Guild Wars 2

After getting to 40 and realizing I couldn’t go minion master like I wanted, I have to re-think my build. I think I want to fully utilize death shroud as it can be extremely powerful, even with abilities that don’t do a ton of damage.

For a death shroud build I’m not sure if I should get the full 30 points in Soul Reaping (trait skills would be Vital Persistence, Unyielding Blast, and if I’m going 30 points Near to Death – is this one very useful?) I know I’m going to need as much vitality as I can get, because increased healthpool is an increased life force pool as well, virtually doubling my health.

I think I’ll put at least 10 points into Blood Magic for life transfer heals allies, but I’m not sure how much more to put into that tree.

20 points in Death Magic for Death Shiver

10 points in Curses for Enfeebling Blood (worth it?)

10 points in Spite for Reaper’s Might (possibly 20 for Spiteful Spirit as well)

All in all, this is what I’m thinking (go to the trait tab)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQAQBoiQSx1+1UhuBV49RFOGlC3tOA

I still have no clue about what weapons to use. I’m not sure if as a DS build I should be going cond damage or might, but I’ll probably include the staff as one of my weapons.

Any thought or suggestions? I haven’t tested any of this yet

EDIT

I forgot to mention, I’m thinking of using this as a somewhat tanky build

I think you’ll want Foot in the Grave if you really want a tough-to-kill build. Stability is amazing in PVP. Enfeebling Blood is definitely worth it, but Transfusion is pretty weak unsupported.

I don’t really understand Reaper’s Might, personally. Unless this is a full PVE build attempting to maximize damage, there doesn’t seem to be much time to spam Life Blast and see much use from the Might stacks. Maybe it’s effective in practice.

^ I think Reaper’s Might is really a matter of play style. It basically encourages you to stay in Death Shroud and build the biggest stack you can, which is “viable” (whatever that means for us necros right now).

Personally on my Death Shroud builds (especially when I dip Blood Magic) I prefer to rely on the 15 pt fury buff in the Curses line (the name escapes me at the moment), which lends itself more to bouncing in and out of DS quickly to capitalize on those 5 seconds of giant crit rating.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I guess I should have mentioned – this is mostly a PvE build for now, but I will be trying pvp fairly soon and I want to be able to use a DS build for that as well.

I chose Transfusion because I do a fair bit of group play even when just questing, and at level 40, each tick of damage heals everyone for 50 which is a pretty big heal. When I’m solo I’d switch it for something else, maybe mark of blood on dodge.

What do you think about weapons? Should I be going for pure damage with this kind of build, or should I be thinking about conditions?

Also, how good is Death Shiver? The main reason I went into the Death Magic trait line is for this ability as it seems very good – but I’m not sure about its practical application.

So at 80 I rerolled to DS/Dagger build. It looks something like this:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MzVMzm0zmFwvmmFRvMaG0axomVzoMb

I toyed with subbing Signet of Spite in for Blood is Power, but the shorter CD on BiP is pretty nice. Basically, the gist is to start the fight popping in and out of DS quick to stack fury, doing some damage, AoE if necessary, and finish it off in DS.

I’ve tried MM (sucks), Conditionmancer (better), and this so far, and I am enjoying this the most. The epidemic thing + the dagger OH + piercing DS shots make AoE fights more viable, still, and the single-target damage seems much higher. In terms of elite skills, you’re hard pressed not to take the golem I feel. Lich is too gimmicky and situational, and the knockdown is just awesome. The AI is definitelykitten but even with that I find it to be the best elite.

Just a warning that I haven’t played this build in pvp at all, and can’t vouch for it there.

edit: Really ANet? “d e r p y” is censored? Isn’t that a bit much?

For a power build golem may be best elite, but I really enjoy trolling with the #2 on plague for 20 seconds, mobs or players blind is just amazing. Had a PW spam theif come to kill me, he put haste on to do so, I eventually lost that encounter however his pw build yeah, 44 hits from pw, 10k damage total from it. I just loled when i looked at that.

I use a Scepter+Dagger/Staff build and I love it.
Except for Boss monsters I ALWAYS get Gold in Dynamic Events.
What I do is Cast Scepter 2 and 5 right off the bat, then Well of Suffering+Corrosive Poison Cloud, then a few 1s and then Epidemic. Finally I pop DS and cast 4. If they are not all dead, my Scepter 2 is already up again or I switch to Staff for a few Marks.

Devilsmack.5736:

I use a Scepter+Dagger/Staff build and I love it.
Except for Boss monsters I ALWAYS get Gold in Dynamic Events.
What I do is Cast Scepter 2 and 5 right off the bat, then Well of Suffering+Corrosive Poison Cloud, then a few 1s and then Epidemic. Finally I pop DS and cast 4. If they are not all dead, my Scepter 2 is already up again or I switch to Staff for a few Marks.

Getting gold is generally quite easy I find, regardless of build. DS/Condition lacks synergy in a big way, though, because you can pretty much only DS for #4, then you’re back out of it or you’re not doing any damage. Dots tick off so quickly with a Conditionmancer that unless you’re constantly stacking and reapplying, the damage drops to nil. With a power build, you can at least frontload your damage and spending time in DS isn’t as painful.

Bag.6279:

So at 80 I rerolled to DS/Dagger build. It looks something like this:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#MzVMzm0zmFwvmmFRvMaG0axomVzoMb

I toyed with subbing Signet of Spite in for Blood is Power, but the shorter CD on BiP is pretty nice. Basically, the gist is to start the fight popping in and out of DS quick to stack fury, doing some damage, AoE if necessary, and finish it off in DS.

I’ve tried MM (sucks), Conditionmancer (better), and this so far, and I am enjoying this the most. The epidemic thing + the dagger OH + piercing DS shots make AoE fights more viable, still, and the single-target damage seems much higher. In terms of elite skills, you’re hard pressed not to take the golem I feel. Lich is too gimmicky and situational, and the knockdown is just awesome. The AI is definitelykitten but even with that I find it to be the best elite.

Just a warning that I haven’t played this build in pvp at all, and can’t vouch for it there.

edit: Really ANet? “d e r p y” is censored? Isn’t that a bit much?

Thanks for the lengthy response!

Currently I use the axe+dagger/staff and while the damage is very sub-par I find that with all the aoe’s I can kite and whittle down large groups fairly easily, while not taking much damage. How do you manage to use the daggers to good effect and not take too much damage being melee range?

Also what are you using as a secondary weapon set? I’ve read that the staff is the best at life force regen, and it has some nice cc capabilities, as well as just general aoe damage.

Minion master (5 minions + staff + minion traits) works well for single-player pve and story up to and including level 80. It IS a little bit slow. But – you get to not have to dodge and move much, and usually you will have at least a few minions up to tank for you. You will have problems with champion mobs, but you will be able to take all veteran mobs one on one.