Guild Wars 2

New to the necro community but so far enjoying a more intuitive learning curve, (love the life force and boon corruption management, knowing which skills are on cooldown in and out of shroud and the traits associated with that) I started my build with great sword and staff but I found having two clunky weapons really messing up my momentum and rythem. I’m sure my inexperience with the class has a good part in my forthcoming with the weapon combo. I picked up dagger/dagger over staff and saw immediate success with several matches in sapphire to ruby. Through many of the matches I got several pms and team chat asking what build I was running with d/d and “nice to see d/d necro in the mix” Is d/d an uncommon weapon set or inferior set to use? Fast auto attack with great life force generation. Life transfer is great to put some range pressure while closing in. An aoe immobile for a great gravedigger setup. An on demand 3 condi transfer and 6 second aoe weakness. I really don’t see a downside to the weapon combo but I feel I’m missing something everyone else has common knowledge about. I scattered through the forums but really didn’t get much info. Just looking to gather more info on a class that finally has a great sword that fits my playstyle

D/x + Staff Power Necro was more or less the Necro meta build before the big condi patch and HoT. Then we saw the rise of the signet/corruption Reaper, which at some point I believe was still using dagger, but has switched over to be mostly condi itself.

You can still get power necro/reaper to hit like a truck, but the huge amount of boons that people are seeing has promoted the Corruption builds to punish them better. And now Scepter AA has built in boonhate, so it makes extra sense to go condi.

Dagger offhand just doesn’t have the same power build synergy that WH does, so its used less. Its not that its bad or anything, just slightly less common of a combination because they aren’t as nicely matched as S/D and D/WH.

I still run it but then I run pretty much everything for comparison.

So essentially it looks like I’m missing out on a stronger strategy for boon corruption and a more effective daze and access to swiftness, *something my build lacks outside of shroud which I have traited for movement speed. While cycling through traits I did see a boon corrupt trait on shroud 2 that looked promising

Tradewinds.5792:

So essentially it looks like I’m missing out on a stronger strategy for boon corruption and a more effective daze and access to swiftness, *something my build lacks outside of shroud which I have traited for movement speed. While cycling through traits I did see a boon corrupt trait on shroud 2 that looked promising

Thing is Shroud 2 isnt as reliable as it was old DS#2

Krysard.1364:

Tradewinds.5792:

So essentially it looks like I’m missing out on a stronger strategy for boon corruption and a more effective daze and access to swiftness, *something my build lacks outside of shroud which I have traited for movement speed. While cycling through traits I did see a boon corrupt trait on shroud 2 that looked promising

Thing is Shroud 2 isnt as reliable as it was old DS#2

Shroud 2 looks like it would be easier to hit in its original form but it has double the cooldown as reaper shroud 2 not to mention the projectile blocking and blind on the last hit. I just see so much more utility on a lower cooldown outside of the boon stripping potential when traited

I ran (and still run) D/D and greatsword on a power reaper. (pve only player here, but i understand enough about pvp. If I get something wrong though, tell me

You can get boon corruption easily on that build. I used the bloodmagic traitline, so I favor having a well or two in my build, and the well of corruption works great. Also signets of suffering trait gives you boon corruption on the active skill of signets. So you don’t have to play a condi build to corrupt boons. (The condi damage won’t be as good, but how many conditions are non-damaging anyway? Besides, that’s less boons for them too.)

But yeah, D/D is pretty awesome to me, and I’ve debated on whether it is still better than GS just because it’s faster. Ultimately I like being about to solo stack 25 vuln with the Decimate Defenses trait, so I keep it around.

Tradewinds.5792:

Krysard.1364:

Tradewinds.5792:

So essentially it looks like I’m missing out on a stronger strategy for boon corruption and a more effective daze and access to swiftness, *something my build lacks outside of shroud which I have traited for movement speed. While cycling through traits I did see a boon corrupt trait on shroud 2 that looked promising

Thing is Shroud 2 isnt as reliable as it was old DS#2

Shroud 2 looks like it would be easier to hit in its original form but it has double the cooldown as reaper shroud 2 not to mention the projectile blocking and blind on the last hit. I just see so much more utility on a lower cooldown outside of the boon stripping potential when traited

I know, RS2 is way better than DS2 in various aspects, but it sucks when traited for boon corrupt, you just succesfully use it when cleaving

Krysard.1364:

Tradewinds.5792:

Krysard.1364:

Tradewinds.5792:

So essentially it looks like I’m missing out on a stronger strategy for boon corruption and a more effective daze and access to swiftness, *something my build lacks outside of shroud which I have traited for movement speed. While cycling through traits I did see a boon corrupt trait on shroud 2 that looked promising

Thing is Shroud 2 isnt as reliable as it was old DS#2

Shroud 2 looks like it would be easier to hit in its original form but it has double the cooldown as reaper shroud 2 not to mention the projectile blocking and blind on the last hit. I just see so much more utility on a lower cooldown outside of the boon stripping potential when traited

I know, RS2 is way better than DS2 in various aspects, but it sucks when traited for boon corrupt, you just succesfully use it when cleaving

I use it successfully all the time, personally. Frequently when chasing as well.

bearshaman.3421:

I ran (and still run) D/D and greatsword on a power reaper. (pve only player here, but i understand enough about pvp. If I get something wrong though, tell me

You can get boon corruption easily on that build. I used the bloodmagic traitline, so I favor having a well or two in my build, and the well of corruption works great. Also signets of suffering trait gives you boon corruption on the active skill of signets. So you don’t have to play a condi build to corrupt boons. (The condi damage won’t be as good, but how many conditions are non-damaging anyway? Besides, that’s less boons for them too.)

But yeah, D/D is pretty awesome to me, and I’ve debated on whether it is still better than GS just because it’s faster. Ultimately I like being about to solo stack 25 vuln with the Decimate Defenses trait, so I keep it around.

I’ve gotten use to the vulnerability stack on GS as well and want to run D/x along side for the runspeed trait, freeing up Locust for a different utilty. Problem is that /d isn’t good enough to replace Focus for most PvE in HoT and d/ has a limited range so I tend to be forced into axe for bosses like the wyvern. How do you manage to melee only and fight bosses that tend to sit in almost insta-death AoE such as Wyvern?

Are you switching out for range at specific encounters or am I missing a trick? Present build is pure zerk exotic, Spite, Blood, Reaper. Have played with knight trinkets for survival but still can’t avoid having to use a ranged weapon.

All encounters should be tailored to that fight. I can manage melee on teq, vale guard, most fractals, however on specific bosses like wyvern I could play the movement game to constantly stay behind him and out of the aoe, but I spend more time doing that than attacking. I’ll swap out to staff/axe focus and regular shroud for life blast. Reaper is a great trait line but if it’s easier to range than go ranged. I spend a lot of time practicing on surviving playing only melee and eventually down the road I might be able to play melee on all fights but I don’t feel it’s detrimental when playing in a large group scale, you aren’t helping the team practicing, so bring what’s best

wolfyrik.2017:

bearshaman.3421:

I ran (and still run) D/D and greatsword on a power reaper. (pve only player here, but i understand enough about pvp. If I get something wrong though, tell me

You can get boon corruption easily on that build. I used the bloodmagic traitline, so I favor having a well or two in my build, and the well of corruption works great. Also signets of suffering trait gives you boon corruption on the active skill of signets. So you don’t have to play a condi build to corrupt boons. (The condi damage won’t be as good, but how many conditions are non-damaging anyway? Besides, that’s less boons for them too.)

But yeah, D/D is pretty awesome to me, and I’ve debated on whether it is still better than GS just because it’s faster. Ultimately I like being about to solo stack 25 vuln with the Decimate Defenses trait, so I keep it around.

I’ve gotten use to the vulnerability stack on GS as well and want to run D/x along side for the runspeed trait, freeing up Locust for a different utilty. Problem is that /d isn’t good enough to replace Focus for most PvE in HoT and d/ has a limited range so I tend to be forced into axe for bosses like the wyvern. How do you manage to melee only and fight bosses that tend to sit in almost insta-death AoE such as Wyvern?

Are you switching out for range at specific encounters or am I missing a trick? Present build is pure zerk exotic, Spite, Blood, Reaper. Have played with knight trinkets for survival but still can’t avoid having to use a ranged weapon.

Yeah I noticed this problem too, and while I had wells, that’s not enough. I don’t like axe, staff would be my choice for a ranged option, maybe switching to Lich Form for the elite. My build is exotic Valkyrie armor, exotic zerk weapons, and the ascended trinkets that mix those two stat sets. (so I have more health without losing any crit). Also using Rage runes for fury uptime and more ferocity.

I am working on a second build that would operate from ranged with staff doing good damage and building lifeforce, still have GS, and using RS as much as possible for melee. This one could use all Valkyrie gear, as with the Death Perception AND Decimate Defenses, you are gonna be at 100% crit pretty easily anyway, and don’t need any precision, but I probably won’t bother recrafting, and just have the extra precision as a failsafe in case the vuln stacking doesn’t go off so well. The link has the gear I would use if I was gonna bother recrafting (Valyrie doesn’t have ascended trinkets so I went with something else, but it’s up to you of course).

Edit: build links
Reaper Build
Reaper Shroud Build

Tradewinds.5792:

All encounters should be tailored to that fight. I can manage melee on teq, vale guard, most fractals, however on specific bosses like wyvern I could play the movement game to constantly stay behind him and out of the aoe, but I spend more time doing that than attacking. I’ll swap out to staff/axe focus and regular shroud for life blast. Reaper is a great trait line but if it’s easier to range than go ranged. I spend a lot of time practicing on surviving playing only melee and eventually down the road I might be able to play melee on all fights but I don’t feel it’s detrimental when playing in a large group scale, you aren’t helping the team practicing, so bring what’s best

Lol this brings up the third build I was working on still using the same gear set. It’s basically what I was running before HoT. D/x and staff, spite/bloodmagic/soulreaping…

Death Shroud Build

Lol this brings up the third build I was working on still using the same gear set. It’s basically what I was running before HoT. D/x and staff, spite/bloodmagic/soulreaping…

Death Shroud Build]

Most of this build revolves around being in shroud, I could see wells being more useful to you than signets. You can pop the Wells for the damage over time while in shroud to let them tick while you provide most of your ranged damage from there

Tradewinds.5792:

Lol this brings up the third build I was working on still using the same gear set. It’s basically what I was running before HoT. D/x and staff, spite/bloodmagic/soulreaping…

Death Shroud Build

Most of this build revolves around being in shroud, I could see wells being more useful to you than signets. You can pop the Wells for the damage over time while in shroud to let them tick while you provide most of your ranged damage from there[/quote]

It’s a work in progress. Thanks for the suggestion.

Edit: looking at it again, I think I was going for the might stacking, and having boon corruption on-hand, but I could swap in wells pretty easily based on the content being faced. I also wasn’t using blood magic for this one, so I sometimes stop thinking about using certain skills if I don’t have the trait that goes with them. :-S

Second Edit: Corruptor’s Fervor with Signets of Suffering. That’s why I did that. Still can swap in wells as need be.

Death Charge aka reaper shroud 2 is buggy If DS2 was better I would never play reaper. When you have somone targeted for Death charge there is like an invisible wall stoping you from landing the skill if they are moving.

Morde.3158:

Death Charge aka reaper shroud 2 is buggy If DS2 was better I would never play reaper. When you have somone targeted for Death charge there is like an invisible wall stoping you from landing the skill if they are moving.

I started to notice that if they have no impeding movement conditions it becomes a sort of Jesus take the wheel targeting problem. To be honest though I dropped the boon corruption trait and use this more primarily as projectile destruction, escape skill is flesh wurm is on cooldown and as a quick movement skill to pop in a out of shroud which I traited for unholy feast on shroud cast, I get a 6 second cooldown boon corrupt anyways. I really have to say the versatility of the trait lines for necro are very well thought out. I can’t find one bad trait line regardless of a condi or power build. In fact I see such a great push towards hybrid builds with these trait lines

D/d power was about the best non meta build in 2013-15.

Hot and trait patch brought huuuuge power creep, before that all classes had much less defense available, any class had a semi viable zerker build, provided a good pilot.

Now, you simply cannot land such stuff anymore.
Evade frames have gone from 10 to 30%,
self made perma wenes and protection,
Instant knockbacks interupting your combo and disspositioning your melee cleave,
Way more snares and random free blinds,
Even zerkers having such high heals per second that they can fully reset.
Also easier rezzes, like from 1 to 5 per teamfight, making high risk burst even less effective.

The only way to deal damage since hot has been ranged DoTs, which dont have such setup requirements, making it only a cooldown war.

Tldr
Dagger did 2k dps, now does 1k half time, 0k other half.
You can do 1-2 k reliably with condis.
D/x was good but only thief and brokenant were able to follow power creep with a power build.
GS is a roleplay weapon, its banned in pvp.

Flumek.9043:

D/d power was about the best non meta build in 2013-15.

Hot and trait patch brought huuuuge power creep, before that all classes had much less defense available, any class had a semi viable zerker build, provided a good pilot.

Now, you simply cannot land such stuff anymore.
Evade frames have gone from 10 to 30%,
self made perma wenes and protection,
Instant knockbacks interupting your combo and disspositioning your melee cleave,
Way more snares and random free blinds,
Even zerkers having such high heals per second that they can fully reset.
Also easier rezzes, like from 1 to 5 per teamfight, making high risk burst even less effective.

The only way to deal damage since hot has been ranged DoTs, which dont have such setup requirements, making it only a cooldown war.

Tldr
Dagger did 2k dps, now does 1k half time, 0k other half.
You can do 1-2 k reliably with condis.
D/x was good but only thief and brokenant were able to follow power creep with a power build.
GS is a roleplay weapon, its banned in pvp.

I definitly see your point. I played a power Druid recently before trying Necro. Power is definitly on the opposite end of the spectrum come HoT. I’ve tried to get behind a condi build on multiple classes (ranger, ele, guard, engi,rev, and warrior), but I just can’t enjoy stacking condis and not building a rhythm while in pvp. I don’t mind having to gather a higher degree of skill to beat my opponents, so I guess I’m playing devils advocate to your post. I definitly see why D/D is a bit more uncommon now and I do appreciate you shedding much needed light on that, however the challenge to make D/D/ GS reaper work is too good to pass up. I don’t see gs as a role play weapon, I see the potential to scare your opponent into a position they are most uncomfortable in. I’ve had a few days to play reaper since I first posed the question to the community and I must say, I’ve never seem such amazing build diversity and potential in one class. Coming from the ranger community it’s great to see the necro isn’t cornered into one build to be great

Tradewinds.5792:

Coming from the ranger community it’s great to see the necro isn’t cornered into one build to be great

I also play ranger, and I’d disagree with you about that statement, but this isn’t the forum for it, and I don’t pvp (which I suspect is your main concern when you posted that).

In any case, even here there is a “meta” for reaper.