Guild Wars 2

I have a condition necromancer and I’m a bit curious as to what runes people usually put on their armor. Currently I’m stuck between Thief, Afflicted, and Nightmare, and I’m not sure which to use but I heard the Nightmare Rune’s condition duration buff wasn’t working properly. Can anyone confirm that?

Anyways, which runes do you use and why? I’d like a little more information on how well each rune seems to work before I go spending money on them.

Usually Rune of the Undead. For damge and survivability.

ETR.8152:

Usually Rune of the Undead. For damge and survivability.

Especially with Rabid gear. The #6 bonus is a very nice bump.

Also, they’re super cheap.

I use the rune of the necromancer as im currently running a hybrid terror build. 30 in spite 20 in soul reaping for fear duration and the runes give you 100% fear duration.
having massive success with this set up in spvp.

using fear for damage does some FAT dmg its awesome if your specced for it

Same as above: Rune of the Undead. Going to have to try that fear build, though.

even with 1,100 condition damage fear ticks for 1k. definitely worth trying

I did have runes for condition duration (nightmare) but the last patch broke them..

i’d say the purple one

Terror isn’t worth running. Even with the 1k damage, it doesn’t do enough compared to just applying bleeds. Its fun to try out every once in a while, but I wouldn’t suggest using it as a primary means of damage. Especially seeing as you are most likely only going to have access to 2 fear skills with a 1 second duration at any given time. You can modify it with runes in order to get close to 2 seconds, but you both have to have 50% from the soul reaping trait and mods from your gear to get that close. There is the option of putting 30 in spite to get the full 2 seconds out of it but then you sacrifice condition damage in the process because you need 20 in soul reaping as well.

Fear is best used as a interrupt…

Lily.1935:

Terror isn’t worth running. Even with the 1k damage, it doesn’t do enough compared to just applying bleeds. Its fun to try out every once in a while, but I wouldn’t suggest using it as a primary means of damage. Especially seeing as you are most likely only going to have access to 2 fear skills with a 1 second duration at any given time. You can modify it with runes in order to get close to 2 seconds, but you both have to have 50% from the soul reaping trait and mods from your gear to get that close. There is the option of putting 30 in spite to get the full 2 seconds out of it but then you sacrifice condition damage in the process because you need 20 in soul reaping as well.

Fear is best used as a interrupt…

This was my thought, as well. However, Lopez, who has written several guides on the conditionmancer, claims terror is higher dps than master of corruption.

I would agree with u if I hadn’t had so much success with it both in pvp and wvw.

when running conditions I have 70% fear duration and 4 possible fears.
when running my favored hybrid build with 30/10/10/0/20 I have seconds of fear and the direct damage from the axe and snares from the focus. I rarely die in 1v1 scenarios when playing this spec and have won a few 2v1’s due to pressure from staff and axe damage.
the 2 second fear can be chained with ur second fear so 4seconds if u need it, all the while hitting them with other attacks.
its not easy to play but I find myself really enjoying this build.

of course we share different opinions and playstyles lily. I would agree with you if u don’t run fear duration traits and condition damage. I run rampager gear with rabbid trinkets in wvw and rampager amulet in pvp

Lily.1935:

Terror isn’t worth running. Even with the 1k damage, it doesn’t do enough compared to just applying bleeds. Its fun to try out every once in a while, but I wouldn’t suggest using it as a primary means of damage. Especially seeing as you are most likely only going to have access to 2 fear skills with a 1 second duration at any given time. You can modify it with runes in order to get close to 2 seconds, but you both have to have 50% from the soul reaping trait and mods from your gear to get that close. There is the option of putting 30 in spite to get the full 2 seconds out of it but then you sacrifice condition damage in the process because you need 20 in soul reaping as well.

Fear is best used as a interrupt…

But if it interrupts and does damage, that sounds like a good plan to me. Not sure what your trying to say here about terror, as you can have terror and bleed duration, as they are not mutually exclusive. Also you don’t need 100% fear duration for two ticks, you just need to have some increased duration and get lucky with the damage ticks. It happens regularly at 70% duration.

Also in a condition build it hits much harder than 1000, I have had it tick for over 1650 before. In my opinion, it is crazy not to take terror. BIP and epidemic already have short cooldowns, and getting those available a few seconds earlier does not justify that damage loss. Since you can take hemo and terror in curses, it shouldn’t be an issue if you need more bleeding duration.

Now if you are talking PVE, terror isn’t really that useful there, but in WvW, it is a must have.

yea I have a confition build that ticks around 1400 on terror, I think terror if used properly is one of the necromancers best traits.

Rune-wise? Superior Undead, although Necromancer might be interesting with Terror
duration.
The only major issue with Fear is that Necro – supposedly the Master of Fear – has crappy Fear Duration, by default. Past that, if spec’d with at least Terror, it can slap down some decent DPS. As such, I’m willing to believe that a Curses/Soul Reaping hybrid build can use that to help wreck faces. I’d still like to see Steal “Fear” to be brought down in duration, tho. Bad enough Warrior’s “Fear Me!” is at least = duration, IIRC.

Rennoko.5731:

Lily.1935:

Terror isn’t worth running. Even with the 1k damage, it doesn’t do enough compared to just applying bleeds. Its fun to try out every once in a while, but I wouldn’t suggest using it as a primary means of damage. Especially seeing as you are most likely only going to have access to 2 fear skills with a 1 second duration at any given time. You can modify it with runes in order to get close to 2 seconds, but you both have to have 50% from the soul reaping trait and mods from your gear to get that close. There is the option of putting 30 in spite to get the full 2 seconds out of it but then you sacrifice condition damage in the process because you need 20 in soul reaping as well.

Fear is best used as a interrupt…

But if it interrupts and does damage, that sounds like a good plan to me. Not sure what your trying to say here about terror, as you can have terror and bleed duration, as they are not mutually exclusive. Also you don’t need 100% fear duration for two ticks, you just need to have some increased duration and get lucky with the damage ticks. It happens regularly at 70% duration.

Also in a condition build it hits much harder than 1000, I have had it tick for over 1650 before. In my opinion, it is crazy not to take terror. BIP and epidemic already have short cooldowns, and getting those available a few seconds earlier does not justify that damage loss. Since you can take hemo and terror in curses, it shouldn’t be an issue if you need more bleeding duration.

Now if you are talking PVE, terror isn’t really that useful there, but in WvW, it is a must have.

yeah I am talking about PvE. My problem isn’t so much with terror, I rather like the trait. My problem is more with the fear condition itself. The necromancer has too few fear skills with too short a duration and too long a cool down for me to justify using it.

Terror is great in WvW skirmishing and PvP, but ineffective in PvE and dungeons compared to the alternative builds. You just sacrifice too much for the fear duration in PvE that barely benefits you (and doesn’t even CC bosses most of the time due to Defiant stacks).

Yep completely agree. PVE master of corruption is better hands down.

In PvE I use 2x Krait, 2x Lyssa, 2x Mad King runes, for 20% overall condition duration, and +15% Bleed Duration extra. The reason is that I use a hybrid build, and I much prefer being able to support with 20% longer conditions overall (and we have enough to warrant it), than just stack up tons of Bleed duration that could possibly be pushed off by someone else.

Six runes of the Undead because they’re as cheap as I am.

I was considering getting the 4 + 2 Afflicted runes but the toughness + condition damage boost from Undead is so cozy I’ve been seriously reconsidering that plan.

Runes of the Undead as a bleed stacking/duration build and Runes of Nightmare as a terror burst spec.

OreoWolf.9564:

Runes of the Undead as a bleed stacking/duration build and Runes of Nightmare as a terror burst spec.

Can anyone tell me the duration on the nightmare rune activated on hit fear? Is it 1 or 2 seconds base? It is PBAOE I know.

The fear on nightmare runes has a base 1 second fear, which is then increased by master of terror and the runes condition duration for another 60% duration. Therefore, it has a 1 second fear with a 60% chance to tick twice.