Guild Wars 2

Hey guys n´gals of the necro forum, first time poster here, so be gentle

I´ve been reading up on all the different builds that a Necro can go for as far as end game DPS goes, and i feel that nemesis hybrid build is the most attractive so far.
But is that build really the “best” endgame DPS? Thing is i´m closing in on 80 with my little necro, been levling as MM but i want to do the damage myself when it comes to dungeons, atleast in the beginning of my journey.

I don´t want to “gear for the wrong build” and put my gold on gear that wont benefit me, so my question is, will i regret gearing for the hybrid? Would a full on power necro do more damage? Or a condition necro? (even though i probably wont go for full cond until they “fix” the stacking issue :< )
Or the synergy that i´m seeing (which i love btw, seems like every single ability in that hybrid build synergises with eachother) in the hybridbuild actually lifts it above the other DPS builds?

Please enlighten me

Dear,

Drac.

Oh and P.S. If Arenanet sees this, PLEASE fix the reduced CD on focus trait

You’re not going to find a high DPS build with this class. At best you can get mediocre damage when compared to other classes. Nemesis’ build or a full berserker set using the 30/20/0/0/20 build is the best we have.

They will never “fix” stacking. Hybrid is our highest damage source.

I had no intentions to compare Necro DPS to other classes DPS. In the podcast “But of corpse” nemesis kinda proved a necro can dps as well as a warrior, he used a boss (can´t remember the name, but it´s a 1-man dps-race) and the “best” warrior did it in 10 seconds and he did it in 12, yet he still brings a ton of vuln and other fancy stuff to the dungeon, hence i feel that Necro is “on par” DPS wise, or atleast good enough for me.

So, my question was more in the lines of which build is the best to bring as a necro if i want to DPS, not if the necro is viable in the grand scheme.
All in all i think Bhawb answered my question and i´m going to gear towards nemesis hybrid.

Regarding that build, would it not be wise to put 10 points in the last tree instead of the second last? I will loose some toughness and life transfer party heal, but gain crit damage and vuln on life blast.
Just a thought i had

Thanks for the answers

I feel like if you really want to go for dungeons, condition damage could be a very friendly source of damage for you. A lot of dungeon fights require you to stay at a decent range and all of our power weapons put us kinda close to bosses. It’s not as spiky as the direct damage, but the damage is constant and with Epidemic and well placed makes you really can tear through a crowd.

I´ve also considered condition builds to be safer in dungeons, and that might sway me in that direction. Been playing the hybrid now casually in world PvE and boy its fun I think im gonna stick with it at 80.

But what about my thoughts on moving the 10 points to make lifeblast peirce and cause vuln? Instead of lifetranser AoE heal.

Drac.5310:

the “best” warrior did it in 10 seconds and he did it in 12

Do you know what build was being referenced here was it Hybrid or Glass?

whatever you do, know our professions strong points is tossing conditions on enemies and various self healiang abilities/traits.

This doesnt mean condition damage. Necromancers have some of the widest access to poison/weaken/chill all of which make the enemy weaker. We also get a decent access to vuln, cripple, bleed, blind….but tbh other professions do a lot more bleed damage (and some stack it much faster) other professions have access to burning, and cripple isnt always necessary (or useable).

So, just stuff to keep in mind. I’m not sure if your just looking for what will entertain you the most and feeling like your doing a lot of damage is fun for you, or if you wanna know what is gonna bring the most to the team in the dungeon. Also might be good to point out (unless i’m mistaken somewhere) the ability to spread conditions or turn boons to conditions.

Disastro.4086:

Do you know what build was being referenced here was it Hybrid or Glass?

I believe he went full on glass cannon there to “prove a point” and see for himself how good a necro could be at full on DPS. I even believe there is a video of it somewhere.

And to the question regarding what i want to do in a dungeon, to be frank i want to be effective, if that makes sence. I was leaning towards the hybrid build because it looked like it actually had som great damage and vuln stacking, weakness and cripple, and the ability to spread em like nobodies buisness

But im not 80 and i made this thread to get some more info on the different necro builds and what would be the best to bring in PvE to lets say fractals, so i dont start to gear in the wrong direction when reaching 80.

Btw, thanks for the replys guys

I go pure conditions most of the time, my DPS is good. my direct damage is terrible though.
When you can reach the bleed cap by yourself you do alot of dps (will time myself killing the giant vet in cursed shore tonight). though this is wasted when fighting in a group.

Drac, check out our podcasts for even more nuggets of great Necromancer information. PVE wise, you can run just about any build and be effective up to a certain level of Fractals.

I run Minions or the max Axe Damage build both are pretty hilariously awesome.

Drac.5310:

the “best” warrior did it in 10 seconds and he did it in 12

Not to pour salt on these numbers, but if you extrapolate that out over a boss fight that lasts for say 3 mins, that difference is quite noticable. Against something that dies in 10 seconds, its hard to tell which is really better.

Say the warrior kills it in 180 seconds, or 3 mins.
The necro (by that example) would need 216 seconds or 3 mins 36 seconds.

That is a very big difference, and it correlates with the necro dealing 20% less DPS.

I would love that they actually add some sort of personal DPS meter to this game to try out different builds and make the testing easier. Our only method for telling one build vs. another is killing the same type of mob and timing the death. Mobs with lots of HP tend to hit hard or have adds that screw up the timing of the DPS tracking. The stupid DPS dummies in LA have infinite life, and the target golems in the mists are too weak. Also we can’t track DOT damage in the combat log at all.

I spent quite a while timing rampagers vs. rabid kill times in WvW against worgs, and they all tended to die about the same time regardless of either stat combo, using the same skill rotation. Since they only live 15 seconds, the margin of error is big.

Yeah, thats true Rennoko. But i believe the tests intentions where to prove if Necros can burst as well as a warrior, and i think the test shows that. I agree on the “long term DPS” statement but can a Warrior really keep up that damage for a long period of time? And as i said the necro brings weakness and vuln and other cool stuff to the party. Very valid point mate, but in the burst department nemesis proved everyone wrong in a sence

And Bas, i will continue to listen to your podcast while im levling my necro, ya´ll got pretty soothing voices and very interesting theorys and facts. Love it

EDIT: Oh wow, i did not sound nice at all. I love the discussion we have going, keep the awesome posts going guys!

Warriors have 100B on a really short CD, I would wager they would hold the edge over time. Accounting for their AOE might buffs, it is definately a win for the warrior in PVE groups. Solo PVE I might be willing to conceded that Nem is correct in saying a warrior really doesn’t have it better, but I think the comparison ends there.

The real game changer for necro are the wells, which hit like 100 trucks ikittenerker build (2k+ per pulse AOE). The warrior can’t match that and with axe burst at the same time…. so if you need to blow some PVE stuff up really quickly (in under 10 seconds), the necro can do that as well or better than a warrior. But yeah, long fights, where the wells are on CD pretty much the entire time are not as great.

Someone actually ran some tests a while back as to our maximum damage utilites, and a full Minion Zerker build over an extended fight is our highest damage build. Giving that at least 3 of our 5 minions are up a majority of the fight.

Granted that happens about 40 percent of the time, but against a standing dummy over a 5 minute test, Minions win by a pretty large margin thanks to wells long CD. However with two or more opponents or in a short burst or in cases where your minions don’t live more than 70 percent of the fight, wells win.

Old thread but w/e, I’m in rampager gear 30/30/0/10/0, i have 1/2 afflicted runes 1/2 krait giving me over 100 bleed duration without food, and 2 sigils of earth on scepter/dagger i can hold 20 stacks of bleed on a boss solo. Bleeds tick once a second and i do ~110 unbuffed ticks, that’s over 2k dps just in bleeds, pushing over 3k dps with auto attack and poison.