Dr Spook’s Sacred Ground Build.
More toxic than Hiroshima
This build is almost guaranteed to make you the “last man standing” in pretty much every situation, while still being able to put out some decent damage when alone, if you happen to have the luxury of some allies at your side prepare to watch any foe around you drop at your feet, even if you’re outnumbered.
Necro’s get a lot of bad rap in the game and anyone browsing the posts on this forum would get the idea they should avoid Nec’s like the plague. That doesn’t need to be the case, I’ve never liked “cookie cutter” build’s or the idea that each class should fit into a certain role, and GW2 just isn’t built that way as everyone should know. Playing around with Necro builds for quite sometime and realising that trying to make my character into something he “isn’t” just doesn’t work, Necro’s (while still bugged in many ways) have a lot of great traits and abilities that are really unique, working ‘with’ my Necro’s strength’s has lead me to this build which i personally think is one of the most useful, practical, and enjoyable to play.
Outtank and outlast most guardians/warriors
Weaken enemies dmg/mobility/boons more than any other class
Lots of AOE and CC skills
Constantly cure conditions on yourself and teammates
reflect damage/conditions better than mesmer’s
Heal constantly, yourself and allies
the list goes on of useful things Necro’s can do
yeah necro’s have bugs, but so do many other classes, its absolutely NOT true or fair to say that we are the weakest, worst, or most useless class, if you believe that, then you just arent playing right.
Onto the build.
The traits i use are 30/0/10/30/0
30 – II – VII – XI
0
10 – II
30 – II – VIII – XII
0
Axe/Focus
-
Staff
At lvl 80 i have 33k health 1.7k toughness and 3.3k attack.
Gear is mostly Power/toughness/vitality (a little condition duration thrown in here and there
Runes are up to personal preference, but i would include vitality/condition duration
While condition damage is almost non existent there is a heavy focus on condition duration and base power (il get to that later) high vitality/healing and reasonably high toughness/boon duration (increased with runes and gear) simply keep you alive throughout.
The main idea of this build and play style is to work with the high boon duration and condition duration to stack [vulnerability/weakness/cripple/chill] on your foe/foes (all non damaging conditions in themselves) and keep constant [regen/retaliation/and whatever other boons the enemy unwillingly gives you] while pretty effortlessly nudging enemies closer to their death.
The way this works from an offensive point of view is that you ultimately control the battle ground, whether the enemy is in stealth, has you knocked down/stunned/immobilized, they have no escape from the marks (staff) and wells that you will be tactically dropping at your own, or the enemies feet, the whole area becomes deadly for the enemy and empowering to you and your team.
[axe1] constantly stacks vulnerability for over 10 seconds per hit while dealing pretty decent damage considering you can attack from a good distance (unlike daggers) and don’t have to rely on the time it takes for conditions to tick away (sceptre).
[axe2] is the most damaging move in your skillbar, keep a finger on the 2 key ready for when when you’ve stacked some vuln and want to finnish them off, it can easily remove over a third of their health, and easily half with a full 25 stacks of vuln (very easy to achieve) and this isnt taking into consideration the amount of damage they’re doing to themselves with the retaliation and boon reversal.
[axe3] should be used in the early stages of any fight,hitting everyone around you crippling to keep them close (not too close) and retaliation if they get cheeky and try to hundred blades you (or any other silly attack of that sort) often not realising they are killing themselves in the process, and with an almost guaranteed bigger health pool than them, they should go down way before you have to worry about your own safety. with multiple enemies around you retaliation should be constant as the cooldown isnt as long as the boon itself
[focus4] skill hits multiple enemies in the area stacking vulnerability, and giving you and allies regen. it can stack up to 12 if there’s one enemy, and divides itself if there are more. Its normal for me in a pvp/dungeon situation have constant regen when in combat, switching to [staff2] if you need a little regen boost on CD, but your health should usually be fine with the pulsing wells around you that heal not only you, but all your allies too (il touch on that later)
