Guild Wars 2

Hi all… wonder if someone can help, im new to necro so please excuse me!!!
I have no interest in pvp and only want end game to run dungeons with my guild. Ive watched a fair few interesting videos (mainly nemesis) and there seems to be alot of possibility, mainly 3 builds, condition, power and hybrid primarly for dungeon runs.

The hybrid looks pretty good as it mixes both aoe (condition) and single target (power) based build but would hybrid work for dungeons? I do not know what to expect in a dungeons to know which build i should go for?? Has any one had experience running a hybrid build in dungeons?? Any help greatly appreciated. :-)

My suggestion would be to build a tank build for running dungeons, at least until you are comfortable with them and know the encounters. Too many times have I had difficulties in dungeons because the rest of my group dies and I am left trying to solo a boss (You cant, ive tried ;p)

Now I certainly am not the most gifted player in GW2 (I stay away from pvp cause I suck so bad ;p) but I can usually hold my own. I liek the survivability of the necro in my current tank build (from Nemesis’s videos) that even though I dont kill stuff as fast, I can have 5-8 cursed shore mobs (any mobs, doesnt matter) and never go below 50% helth (usually dont even get to 75% health). I dont even dodge, I jsut tank n spank since I am nearly invulnerable hehe.

I dont have the PVT gear either, so champions are hit and miss which ones I can solo, but ive soloed a couple mid lvl champs so far with relative ease.

Anyhow, sorry about the long post. Give it a try, only one way to find out.

Athena.3921:

Hi all… wonder if someone can help, im new to necro so please excuse me!!!
I have no interest in pvp and only want end game to run dungeons with my guild. Ive watched a fair few interesting videos (mainly nemesis) and there seems to be alot of possibility, mainly 3 builds, condition, power and hybrid primarly for dungeon runs.

The hybrid looks pretty good as it mixes both aoe (condition) and single target (power) based build but would hybrid work for dungeons? I do not know what to expect in a dungeons to know which build i should go for?? Has any one had experience running a hybrid build in dungeons?? Any help greatly appreciated. :-)

I run a 30/30/10 hybrid build for Fractals/PVE very similar to what Nem talks about, and have found it to be the best option when you don’t know what team setup you are going to have. Conditions can be a bad idea if your group has a condition thief/ranger/other necro. Power is just meh, IMO, for dungeons, compared to other power build options for warriors/guardians/mesmers.

Oddly enough, even dropping 700-800 toughness, I don’t really notice a big difference in PVE. Most mobs are hitting you in the 1000s, and you can’t get “overhit” and killed because of downed state. Having conditions ticking in the 150s with might, and having your damage skills hit in the 3k range is pretty nice.

I never agree with building tanky for dungeons. This game isn’t designed around tanking, it is designed around avoidance. A line of warding from a guardian is significantly better than any toughness/vitality you bring to the table. Building to tank damage as a necro or any class, is not a great plan. Also it teaches you to be sloppy and take hits you need to learn to avoid. Be prepared to go down occasionally though. DS can save you now and again, but without vigor, you will need to use your dodges very efficiently.

I keep P/V/T gear in my bags specifically for bad pick-up groups in dungeons. I usually run a heavy crit conditions build, but once I figure out that nobody in the group knows what they’re doing (usually the first boss, when they immediately die) I swap a few traits and some gearing around and I’m instantly a tanky power build! Because I might not be able to solo a boss completely, but I can solo a few of them down the last 10-15% if I play my cards right. And the extra Vit/Toughness really helps in rallying people (over and over and over again). Also, Signet of Undeath, Well of Darkness, and Plague Form come in handy in failure groups. I swap the last one out between Plague Signet (terrible, but it sometimes works) and Well of Power. The one truism about bad groups is nobody ever has cleanses on the bar, and nobody talks about it beforehand.

My normal gear is a mix of Rampagers and Rabid, and my traits are spread between Spite/Curses/Reaping. I try to use dodge, blind, cripple, and death shroud as a replacement for tanking stats. This only works if my group isn’t terrible.

I run Nemesis’s hybrid build in dungeons, with good success. Survivability is good…other than DS I can think of two cripples and two chills in the build off the top of my head, and that doesn’t include utilities. The build only has one interrupt though: the fear in DS, so use it sparingly.

In many fights you switch between S/D and A/F liberally between cooldowns. But there are some groups that have too much condition players, so having a power side allows me to back off the conditions and still dish out decent damage.

Rennoko.5731:

I run a 30/30/10 hybrid build for Fractals/PVE very similar to what Nem talks about, and have found it to be the best option when you don’t know what team setup you are going to have. Conditions can be a bad idea if your group has a condition thief/ranger/other necro. Power is just meh, IMO, for dungeons, compared to other power build options for warriors/guardians/mesmers.

Excellent glad to here others have had success with the Hybrid build. I plan to go 30/30/10 as well as that certainly seems the best setup for pve runs. Thanks for your replies.

Eviator.9746:

In many fights you switch between S/D and A/F liberally between cooldowns. But there are some groups that have too much condition players, so having a power side allows me to back off the conditions and still dish out decent damage.

Yea exactly why the hybrid does work pretty well, can match to multiple scenarios. What sort of rotation do you do vs single targets with sceptar MH / dagger OH and Axe MH Focus OH?? Nemesis build indicates to stack bleeds first before switching out to axe/focus, whats your rotation??

I found Nemsis’s rotation pretty darn close to optimal, so I follow it as close as I can. Obviously it’s situational because I can/do get aggro and sometimes need to do support things like chill and cripple. And sometimes I save my DS when I anticipate upcoming trouble. Also, I have a couple trait differences. I take Reaper’s Might and Close to Death in the Spite line instead of Nemesis’s choices. So I sometimes fire off a few life blasts to get a bit of might, and since I don’t have reduced axe cooldowns, I couldn’t follow Nemesis’s Ghastly Claws → Life Transfer → Ghastly Claws rotation exactly without reduced axe cooldowns.