Guild Wars 2

Ok maybe 1 pet like shadow fiend. Wanted to know if you could be a solid damage necro. I like axe/ dagger but not sure what other weapon should be? Staff for all those aoe? What traits and tool belt skills?

Yes you can and if you only play PvE you can use everything you want.

It depends on how you define “solid”.

In my book, nothing that relies on pets is solid since their AI is kitten up.

I’ve read these forums quite a bit lately and the one, withstanding, re-occurring theme has been stuff about kittens. Seriously, just buy one already and be done with it.

Solid DPS Necro? Well compared to other classes we are definitely no where near what might be considered solid. Generally longer fights in my experience for the most part. If you decide to run a precision/power build, it does help with dps, but it’s not exactly what I would refer to as solid. If only we had reliable minions to compensate for the disparity yea?

Even Necro’s can dream…right?

PvP-wise, you probably don’t even want pets. Maybe a flesh golem…and hope it does something, although; I’d rather have a more reliable skill that I know will work. The Necro definitely isn’t designed for solid dps. Took me a while to figure it out, but once I did, I started to tailor my style towards the strengths of the class.

It’s still imo one of the more advanced classes to play. There’s a lot more work involved in figuring things out than, say, your average mezmer or thief.

The one bit of advice I would give to you if you’re looking for dps is to scrap the axe.

No axe? Actually liked the axe. Can you suggest what weapon set up to switch between and the skills on the hotbar?

Also the forums use the word kitten it seems if you curse.

The best build(s) do not use any minions. Condition based of course and uses Wells.

Necro’s strength seems to leen more to debuffs, tankyness, and running away if you ask me. They are more about sustained dps rather than any kind of burst. Definitely an attrition type of fighter. Pets in general are more of a pve thing in this game and even then are inconsistant dmg at best.

Cempa.3645:

The best build(s) do not use any minions. Condition based of course and uses Wells.

Is there any mathcraft around that supports the idea that wells > corruption skills + epidemic? Well CD’s are long and require that you go up a dumb tree (blood) to reduce them by 20%. Corruption skills are baked into the Curses tree, freeing up room for including DS and maybe Spite depending on your build.

And I find that the best PvE builds take the golem. It’s better overall in my opinion, although I opt for plague in PvP.

I am also going with daggers/staff, with no minions, and doing quite well. I can solo veteran foes easily with daggers, and can punch grroups in events with staff.
@ stats, go for power/precision/healing (that order)
@ talents, go for power OR precision/healing
@ skills – use 2x daggers, and the following: radiation well/well of suffering/spectral wall OR some racial, OR blinding well. + elite golem
Go in, lure the mobs in, do weakness, flies, radiation, well of suffering,
Go to shroud, use life transfer.
Profit.
I can handle large groups of mobs (4-5) with this build. You can even use staff in mid combat.

Anecdotally, I experienced a significant increase in damage output switching to a condition build, as described in the “So you want to be a necro” thread on GW2Guru. It has worked well for me, even at a low level.

That thread is worth a read, but to sum it up, go Scepter/Dagger – 2HStaff. Put trait points in Curses, and then Spite, and use Sigils of corruption. Go with Hemophilia and Reaper’s Might for the first trait tier. Use Consume Conditions in your heal slot, and for utilities, Corrosive Poison Cloud, Blood is Power, and Epidemic.

Open with Grasping Dead, followed by Enfeebling Blood and Corrosive Poison Cloud. Make sure you’ve acquired a target, then follow with Blood is Power, then Deathly Swarm, and finally Epidemic. By doing that, you’re crippling, weakening, poisoning, and stacking bleeds in an AoE, and then continuing to stack more bleeds on yourself and your single target. After using Deathly Swarm to transfer conditions to your target, you’ve stacked quite a bit on that single mob, and you’ll want to quickly use Epidemic to spread all those conditions to every other mob in the area before it dies.

When abilities are on CD, spam Blood Curse, and Feast of Corruption (when it’s up)

Do this and watch everything around you melt :-) Obviously this favors groups of enemies over single mobs, but I haven’t noticed a problem using the same rotation for single target. In my experience, this has dealt a TON of damage to mass amounts of mobs at once, which can result in several enemies being angry with you. You MUST dodge a lot, and keep grasping dead up as much as possible to slow the enemies coming for you. Remember to keep distance between you and them, or you’ll die.

Good Luck!

Epidemic is so startlingly good it’s hard not to build a DPS necro around it. The radius in particular is out of this world.

though epidemic works great with wells too. with my human necro i usually use focus #4 then drop well of suffering and let them stack and then boom it around with epidemic and switch to ds to life transfer or smacking them down with dagger. just need to get blinding well to stack blind too with it.. or perhaps blood is power.. not sure yet which should i take for third utility