilariously well with a bit of practice and playing to your strengths.

Best of luck in sPvP you’re playing a heavily underrated class.

Same experience.. I made the most tanky build I could just to mess around as a joke. Just short of 3k armor and 29k hp with well of power and well of suffering along with signet of locust and flesh golem. I had a pretty decent healing power and used sigil of life, along with all the siphoning traits(i’m aware not affected by HP).

I thought I would never kill anything, boy was I surprised just how effective the build was, even winning 1v1’s with bunker ele’s.

Locust signet/flesh golem are both handy to have yeah. I personally prefer a third well and I like plague too much to go with the golem but IMO there’s a lot of leeway for tweaks and changes to that kind of build depending on how you play.

On another amusing note: the first thing I did when I brought my necro into sPvP thinking “kitten it, I’ll die horribly anyway” was bunker minion master. That turned out to be passable as well, though for actual performance I prefer wells. Still, when the AI gets fixed, that build has the potential to be really good I think.

I had kind of just assumed bunker necros used deathshroud a lot. Wells though..that hadn’t occurred to me. I’ll have to give that a shot!

Well in that case, a few tips on wells that I’ve learned from experience:
1. Put 20 points in Curses. I know this isn’t the usual bunker route but there are two traits in this tree you REALLY need.
1.1. Pitch Black – this makes your Well of Darkness, an already very powerful spell, chill on top of the blindness. If your enemy has used up their dodges, it can render them virtually helpless. Bonus point: a lot of people who don’t know how necro works don’t realise how much trouble they’re in when a chilling WoD lands on them.
1.2. Focused Rituals – well skills going from point blank range to 900? Absolute must.

2. Learn to time them. See an enemy who just repeatedly dodged? Drop a chilling WoD on them. Dodges are your worst enemy as a wellmancer, but you can use this to your advantage. Got a thief/warrior beating on you? Drop a well or two right on yourself and watch them flail about helplessly.

3. So you can only equip 3 utility wells – what to go for? Well of Darkness is compulsary, frankly. It’s too good to ignore, for both solo and gang support. Then there’s Well of Corruption, which is another one that is practically too powerful not to use.
After that it’s a matter of picking what’s more important to you:
3.1. Support/survivability – Take Well of Power. Turning conditions on you and your allies into buffs is incredibly valuable and significantly increases your survivability.
3.1 DPS – The huge utility and survivability of this build comes at a price, namely damage. Well of Suffering is a great supplement to your marks (staff should be your primary weapon, frankly) for damage.

Hope this helps, and good luck to you!
Hope you’re not on my world because I’d absolutely hate to run into someone else with a build like mine. Annoying as hell.