Guild Wars 2

I’m asking for some necro-centric guidance on how to use the 4 choices on the red action bar that we get when down, near death. I’ve never read how to use this. Only experimented IG, which is not so great cause I have to be dying to experiment.

What are some of the most basic ways for a necro to use those 4 actions and maybe some unique ways too?
What are the useless and pointless of the 4 choices? (For instance, I never use “summon help” bc I always play solo).

I’m concerned I’m not getting the most out of this aspect of the game.

I’m a solo-playing lvl 30 necro. I’m a hybrid condition/burst of my own making. Have no IRL friends who play. Have to learn everything from the forums or the game. But, that’s part of the fun!

Thanks in advance for your ideas,

-Random

Well, your downed 1 is your typical life drain. Some builds can actually heal them selves up to rally with only this skill, assuming they’re not taking much damage. The #2 is a 2 second fear. #3 is a surprisingly strong AoE poison and damage. People really underestimate this one.

4 is for getting yourself up. No other use.

In PVE, I’m usually downed only when I take on too many targets at once. When downed, I tab through the targets to find the one lowest on health, then go with 1 & 3 to try to finish them off to cause a rally. Use 2 (fear) as a means to reduce incoming damage.

If you are not targeted, in a group event or with others, generally use only 4 (bandage) instead of 1-3. This will reduce the chance of you being targeted and may allow you to recover on your own or at least make it easier for someone to revive you, since you won’t be taking more damage while they try to revive you.

Downed Skills:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Downed_skills

If you ever do PvP save your Downed 2 skill the fear for when someone is about to finish you. It can help buy some time by fearing them and interrupting them from killing you.

Something to note is that for 9/10 builds, Life Leech only heals enough to match your natural ‘bleed-out’ degeneration from downed state. It won’t heal you back to full unless you take the improved siphoning trait, and even then it’s a bit iffy.

Here’s my general strategy for PvE:

Find a target that’s low, start hitting it with 1 (Life Leech).
If there’s only one enemy

• Use 2 (Fear) once it’s available
• Switch to 4 (Bandage) as your foe is running from you.
• When your enemy walks hits you and breaks Bandage’s channel, if 3 (Fetid Ground) is up, cast it then hit 1 (Life Leech) again.

The objective is to repeat this cycle as long as needed to finish your foe.

If you have multiple enemies beating you down, the cycle is mostly the same, except that you won’t bother switching to Bandage, (Something will be hitting you constantly, so you won’t get any of the healing) and you should use your Fear to force the highest damage opponent to stop hitting you, rather than disabling what you’re actually trying to kill.

Fetid Ground is a near-instant cast, so feel free to throw it at your enemies whenever you’re not channeling something else. Bandage’s heal is much better than Life Leech’s, so use it when you can to stall for time.

If you want to make your Downed State really strong, consider 10 points in Spite, Death Magic and Blood Magic to take Death’s Embrace, Dark Armor and Bloodthirst. Death’s Embrace helps you kill things much more quickly, Dark Armor makes you much harder to kill (since you’re channeling Life Leech almost constantly) and Bloodthirst makes Life Leech strong enough to out-heal your natural life degeneration.

Didn’t realize that Bloodthirst affects Life Leech, though it makes sense really. Is it also affected by healing power if anyone knows?

manveruppd.7601:

Didn’t realize that Bloodthirst affects Life Leech, though it makes sense really. Is it also affected by healing power if anyone knows?

It is, though the ratio is predictably small. (Somewhere around 4 health per 100 healing power, per tick.) I think Bloodthirst multiplies that ratio as well though, and it seems to tick about three times per second, but I’m not sure about the rate of fire.