Guild Wars 2

Anyone else use celestial Gear? Ive been using it for a roaming a long time now and id say its work out pretty great, apart from fighting the usual flavour of the month classes and of course 1v3+ situations which as necros we have trouble as anyways. what build and runes/sigils do you use with it?

I use to run a 30/25/0/0/15 build but i found it was too squishy, the damage was really nice but when focused it was extremely hard to survive. Ive recently switched to a 0/25/25/20/0 build. I found that this added a lot more survivability to my build while also keeping the damage moderately high. When buffed with WvW rank buffs and sigil stacks i can hover around 3k attack and 1k condition damage, i feel the combined pressure of my direct attacks on top of my passive condition damage can really put the hurt on people.

For food buffs i use the 66% chance to steal life on crit and power based from a percentage of your toughness/vitality.
For runes i use travelers, it further adds celestial stats, boon duration, condition duration and frees up a utility slot from locust signet.
For sigils i use stacking condition damage on my staff and then 30% chance to steal life and steal life on weapon swap for my dagger/focus.

For my utilities i always have consume coniditons, corrupt boon, signet of spite and then switch between well of suffering, well of darkness or spectral wall. Plague and lich form are really hard to choose between, do i want to down someone quickly or do i want to secure a cap/ blind their burst.

Side note: anyone else go full celestial ascended like me yet?

Im 80% celestial and love it.My build I use most the time is 30/25/0/15/0.Ill have to try the 0/25/25/20/0 one,it looks like it could be good also.

Went out and did some quick fights, heres a demonstration of my build
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jXcX6qdkNA&feature=youtu.be

Nice video. Got me interested in trying this out (though it’ll be awhile before I get all that ascended gear).

I’m thinking about this setup too, but I can’t decide about efficiency compared to my current dire set.(tanky condi build) You know, necro has little access to healing power scaled skills so it’ll be hard to compensate the loss of some amount of vitality and toughness with healing power. Eles are generally good with celestial because of all-around skills, but never tried on wvw necro. It may be good as a damage hybrid to overcome cleanses but I’m not sure about tankiness.

@ Sororita:

Basically, you are running the same setup I do, except I mix with berserker/cavalier and chose different traits after heavy testing. Your choice of traits really makes me wonder:

Does the roaming meta in NA not consist of around 60-70% stunwarriors with melandru and lemongrass, like it is on EU atm? Additionally, due to the strength of the hammer, more and more roaming groups seem to adapt a mini-pain train meta (sadly) over here.

I can`t tell when I had the last fight not including at least two hammers focusing on me, which makes 30 SR stabi a must have, imho. Not only defensively, but to reduce downtime being thrown around and/or stunned while trying to be aggressive as well (you want stay melee, since you`re wearing dagger mh).

A balanced 30-10-0-0-30 would not only make you a lot more durable (regarding both, cc and damage) but increase your critical damage ouput considerably (you want that to maximize the high frequency dagger aa chain).

I think there is no real alternative to 30 SR here in EU gold league as a necro roamer.

Overall, I am confident necro is THE class to run hybrid since DS is scaling so well with both damage sources and even the least condition specced necro will still throw them around like candy. Why not giving the conditions some punch and still keeping most of the direct damage. I wouldn`t ever change back to pure condition or pure power.

Best regards

Sororita.3465:

Went out and did some quick fights, heres a demonstration of my build
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jXcX6qdkNA&feature=youtu.be

Nice video man – like the build but especially like the gameplay

Interesting concept. Defiantly has some damage and high survivability. The damage very low when compared to a Condi or zerker build, but it seems you are more focused on control and staying alive then just burning people down. Which is fine.

Moon.6371:

@ Sororita:
Does the roaming meta in NA not consist of around 60-70% stunwarriors with melandru and lemongrass, like it is on EU atm? Additionally, due to the strength of the hammer, more and more roaming groups seem to adapt a mini-pain train meta (sadly) over here.

In NA T1, skull crack warriors were a lot more popular before the change to sigil of paralyzation. Hammer warriors seem to be sticking to the zergs lately. What I see a lot of now are thieves & mesmers with a fewer warriors, elementalists, engineers, and rangers mixed in.

Disclaimer: these are my observations made during my play time & may not accurately represent the true numbers of roaming skull crack warriors in NA T1.

Lily.1935:

Interesting concept. Defiantly has some damage and high survivability. The damage very low when compared to a Condi or zerker build, but it seems you are more focused on control and staying alive then just burning people down. Which is fine.

When you fight those necros you will kill them very easy.If you solo roam there is more to winning then just DMG.

Thanks for posting this build and video. I’ve been wondering about celestial gear for a hybrid build, maybe I will try it now.

Banjal.7328:

Lily.1935:

Interesting concept. Defiantly has some damage and high survivability. The damage very low when compared to a Condi or zerker build, but it seems you are more focused on control and staying alive then just burning people down. Which is fine.

When you fight those necros you will kill them very easy.If you solo roam there is more to winning then just DMG.

I wouldn’t know. I avoid WvW. Too many particle effects, hard to tell what is going on sometimes. And the one time I did go to WvW alone, I was using my PvE condi build, and 2 thieves tried to spike me down. It didn’t work, I scared them off. Although this was before Dhuumfire was introduced.

I came down to 99% same build with my celestials. It is hands down the best “hybrid – all around – prepared for ANYTHING , ANYWHERE” build. Be warned of long read but here are the key points of it:

1) Traveler runes are MUST. Heck Oozo takes the signet over a single stun-break. So is 40gold worth +1 extra utility slot (S Walk) + 1 offhand (warhorn) ? And the bonus stats are great , divinity is top for a reason

2) I take D/D + Staff. It gives 3 condi removals without even using a utility. Face it: staff #4 got butchered and necro is THE condi class. The transfers add damage + avoding it for u. And remember the build must be able to fight and win against both power as condi enemys.

3) Signet of spite. also a must utility. Why its beter than BiP ? without CD red. trait, the average power gain is same, wile condi dmg scales bad anyway. It is also up ALWAYS when u need that last burst or if things look bad , just use it for making enemy a noodle for 10-15s, while making 12+5= 17% added dmg.

3) 30/20/xxx gives up too much survival. The traits are bad and burning is single target only. Necro can already handle most 1v1s. This is for the bad scenarios when the 2nd guy showes up.

300 power + 30% con.dur. Instead u get the duration from food, its totaly OP, theres no food that could increase ur power damage by 40% … and +40% longer CC by fear … and its cheap From death u get +250 tough., 25% boons fury and regen, about +80 power and a better staff, which is your support weaponset.

4) The survival u get from 20 pts in blood is greater than the dmg gained from any 20pts elsewhere. U have good toughness, so vitality means something. The 20pts trait allows wells recharge for zerging. Before id take bloodthrist, but since sihpon buff i take siphon on crit with Dagger reduction since u can use #4 more often, dagger#2 gives ACTUAL SUSTAIN. its a 2,7k heal , every 13s , "can used ranged while kiting-repositiong, taking no damage , dealing damage + u run forward 25% faster remember? This + regen + a condi transfer before can make a 10k hp difference in hp bars in 3s , which most other classes cant catch up.

5) Staff and dagger make goof LF, and hybrid makes ALL your DS do dmg, while u take none. Staff and DS#1 is ranged , dagger for melee.

6) The other 2 utilitys are free to pick. I take Spectral wall and Spectral armor. A stun break, a semi disengage, 12s of protection , 1-2 more terror ticks and a lot of LF to use DS back on them.

7) It works great in pve as a lazy-mode with best value if u dont want to farm and carry around 3+ different sets.

-Be Quite good at everything ( about 65% )
-No direct hard counter
-Can counter others
-WvW zerg , WvW solo , PvE Damage (direct/condi , single/aoe ) , PvE group support wells ALL IN 1 SET , WITHOUT EVER RETRAITING OR REEQUIPING just swap a few traits and a utility and your good to go

w3 solo – http://tinyurl.com/qcca9gf
w3 zerg (copy off ascii) – http://tinyurl.com/pa4aspu
PvE dmg – http://tinyurl.com/nwubphq
PvE support – http://tinyurl.com/nk68gah

I use celestial for all accessories and I plan to get celestial armor when ascended hits. I think it’s a great fit for the necromancer. We benefit hugely from embracing our hybrid nature.

And yeah, traveler runes really are priceless for roaming.

Flumek.9043, you summed it up quiet nicely thank you.

I like what you did there Flumek. I have a Knights/Celestial mix on 0/20/0/20/30… not as much damage as yours has, but tankier and has access to stability. If we ever get another reliable source of stability and death magic is improved I may look into something along the lines of what you have.

I use celestial for my mm build but not my condi build (I use dire/rampagers for that) on my mm it’s the best setup I can find.

Draehl.2681:

I like what you did there Flumek. I have a Knights/Celestial mix on 0/20/0/20/30… not as much damage as yours has, but tankier and has access to stability. If we ever get another reliable source of stability and death magic is improved I may look into something along the lines of what you have.

Really close to mine. I am running full celestial, with runes of the undead for the extra condi damage. I currently run a 0/25/0/15/30 for the foot in the grave with ascended rabid scepter/dagger and staff. I find my survivability is quite high and love it.

How is your tagging ability compared to condition build in wvw zergs ? Can you reach required damage threshold easier than pure condition build or harder ? I currently have 2400+ condition damage, 32750 hp 2710defence with wvw buffs using dire build. I’ve focused on condition damage and survivability, I have 0% condition duration without food because I think cond. durations are irrelevant for zerg fights.(so many cleanses)

My current build, replace the sigil or earth on my scepter and staff with torment sigils. These give one extra condition for the +2% per condition damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjMal7haKb87Jg5DeHzo4gpeUO7nD-j0CBYhCi0CgUFBK5rIasVTFRjVVDQdDTHbR1mcJ1qDwYWaWKgRlGB-w

I find this build gives adequate damage/condition, but as I mostly use it is zergs to dispense blind/chill conditions with plaque/wob and dagger (4) It is a unique build. And although not as impressive as the stats you have I rely on having torment up as often as possible thus needing the precision. Basically I am a zerg buster in my guild, keeping them defenseless while my team members rip them to ribbons. The +66 crit damage helps when I use DS (regularly) to aoe bigger numbers.

HTH

@Umut

What you lose in comparison to asciis dedicated zerg build is some toughness, damage. you get some vit, but thats what you have to bear with untill u get a cavaliers set :P And swap d/d for axe/horn

Power you tag more and youre also more useful to your blob. The bigger the zerg, the weaker condis are.
And good epidemics take time and are unreliable. Whereas wells are targeted and on demand.

So I main a necro…. really all I every play to be honest lol its my only 80. Well I wvw a lot with him and I am not to keen on using the cookie cutter builds so I make up my own. But anyway I was looking around for some builds to see what everyone is doing now and this build looks interesting. It seems fun and I kind of wanting to try it out just don’t want to get the entire gear to find out they nerf something with this…. But in spvp I will say I did use this build with divinity runes instead and went with the same traits and did a condi version and it was fun…

But I love power over condi so I guess I should start saving my ascended mats so I can make the gear when it comes out