Guild Wars 2

I am new to the game and this is my first character. I have about 30 hero points saved up and I have no idea how to spend them. I have a sylvari necro which I want to use for map completion and eventually dungeons. What would be a good way to build my necro keeping in mind that I will mostly be playing alone? I am thinking minions and DS with maybe some wells but I have no idea how to properly balance the skills.

In the oveworld, nearly anything can work. If that is your primary concern, just go with whatever is cool looking.

Dungeons are a bit of a different beast, especially since you can’t really play them alone. If you want to optimize performance, which is what most dungeon teams demand, you’ll have to do a couple of things.

Wear Berserker Gear. This may seem daunting at first, but as you learn to dodge big, telegraphed attacks you’ll soon find it hard to play in any other gear prefix.

For weapons, you’ll want to do something a bit odd. Keep only one main-hand weapon equipped: the dagger. The dagger has good damage and LF gain. If you need to range, you can use life blast and lich form. For off-hand, keep at least the focus. The focus is good for damage, stacking vulnerability, and removing boons. The warhorn is decent for its AoE stun and swiftness, and the off-hand dagger is good for the condi transfer and weakness.

As far as traits/specializations go, there are two ways to build the dungeon necro that I’ve found to be really effective. Spite/Curses/Blood Magic, and Spite/Curses/Soul Reaping. Now, the traits aren’t set in stone, since it changes depending on how you play, but these will make a good guideline for what to use in the future.

Spite: Spiteful Talismen, Chill of Death/Rending Shroud, Close to Death.
Curses: Plague Sending, Path of Corruption, Weakening Shroud
Blood Magic: Quickening Thirst/Ritual of Life, Vampiric Aura, Vampiric Rituals
Soul Reaping: Unyielding Blast, Spectral Mastery, Foot in the Grave.

These traits are used for something called a Flashing Build. In this build, you pop in and out of Death Shroud very quickly to take advantage of Furious Demise, Rending Shroud, and Weakening Shroud. You’ll spam Death Shroud whenever it is off cooldown, save the special exceptions where you need to take a few hits.

The difference between blood magic and soul reaping are that blood magic is a more team supportive build, while soul reaping is more personal strength.

The utilities you’ll want to take are as follows:

Heal Skill: Well of Blood if using blood magic. Consume Conditions otherwise.
Well of Suffering: This skill is a must. Does good damage, stacks a lot of vulnerability. Just make sure to use it after another player lays down a fire field.
Elite Skill: Lich form. Lich form’s auto attack does more damage than the dagger, and can hit more enemies, too. Use against bosses.

The last two utilities can be taken from a pool, and it really depends on the situation. If you are using blood magic, you’ll prioritize wells.
Well of Corruption: this does half as much damage as well of suffering, but it is still a pretty strong skill to use. The best thing about it is how easily it strips conditions away in an AoE.
Well of Power: This skill is a decent stunbreak and group condi cleanse. Use this against enemies that inflict burning, since it turns burning into Aegis.
Well of Darkness: this is a fairly potent defensive skill that takes away most damage from non-champions. If trash mobs give you problems, take this.
Blood is Power: This skill has a nice AoE might stack. This should be taken, unless the team you have is already really good at stacking might. Otherwise, take
Signet of Spite This is a flat damage boost that actually scales really well in lower levels. If there’s no use for anything else, take this for a flat damage boost.
Signet of the Locust: If there’s a long travel section where you don’t want locust swarm to hit things, but also aren’t in blood magic and thus can’t take quickening thirst, this works as a stopgap. Just switch into locust when you need to run, then swap back out afterward.
Spectral Armor: This is a decent stunbreak if, for some reason, you have to take a lot of hits to the face, hits which you can’t dodge of walk out of range of.

The rest of the utilities are meh at best, working only in specific situations. Remember to prioritize damage, so unless a problem presents itself you’ll be probably be taking Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption, and Blood is Power/Signet of Spite.

Please don’t use minions in a dungeon. Follow something like this:
http://www.dtguilds.com/mobile/forum/viewthread/m/6563292/id/12498059

As far as the damage rotation goes… I don’t have the specifics on that, since I am a fairly haphazard monster. However, it will look something like this:

1)Open with Locust swarm and blood is power before engaging the enemies
2)Engage the enemies and drop wells.
3)Quickly go into death shroud and use tainted shackles, and leave Death Shroud after it has been cast.
4)Use the dagger auto attack to clean up whatever mobs remain.

Against champions, it is slightly different..

1)Same
2)Swap to focus and use Reaper’s Touch
3) Drop wells
4) Go into deathshroud, use tainted shackles and leave death shroud as fast as possible.
5)Swap to lich form and use Deathly Claws until lich form runs out.
6)After lich form ends, use the dagger auto attack to keep the enemy engaged.
7)If this is a particularly dangerous enemy, save death shroud to take hits. If not, spam death shroud quickly to gain fury.

NOTE: A lot of this will change once specializations are released. The Reaper is probably going to be a must have in dungeons. The future builds aren’t hammered out yet, so don’t worry about them too much.

Hi Aeolus, and welcome to the Game.

If you plan on using your nécro mostly alone I recommand you to use a Deathshroud build (often shortened by DS). This build is potent and completely autonomous.

Your priority is to invest in soul reaping and gain access to the trait Deathly Perception. Then fill the spite track. The last track is up to you.

About utilities : you should always ne prepared to swap them often. At high level, minions are a liability. Your best bets are locus signet, the well of suffrring and corruption, the signet of spite.

hope this helps

Welcome to the necromancer!

Minions aren’t all that great when it comes to dungeons because of pathing and other such issues, but they are viable if you plan on leveling to 80 by questing. You can change your build easily once you hit 80.

I agree with Blood Red Arachnid that berserker’s gear is rather important and where you want to end up, but don’t worry about rushing for it. When I started, I users Soldier’s gear until I got used to the dungeon paths and when/what to dodge and then I started switching to damage. If you can jump straight into Berserker’s that’s great, but if your dying is taking away from the experience, get some tankier gear and learn how the dungeons work. Also keep in mind that some builds, like the Death Perception DS build, can use Valkyrie Gear because you can get 100% crit chance with minimal Precision, so you can switch precision for vitality.

All in all, do what you want to do. If you want to be an undying force of nature, grab some Soldier’s gear and go to town. You won’t be able to get into heavy speed-running and super high-end fractals, but most PUGs don’t mind. If you want to be on the higher levels, Berserker’s gear or Valkyrie gear with 100% crit from traits is a huge help if not a necessity.

Other than that, have fun with it :p

Blood Red Arachnid, thank you for posting a very in depth guide. It is very useful and I will keep it in mind as I am levelling. I actually had no idea death shroud could be used in the way you described it. So far I have been using it as an extra health bar to fight monsters that kill me too fast otherwise.
Thank you to everyone else who replied as well. I found that each post had something useful in it.