Guild Wars 2

I’m beginning to lose more interest in the class by the day, and thought that the best course of action was to seek advice from fellow necromancers struggling with the same issues. I know this isn’t exactly a grand opening line to promote intelligent discussion on a class, but I think we are all familiar with the current state of affairs.

When I created my character, I had several character concepts in mind. “Sure,” I thought, “if this life-stealing necromancer idea doesn’t work, I’ll just build a condition-based character!” I was sorely disappointed on both fronts.

With the poor damage axe produces in respect to other power-based builds from separate professions, the lackluster life siphoning from dagger in a high risk-low reward melee range, and the relatively poor ability to stack bleeds with scepter against a single target, I found myself cornered into the only remaining weapon available. The staff.

With that in mind, I began trying to find a way to validate the primary usage of a staff over that of alternative forms of damage. One of the most noticeable aspects of the staff is it’s ability to generate life force arguably better than any other weapon (tied with axe+focus). Building from this, I tried out several power/crit based trait setups that would benefit a Death Shroud centric build the most.

The resulting damage was a respectable 700-800 auto attack, with nearly 1,500 crits.
It wasn’t uncommon to see 3k crits with putrid mark, and a full combination of marks yielded approximately 3,000-5,000 damage in a period of only a couple seconds. Hardly any burst in comparison to that of other classes, but a decent amount of damage for the necromancer regardless of weapon choice (especially because it’s all AoE).

The largest drawback, as I’m sure you already know, is that the staff is extremely cool-down reliant. Surely you can’t build a character around a 5,000 damage burst once every 25 seconds. This is where weapon swapping and death shroud come into play- It just so happens that this is also where things become more complicated.

A power build such as this would find absolutely no use for a scepter, leaving other Axe or Dagger as secondary choices:

A) Dagger- Although dealing more damage, and synergizing more favorably with the stats I’m already seeking, the auto attack doesn’t mesh well with the ranged benefit of a staff. Dancing in and out of combat with no reliable mobility tool makes pulling this off difficult at best, and impossible at worst. Once you look past that, however, you can see that both the regeneration from staff #2 and the life siphon from dagger #2 make this a rather “tanky” alternative to the axe.

B) Axe- With both an AoE snare and the ability to stack vulnerability, the axe is a prime candidate as a secondary weapon for a power-based staff build. Stacking up vulnerability through Well of Corruption, Focus #4, and the axe auto attack could lead to some impressive AoE staff burst. However, the difference between axe and dagger is barely an 8% damage differential (through vulnerability) at the expense of a lower damage channel and the life drain that accompanies it.

Along with whichever main-hand weapon is chosen, an equally significant off-hand must be as well:

1) Dagger- Providing little in the way of power-based damage, the dagger offhand applies various debuffing conditions such as AoE weakening, multi-target blind, and (if traited) a multi-target chill. This would go quite nicely with the debilitating conditions the staff already applies, had I been focused on doing so.

2) War Horn- Perhaps providing even less to a power based build than an offhand dagger, the only huge benefit I can see associated with this offhand is the swiftness it grants. At a relatively short duration and a cripple that only applies in melee range, I could only see this choice being prevalent on a defensive build that simultaneously uses a dagger in the main hand.

3) Focus- Granting a considerable amount of life force through #4, coupled with the respectable damage it deals if all bounces connect, it would be difficult to deter me from this weapon. Although the chill affects only a single target, it works nicely with an axe or dagger’s primary focus on a single target. Used as a kiting tool or gap closer, I could see it being useful in a variety of situations (not to mention the boon removal). In addition to all of the aforementioned, it even stacks vulnerability relatively easily (if you or an ally is within range) to line up better damage on the staff burst combination.

Traits are another topic I’ve spent a great deal of time trying to determine. Each having their own benefits, I think this section would be largely decided by which weapon setup was previously chosen:

I) Spite- This would be an excellent choice, not just for the power it passively provides, but for the 10% extra mark damage and extra axe damage. The 10 point trait, granting might on life blast, would be a great addition to a build focusing on death shroud usage. The minor traits are rather poor in comparison, but are somewhat made up by the effects of condition duration on non-damage based debuffs (further cementing the effectiveness of vulnerability stacking). This tree also contains the focus range/cool-down reduction trait, although I’m not entirely sure of it would be fully utilized with so much dancing between primary weapon, secondary weapon, and death shroud.

II) Curses- Although granting a reasonable amount of crit chance, this tree also passively increases condition damage- It just so happens that a large portion of staff damage comes from the bleeding and poison marks. A notable trait in this line allows the necromancer to use wells from a distance. Of course, while using either an axe or dagger, you’ll generally be close enough to make use of the pbAoE without too much effort. The most appealing trait in this tree, for a DS build, just so happens to be a minor one- Furious Demise. Granting 20% crit chance, with 50% up-time, basically provides a constant 10% increase in crit chance for a very small investment into the tree.

III) Death Magic- This tree is probably the most troubling for me. Although it grants access to both shorter cool-downs and larger marks while using a staff, the minor traits are quite poor and the passive bonuses ineffective (at least for a DS focused build). The difference between having those staff traits and not having them is quite large, but at what expense?

IV) Blood Magic- It just so happens that wells are the only utilities available to a necromancer that scales based on both power and crit chance (as well as the increased crit damage). Vitality also happens to increase the effectiveness of the Death Shroud “life pool” at about a 75% exchange rate. This tree definitely looks promising, and the extra healing you gain passively would work well in conjunction with the staff regeneration mark, or the dagger life siphon. Yet again, however, we have the same problem as before with the staff- Is the survivability gained really worth such a drastic loss of damage?

V) Soul Reaping- The most important part of any Death Shroud focused build. To preface this, I will also note that because necromancer utilities on a power based build are somewhat limited, spectral abilities seem a bit more appealing.

—— Death shroud drains at approximately 4% per second. With the 25% reduction trait, this becomes 3%. In a perfect scenario (without receiving any damage), you would be able to remain in death shroud for 12.5 seconds before dropping below 50% life force, and therefor reducing your damage drastically. With the trait, you will be able to remain in Death Shroud for 16 seconds. I’m still undecided between this and…

——Unyielding blast not only pierces the enemy, but also applies 2 stacks of vulnerability per cast. In conjunction with the spite 10 point trait, this increases the effectiveness of #1 Spam in DS by a considerable margin. It also synergizes well with the staff’s ability to pierce targets.

——As previously mentioned, the defensive utilities look somewhat more favorable when compared to the alternative, condition based, options. These spectral skills, such as spectral armor, walk, grasp (if using dagger), and wall can each be reduced by 20% and switched around according to the situation.

——Soul marks seems to be almost necessary if building around both staff and death shroud usage. This also allows you to easily sacrifice an auto attack for a second mark of blood before switching to a secondary weapon set. Instead of the 3% life force gained and 700-800 damage from a staff auto attack, you gain 3% more life force and deal over 1,000 extra damage as bleeding.

——The 25 point minor trait is actually much better than it may sound at first. Although unreliable and hardly predictable, it can grant up to an extra 100(approximation) power. Imagine placing an extra 10 points in spite beyond 30.

——The 30 point trait causes some confusion. With a 5 second cool-down on DS, it would be possible to keep fury up 100% of the time. But the difference between having this trait, and not having it, is only about 10% more consistent crit chance- at the expense of being forced to apply and remove DS every 5 seconds. This reapplication of DS resets the auto attack timer, and includes a slight delay on all ability usage. Perhaps somebody may be able to convince me otherwise.

With all of that being said, you can see that I’ve put a lot of time into finding renewed interest in this class. This is the final build I’ll be working on, and I could certainly use all the advice I can get.

Dagger/Focus work well with staff.

Keep in mind that to get the regen bonus of mark of blood you need to be in melee range anyway.