Guild Wars 2

Ive now bumped my Necro up to 80 and im trying to find the best ( cheap) combo of gear to try out a few different play styles whilst I get to know Necro

- I will be playing Hot Maps and some Tyria world bosses for now, im not aiming for Raids with this character, I randomly picked Scepter/Dagger Axe/Focus when I first rolled her which I like and have some Rabid exotic weapons in the bank.

Does that mainly lock me into a condition play style? – Do I have to get Rabid gear to match ( Sinister sounds a pain to get) and get completely separate gear to try a dps build or can I go with zerker armor and mix in rabid weapons and try to go hybrid – or is that frowned on?!

Thanks

Most players have multiple gear sets, so its never too late to start working on a direct damage set. For direct damage, you want a lot of berserker, I’m sure there are some detailed build guides around. Then there is condition damage builds that run viper, sinister gear, but playing with rabid will be cheaper. Then finally, you get hybrid builds, which I don’t know much about. In the end, there is some decent flexibility for pve necro.

I’d say the best set to get first is the one you want to play. (Try them out in pvp zone) However, I think direct damage is more useful in pve. (mostly just due to destructible objects being immune to conditions) However, there are times when either direct damage or condition damage will be better. Which is why most players carry multiple sets on their characters, to switch when the time is needed. Gear (exotic) is very cheap. Getting ascended jewelry is almost free with a bit of time.

Thanks for that – tbh I would really like to try a Hybrid spec if its doable, I used to play shadow priest in WoW and it had a lot of flexibility and utility.

Ive been through a lot of the Hot Maps now with other characters and I can see the potential of plague when I get swamped at events – would Rabid weapons and armor be overkill though? am I gimping myself by crafting a part zerker part rabid set instead?

I didn’t find many up to date guides most of them are focused on Reaper.

Hey! These two builds are really solid. Most run with zerker gear, but feel free to change out rings to something more tanky if you feel you need the added sustain. Getting ascended rings and ammy’s from laurel merchants is super cheap. Also, if you PvP, the weapon and armor boxes you get from the dungeon tracks are great! I just made an 80 Necro last night!

His name is Xyranthion Rasmus. Feel free to add me! I’ll be doing HoT maps with my guild as well to unlock the reaper line.

Hope to see you in game! ~

Well considering your choice is PvE, I have a question. How much karma do you have and how much are you willing to spend it on gear? After all karma can bet raded for cheap exotic gear in Orr (look up temple armor if interested). Rabid and berserker will do you fine.
I’m not sure about a hybrid build for pve. I did a simple test ( kill some randomstuff in verbant brink) on a simple build using scepter/dagger and dagger/dagger with spite (up,up,up) ,curses (mid,up,down) and blood magic (down,down,down) and seemed to be doing fine. I used some berserker gear and some rabid as well (armor was ascended though). The heal was signet of vampirism and the utilities where blood is power, plague signet and epidemic. The elite was lich form but each of the necromancer elites are fine for this build. You can try some different traits/weapons/skills but spite and curses will be your main trait lines.

This should help with a hybrid build.

If you want to play a condition/hybrid build you have to consider the effort and gold needed to get Viper/Sinister gear. It takes a while to farm it and requires crafting professions and gold. The cheapest armor choice is Berserker with a good Power Build.

For an open world build i recommend Greatsword + Dagger/Warhorn, these traits: Spite (1/1/2) Blood Magic (2/3/3) Reaper (1/3/3)

Take “Your Soul is mine” “Rise” another Shout of your liking and Signet of Spite.
Elite is Flesh Golem or “Chilled to the Bone”

You get 25% movement from wearing a dagger.
You can play around and take Wells instead of shouts and take Blood (2/3/1)

Thanks for all the replies some really useful stuff here.

Having found a few more things online aswell it seems even hybrid guides want Vipers which is just too expensive for me atm not knowing if I want to be Cond or Power as my main type of gameplay.

- it looks like im just going to have to pony up for 2 sets – if I have this right, Sinister ( poor mans Viper) for Cond and then Zerker for power( with maybe a couple of pieces of defensive gear)? Are my free Dungeon Rabid weapons still ok?

Warhorn and GS look like something I should try out too I really like Scepter/Dagger though – I just wish Hybrid builds were more popular/doable within design constraints in GW2 as a whole, all my characters in WoW pretty much were Hybrid and very flexible, being able to swap to a secondary Healer and saves wipes at a pinch was fun -

Are there any other classes that can do a hybrid build other than Necro?

As far as cheap armor goes, I do HoT most of the time with exotic so there is no need for ascended.

You can mix any stat gear you want but it is important to note that condition damage builds underperform power builds.

If you like scepter, you can bid low for rampager armor. Almost any armor type has some benefit but you need to determine how comfortable you are playing a Necro in order to figure out how much defensive stat’s you need in place of dps.

If you do not use scepter, power without extra condition damage is best. (You will still have your base condition damage, anyway.)