Guild Wars 2

V1:

Hello!
My name is Esoteric Fruit, and I’ve been a GW2 player since release. When I first started the game, the first class I fell in love with, was none other than the necromancer. At first, the main element about the necromancer that attracted my attention was the ability to spawn a whole party of minions to fight alongside me in the lands of Tyria, but after playing minion-mancer for a long time, it wasn’t until I’d reached late game that I realized the true potential of necromancers, and that was their versatility, and their unshakable toughness.

But one of the main problems that I felt most people have with their classes was the hassle of resetting traits to fit the situations people find themselves in, whether it be WvW or Dungeons. After playing necromancer for many months in both PvP and PvE, I’ve finally adopted a build that can adapt to any situation that an adventuring necromancer could find themselves in. Note that this is not the BEST build for any situation, but it is certainly the most versatile. Even though this is called the Esoteric guide, it is not really hard to understand, for I tried to make the guide as comprehensive as possible, and could not think of a good title for the guide :P

BUILD:
The Link to my build is:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW4YjMal6pbaa07JCpHP7aTbSh36Gki3LNA;TEBA1ytEaJ1StlSLqcM5IyxmjLHZOLRGicEZbxTEA

Please copy and paste this link to your browser, as clicking on it sometimes will not work (a common problem with links in forum)

(Note that while reading this build, ignore the armor and accessory slots, for those are exclusively for PvP, I will discuss PvE armor later in this guide)

CONT:

WEAPONS:
For this build, I run a Staff, with the alternative being Dagger/Dagger.

Sigil of battle for staff, it gives a handy 3 stacks of might for 20 secs when switched to in combat, and you will definitely be switching weapons ALOT with this build. Now the superior sigil costs several gold, which may be out of a lot of player’s budgets, especially for 2 of them (One for your dagger), so I recommend the Major sigil of battle instead, which gives 2 stacks, but only costs several silver. Sigils of fire can also be used for the nice AOE bonus it gives, but marks of battle are the most reliable for the constant stacks of power it gives. It also benefits from your runes of strength, which increases might duration.

The Staff is not doubt the most versatile weapon a necromancer has, and all 5 of the skills should be SPAMMED when facing mobs or a large group of enemies. They are easy to aim, and with the Greater Marks and Staff Mastery perks, you can deal large amounts of damage to both single and multi targets. Even though this is a power build, the conditions still rack up to do a nice amount of damage, not to mention that marks can crit for major DPS while in Dungeon. Now for a break-down of the skills:

Staff 1 is your basic attack, a cool grasping hand that flies for over 1200 range, but is easily dodge-able. Now this doesn’t matter as much in PvE, since bosses and mobs tend tend not to move much. And it hits all enemies in a line, so be sure to spam this skill if all your other staff skills are on cool down. In PvP, it is better to switch to your dagger to have more access to single target damage. The other interesting thing about staff 1 is that it gives a 20% chance of activating a projectile combo finisher. Works well with your Staff 3 (poison combo), and will activate stacks of poison on your enemy for some nice extra damage (:

Staff 2 is your mark of blood, and it is essential you spam this spell before any other spell. The reason is that it gives regeneration to your allies, which will certainly help your dungeon experience. It also gives stacks of bleeding, as well as flat damage to your enemies. Use this to keep your minions, your allies, and yourself alive.

Staff 3 is your your Chillblains, which deals Chill and and poison to your enemies! This is the first move you should use if you’re initiating on a mob or group of enemies, to slow them down so you can better aim your other marks. Also, this serves as a Poison combo field, so you can follow up with your Staff 4 (blast finisher) to cause AOE weakness for a easy, simple combo.

Staff 4 is your get-out-of-jail-free card in PvP, and should be saved during the battle unless it’s a last resort. It does a great amount of damage, as well as transferring ALL conditions on ALL allies in a radius to enemies in a circle. With greater marks, this could be invaluable in a team fight, but in PvE, spam to our hearts content as it deals the most base damage out of all your marks. Also use when running away, because it will remove all Crowd control such as cripple from your character.

Staff 5 is another handy tool for the necromancer, and invaluable in PvP as it deals AOE fear to all enemies in a circle. The only downside is that its uses are limited in PvE, since most bosses are immune to fear, but hey, it still does damage!

DAGGER/DAGGER:
Dagger/dagger, as I found, is possibly the best DPS combo for single target to use in dungeons. It offers invaluable survivability, ranging from life siphoning to condition transferring. It also is the best weapon choice to build up death shroud, another useful tool for the Necro.

Now you may be asking, why don’t you use axe? Axe, as in its current state, is just plain unusable. Now this might change in the future, but its auto-attack is just pitiful. Axe 2 is great for dps, but Dagger 2 is better, as it offers health transfer. Axe 3 is very situational; while the AOE cripple and retaliation is very useful, its uses are limited in PvE, and Dagger 3’s immobilize is very hard to beat. Dagger is also better at reaping life force, and the DPS tops the axe for auto-attacks.

Scepter? No, this is a power build.

Focus? Useful in boss fights, as it gives healing and procs vulnerability. But its true potential is only reached through the Spite II perk, which its slot is better used with the perk reaper’s might, which gives you might when using life blast.

Warhorn? I think warhorn is the best for PvP. Feel free to switch between warhorn and dagger when going to PvP. The locust swarm is an invaluable speed boost, and it cripples opponents. The daze is useful to preventing an enemy from escaping. The only problem is that warhorn only reaches its true potential when you take the trait in the Curse tree, which is not offered by this build.

Now for the explanation of Dagger/dagger skills:

Dagger 1 is a 3-step combo that deals large amounts of damage if you’re close enough, and it gives life force with each strike. With a total of 6% life force gained with a quick combo, you can easily fill your life force bar up if you need to. Use this whenever your staff skills are on cool down, and your life force is low.

Dagger 2 is an amazing skill. It deals mucho damages, and it gives you health! Lots! With the bloodthirst perk, you can gain over 1000 health easily at lvl. 80, which is invaluable in both dungeons and PvP. Use this whenever you are not 100% health in dungeons, and use it in PvP to finish off a low-health enemy.

Dagger 3 is amazing for PvP. 3.5 seconds of immobilization, 600 range, it spells death for any enemy caught in it in WvW. Stop a low health enemy from escaping, set up a easy kill for your team. Just make sure to use it when you know your enemy is low on endurance, as it is easily dodge-able. Its uses are limited in PvE, but is useful on bosses. The interesting thing about bosses is that when immobilized, they are not able to turn, so a easy combo is to use Dagger 3, dodge through the boss, and attack the boss in the 2 second window where it can’t auto-attack. Use it to kite bosses, like the troublesome Ettin in fractals.

Dagger 4 bounces between 3 enemies, transferring a condition with each bounce. Now this is a life saver in Twilight Arbor! Not only does it kill the pesky blossoms, it also removes poison. On bosses, it is easy to get rid of the occasional conditions they inflict upon you. In Pvp, it is also useful as an escape tool to get rid of any CC inflicted on you. While it can’t match up to Staff 4, use this when Staff is on cool down. Did I mention it also blinds???

Dagger 5 is an area bleed and weakness. Very useful in PvP. Use this to prevent them from dodging much for 12 seconds. In PvE, it can serve as a nice damage booster. Other than that, nothing special.

DEATH SHROUD:

Possibly one of the best things I love about Necromancer. Not only does it give Necro’s extra survivability on top of Necro’s already amazing max health, it also gives the Necromancer access to 4 unique, and powerful spells. The trick to utilizing death shroud is managing it. Of course, all good things do not last forever, and sadly, this is the case for Death Shroud. Death shroud will naturally regen through nearby deaths, including your own minions, which is why bone minions are invaluable to this build. Use Death Shroud whenever your healing spell is on cooldown in PvE. Why? To give your healing skill time to cool down so you can use it again when you run out of DS. You will also gain might through life blast through reaper’s might, so DS is a good function to always remember to use.

DS 1 is your basic attack, which costs life force to use. It also deals more damage the more life force you have. In PvE, I will use life transfer first to insure I have the most DS for my money, and then blast the enemies with a few shots of DS 1 to gain might and deal max damage. At 50% DS, if I know I have a good amount of health remaining, I will exit DS to rebuild it to max again so I can deal more damage. When a max DS 1 crits, it crits hard. Remember to manage this skill when using DS.

DS 2, dark path, is your gap closer, which on hit, will inflict chill and bleed. The damage from the bleed is very good, and the chill is invaluable to use to chase down an escaping enemy. Never use DS 2 to initiate. The spell is pitifully slow, and is easily dodge-able just by moving a few steps out the way. The trick to landing this shot is to use DS 3, your fear, FIRST, then follow up with a DS 2 to insure your enemy doesn’t get away. This function doesn’t have much use in PvE, as it is a waste of life force, and is better used for DS 1.

DS 3 is your invaluable fear, albeit a short one. 1.25 seconds, but it is invaluable when you need to land DS 1. You can also use this while running away, on a enemy behind you, and you do not have to aim this. 1200 range is also great. I only wish that Anet would buff this skill duration, since other classes get a much longer fear.

DS 4 is your life transfer. Always use this to start out a fight to insure you have max life force for your DS 1. For PvE, I like to take transfusion on Blood Magic IV, because it heals your allies. This equates to easily the amount of health you get from life siphon, but unfortunately it does not heal you, since when you are in DS, you are immune to all healing effects. A trick to bypass this is to use this skill when your DS is almost gone. This way, since your DS 4 is a channel spell, when your DS disappears, it will heal you, and it will give you a bit of life force from the effects. DS 4 also deals a considerable amount of damage, and can be used as a finisher.

DOWNED SKILLS:

Now since you really shouldn’t die much with this build, I do admit this build is kinda Glass Cannonly, so I feel like it’s my duty to explain these skills and what to do when you are down.

Your first skill while downed is a life siphon, and you should always spam this when you are down, whether you are in PvE or PvP.

Your second skill is a fear, which takes a while to channel. It’s pretty useless in PvE, since when you’re dead, your probably surrounded by mobs, so you’re better off just using your first skill. For PvP, only use this skill on the nearest enemy, but be sure to time it so that they are almost finished with their stomp animation before using it. Do not waste it immediately, because it is a guaranteed death. Instead, use this to buy yourself some extra time. Honestly, Anet should make this an AOE fear, because every other classes downed skills are AOE based, and when a Necro falls, it’s usually not to a 1 v 1.

Your third skill is an area poison that deals a good amount of damage. Now I do not know why this skill and the fear skill are together. They do not synchronize at all. If you place this down in an area, and then use your fear, you will fear them out of the area, which is dumb. Instead, use this on the area around your character, so when your enemies try to stomp you, HOPEFULLY this will wither them down a bit so they will back off, buying you some time.

Not gonna waste time on 4th skill.

TRAITS:
For this build, I go 20/0/30/20/0

I will say here that for a power/crit build, this is the way to go if you want to run dungeons smoothly, and be able to switch to WvW or Solo right off the bat.

Spite:

For the first perk in Spite, if you are going to PvE, reaper’s might is king. It just gives so much extra power to your DPS, that it will help you out enormously over time. In PvE, it is all about long battles, and this is a perk meant for long battles. PvP, you are better off choosing Death’s embrace, or Spiteful spirit for the 3 seconds of retaliation. But reaper’s might still might be the best because of the might boost.

For the second perk of Spite, you have many options. Personally, I prefer training of the master. It gives a 30% boost to minion damage, making your flesh golem a DPS machine, and your bone minions into deadly kamikaze units. Or you can go for spiteful marks when you are facing a boss, but even then, bone minions still pack a deadlier punch with the 30% boost.

Now is the big decision: You can either go 30 in spite, or 30 in toughness. The 20% damage boost found in Close to death to enemies under 50% health in 30 Spite is VERY good for DPS, but you will lose out on the minor perk in Death Magic that gives 5% of your toughness to power, and a perk that gives free poison combo fields through your bone minions. You decide. For PvP, I would go 30 Spite no questions. For PvE, the extra toughness is invaluable. Decide which you do more of, and go with it (:

Curses:

This is a power build, and the traits for this tree are too focused on condition damage/duration. Not very useful for this build. Notable is the perk that gives damage to your fears, but I would not sacrifice 10 trait points for that.

Death Magic:

Possibly the best tree for major traits for Necros. The minor traits are both a joke and a hassle. Reanimator? UGH TAKE IT OUT I’D RATHER SPAWN KITTENS. But it gives a total of 30% boon duration for 30 points in this tree, which is invaluable for your might boons. You can easily attain and manage 25 stacks of might with 30 points, both in PvP and PvE. I love protection of the horde, which gives you +60 toughness when you have your flesh golem and your bone minions out on the battle field. Also, if you go into lich mode, your kitten horrors will give you a total of 100 toughness, making you quite a scary tank.

For your first trait in this tree, I would choose greater marks hands down. The other traits are just so meh it doesn’t compare. Don’t be noob trapped into the 400 toughness through channeling, the only skills that you use to channel are life transfer and blood siphon. The marks give a radius increase x2, which according to the great equation 3.14R^2, is equal to 4 times the area, allowing you to hit more enemies, and deal more damage. Now I pulled that math out of my mule, but you get the picture.

For your second trait in this tree, I would choose between Staff Mastery and flesh of the master. Personally, I believe Staff Mastery is the most useful, since you will be on your staff 80% of the time in combat, but flesh of the master is very useful in solo adventuring. The problem is that your bone minions don’t do more damage the more health they have, so at the end of the day, a more healthy kamikaze is still a dead kamikaze…

For your third trait in this tree, you can choose between flesh the master and death nova. Death nova is preferred, because it gives 3 stacks of poison to your bone minions, as well as giving your bone minions a poison combo field to let your allies combo with.

Blood Magic:

I take at least 20 points in this tree, because this is the tree that gives Necros the versatility and survivability it has. It will give your Necro health with every hit, and keeps your Necro healthy through the 5 seconds of regeneration it gives above 90% health. With marks, every mob hit amounts to health gained, allowing your Necro to have an innate tankiness even without much vitality.

The first perk to take with blood magic is hands down bloodthirst. 50 % increase of life siphon? This applies to 3 things, your Vampiric minor trait with gives you health with every hit, your Vampiric precision trait, which you can take if you want health with every crit strike, and your Dagger 2, which is a skill you will use a lot. All the other skills, besides life transfusion, is not worth taking, and life transfusion is very situational.

The second perk your situational trait slot. You should take vampiric precision if you are doing mob clearing and feel like you may take a few hits. For sPvP, Solo, WvW, the Quickening thirst is invaluable, as it allows you to have 25% movement speed while wielding 2 daggers without the locust signet. For bosses, I feel like life transfusion is invaluable as it gives health to everyone. Do not be afraid to change this slot around.

Soul Reaping:

If I had to choose between soul reaping and blood magic, I would choose blood magic. Soul reaping is not very useful unless you go all 30 points in, and the traits are very meh. For PvP, Soul Reaping is generally better for extra survivability, but for PvE I recommend 20 points in Blood Magic for the constant healing you will gain from the traits. 20 in Blood or 20 in Soul, it is generally up to you to decide (If you PvP or PvE more). If you took 30 points in Spite, 20 points in Soul reaping is a good idea to make up for lost toughness. For your first trait in soul reaping, Path of midnight is the best choice as it allows you to spam your DS skills more, and for your second trait, Soul Marks is best as it generates lots of life force when using your staff.

SKILLS:

Necromancer skills are very polar; they can either be really useless or really good. This takes away from necromancer variety, but not versatility. I will give a short synopsis of each skill, and explain which you should use in every situation.

Healing Slot:

1. Blood Fiend:Useful for a few extra DPS, its cooldown may seem short, but is very deceptive, since you have to consider the time it takes to summon it, and the time it takes to consume it. Use only for easy mobs, and Soloing/exploring.

2. Well of Blood: 40 second cooldown? No thanks… 15 seconds more than consume conditions, but only gives 1.5k more healing, and that is if you stay in the well for 10 total seconds? The one positive effect is that the healing applies to everyone in the radius, take this if you feel like your team needs more supporting (like Lupi), but generally I recommend to run consume conditions.

3. Consume Conditions: Possibly the best healing skill in the game. Not only does it have a short 25 second cooldown, it also removes all conditions from your Necro, AND it gives extra healing for each condition on you. Usually when you heal, you have at least 2 or more conditions on you, and that easily equates to more than 1k healing. The best healing skill if you ask me.

sPVP: 3 WvW: 3 Solo: 1 PvE: 3 Boss: 3

Utility:

4. Summon Bone Fiend:Although on paper it seems good, a minion that can cripple and immobilize, it is a waste of a skill slot because this guy is just too squishy, attacks too slow, minion AI broken, delay on immobilize, does not heal out of combat… Don’t use, not even for minion master builds.

5. Flesh Wurm:Only use if you are remaining in one place for a long time, which rarely happens. It’s utility is slightly better. It is like a cheapened one-way version of the Mesmer portal, and I find it very useful on the swamp map. Very useful in sPvP for cool jukes, you can strategically place it at a random spot on the map, and use it for an escape. If you are out of range of the teleport, it will still teleport you a short distance randomly, which adds to the jukes.

6. Shadow Fiend: Same problems as bone fiend, only slightly tankier. The blind is also faster, but it is still a meat shield none the less. Use as an option instead of bone fiend if you have to for minion master builds, because of the meat shield option.

7. Spectral Walk: Great escape skill. Long cooldown. Also gives life force if you get hit, it is a great getaway card. You get swiftness, and you can juke out enemies by strategically starting your trail, then teleporting back and run a random direction. But the trail is obvious, and enemies can easily follow you. Very situational.

8. Spectral Wall: A great skill that gives both 10 stacks of vulnerability to enemies and gives 6.5 seconds of protection to allies. Lasts 9 seconds with a 40 second cooldown, so it is like a 31 second cooldown. The best part of this wall is that it is an ethereal combo field, so you can shoot your necrotic grasp (Staff 1) across it to cause confusion on your enemies! Very useful on bosses because confusion is OP on bosses. Definitely recommend this on bosses over well of suffering.

9. Well of Corruption: One of the best skills the Necro has. Turns all boons into conditions on enemies, as well as dealing damage. Shuts down guardians, warriors, mesmers alike. Great for PvP, not so great of PvE. Always use when your enemy is close range. For WvW, I prefer Corrupt Boon, since it has a 1200 range, though it is single target, it has a higher chance of succeeding given WvW’s large maps.

10. Well of Darkness:5 seconds of invulnerability(blindness) thieves, and any other meele attacker. Great for higher level fractals. The only problem is the short duration, and the lack of damage. This skill is very situational.

11. Well of Power:On paper it sounds great, it turns all conditions on allies into boons. Problem is, it has a 60 second cooldown. Great for WvW armies, bad for sPvP or solo. We already have consume conditions for this. Better used for a damage utility.

12. Well of Suffering:45 second cooldown, loads of damage scaled to power, inflects vulnerability… great for mobs that stay in one place. In PvP, not so much, since enemies tend to move. For bosses, Ethereal wall is much better given the protection it offers and the combo fields. The reason why this is the best for mobs is that this is a dark combo field, and if you use bone minions or Staff 4, it will equate to area blindness for the duration of the well. A free well of blindness if you use this combo.

13. Corrosive Poison Cloud:No. Why. Is. This. Even. A. Skill. Anet? Weaken yourself to…deal little damage and weaken others IF they stay inside the circle? There are much better skills to use.

14. Corrupt Boon:40 second cool down, 5 less than well of corruption. The self poison is negligible, but the 1200 range is well worth it. It is a sure hit, near impossible to dodge, use in WvW. For sPvP, well of corruption is better given the tight quarters.

15. Spectral Armor: Another troll skill by Anet. 90 Second cooldown? For 7.5 seconds of protection and max 18% life force? Are we stupid?!

16. Spectral Grasp:Same problems as DS 2. Looks good on paper, slow as hell projectile. A rabbit can dodge this. The only good thing is that it builds life force (10%) and chills. I find this only useful on the Grawl Shaman Infused in the Volcanic fractal.

17. Plague Signet:At its current state, it is not worth it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Only good for Twilight Arbor.

18. Signet of Spite:On paper it looks good, but it only gives max of like 90 power, and the conditions do not last very long. You are much better off getting one of the corruption skills. EDIT: In WvW it is very good to combo this with epidemic, so you may want to take this skill along with epidemic. As someone mentioned, it is also useful in PvP to prevent healing, and 1 v 1 duels, but it is very situational as when to use it.

19. Signet of the Locust: It now gives 25% movement speed, and it steals health. Though tooltip may make this look like a useless spell, the health applies in a radius to EVERYTHING around you, making this better than your healing spell when it comes to mobs. Very useful on Grawl Shaman, and fighting large mobs. EDIT: Thank you for someone mentioning that this cannot be used with quickening thirst. You should only choose one of the two anyways to maximize DPS through the trait slot/utility slot.

20. Signet of Undeath: Another troll skill and noob trap by Anet. 180 seconds… for 3 seconds = 1% life force? Sigh.

21. Bone minions: I honestly do not see why more Necros do not run around with 2 of these deadly buggers. Not only do they give you +40 toughness while they are alive with the toughness minor trait, their potential shines when they explode in an undead fury. I have crit over 4k with these buggers, and the 30% damage boost from training of the master assists with these high hits. These things can be used when your enemy is least expecting it, and watch your enemies gape in surprise and terror as their health drops from half to 0. With Death Nova, they also make a poison cloud, further increasing damage when you explode them. A trick is to not summon them before a battle, but summon them right when you are in meele range of the enemy, and spam the skill slot. This will cause them to detonate as soon as they are summoned, and since it’s an AOE blast finisher, it will be a burst unlike no other. Follow this up with 4 Staff AOE’s, and your enemy will go from full health to 0 health, guaranteed. Always have these for reliable damage boost.

22. Blood is Power: The bread and butter of any power Necro. 10 stacks of might, over 3k bleed with minimum condition damage? This is the spell you need to maintain 25 stacks of might in battle. Useful in all situations.

23. Epidemic: 15 second cooldown. Apply conditions from one foe…TO ALL FOES. Self-vulnerability? Doesn’t even matter, this skill is the bane of mobs, and also great in WvW. Use the Blood is Power, then follow up with this for max effect.

sPvP: 9, 21, 22 WvW: 14, 21, 22 (19 when moving from place to place, 23 when with your army) Solo: 12, 21, 22 PvE: 12, , 22, 23 Boss: 8, 21, 22

ELITES:

Plague:I’m just going to get this out of the way, and say it is USELESS. You lose so much damage from being in plague form. Oh yes, you can have a 20 second blind. Only useful in PvE mobs, and that’s only if they are REALLY meele reliant. In PvP, your enemies can just sit back, heal while you do miniscule bits of poison on them, and just stomp on you once you’re out of your form because there is no way you can heal.

Flesh Golem:This guy is the Necros best bud. Even with his stupid minion AI, this guy will trample any one and knock them on the ground. One of the best minion skills besides bone minions. Use this to catch a running enemy, or use this to initiate so you can place all the marks while they are on the ground. Also deals a lot of damage, especially with training of the master. Just do not use on bosses, because he will evaporate. He also heals out of combat, just don’t know why other minions don’t. Avoid water at all costs, or he will disappear (Again, Anet logic, flesh golems can’t swim but a big glob of darkness can).

Lich: Use this, and you will be a 30 second DPS machine. Auto-attacks are very strong, hitting over 3k with pure power builds, with a good attack speed. It also has a mark of the reaper, which will inflict 8 stacks of AOE vulnerability, very useful of bosses. 3 skill is a knock back chill, which is useful to keep mobs in control. 4th skill summons 5 useless jagged horrors, but they do help with DPS a bit, and the best thing is with the Death Nova trait, when they die, there will be 5 fields of poison combo fields to do work on. 5th skill rips conditions off allies, and boons off enemies, good for boss fights. The Lich is unparallelled when it comes to Boss fights, and always use this skill when it is off cool down. Ask your friendly Mesmer to time warp, and watch the health of the boss disappear in seconds. The only problem is the Lich has no healing skills, so in sPvP it is not as useful compared to the flesh golem. You also do not want to use this in WvW because people like to focus big green ugly things.

sPvP: 2 WvW: 2 Solo: 2 PvE: 2 Boss: 3

PvE ARMOR, DUNGEONS AND BOSSES

For PvE, I run Toughness/power/precision armor, which translates into a mix of Arah and Sorrow’s embrace armor. Arah is very tough to get a full set of, but Sorrow’s embrace is much easier. Use fine transmutation stones to acquire the stats of those items, and the looks of other items if you prefer. For weapons, I like to go for ghastly, since it provides extra vitality and toughness for better survivability in dungeons, but to maximize damage get the weapon sets for SE and Arah.

It is also a good idea to keep a set of Ascalonian Priest armor (acquired from Ascalonian Catacombs) as back up, since they are very easy to acquire, and gives you extra survivability for hard boss fights. But for general PvE, Toughness/power/precision is the best for this build. Runes of strength are still good choices for armor, but another gem is Superior runes of the pirate, which cost only several silver, gives a max boost of 25% magic find, and gives you extra might and might duration. But please do not run these for later fractals, because this is HIGHLY frowned upon. If you do go runes of the pirate, take 5 runes (6th rune gives you a chance to summon a parrot if you are hit, which I believe does absolutely nothing), and put a Superior rune of the noble or even major rune of the traveler for your 6th slot for extra magic find. For earrings and rings I run Knights.

If you can afford ascended rings, Snaff’s Gyre and Yakkington’s ring are not bad choices if you want magic find, but if you want straight damage, Doriks and Usoku are good choices. If you want a mix between magic find and damage, Mariners compass and Circle of light is the way to go.

CONCLUSION:

Many people think of necromancers as weak and the minority, but I see strength in necromancers in their ability to adapt to any situation. Though we are given few useful skills, those skills are very powerful when used in the right situation. All I wish for is for ANet to work on the burning problems that Necros face, like Minion AI, but until then, appreciate the Necro for what it is, and find the silver lining in this under-rated class. Sure, anyone can roll a Mesmer or thief to get kills, but with Necros, every kill is well deserved and earned. I’ve never had so much fun with any class, and I’ve found that Dungeons are the smoothest with a Necro to support the team. DPS, CC, you name it, we got the right skills, in the right situations!

I will continue updating this guide, and maybe add guides on how to fight other classes and bosses as a Necromancer. Until then, I will be working on my rainbow troll staff for my Necro, so please feel free to send me support as I grind towards that goal! I am open to any critique, so please comment if you disagree or agree to disagree, I will read them happily and respond! After all, we are all still learning this game, and there is always room for improvement! Feel free to send me questions in game, I’ll be glad to help! Thanks for your time!

i love your guide and ur thoughts. You have in many things right. I am waiting to see what armor and rune & sigil sets u use for PvE. Thx again for the guide.
P.S. The build link is not work.

Fighter Runes are way better in both pvp and pve with those traits.
Sigil of Fire when you have nothing more than 4% critical chance isn’t worth.
Life Transfer its an useless Trait, it’s much better having Ritual of Life or Mark of Evasion.
You don’t have traits or utilities to charge Life Force in Wvw or Pvp, so you will suffer it.
Soul Reaping traits aren’t “meh”, in Pvp are way much better than Blood, atm with your build Soul Marks is the better way to gain some extra Life Force.

Well of Blood “useless” it’s a nonsense.
Signet of Undeath is an unvaluable tool in both Pvp and Pve.
Saying Plague it’s useless it’s wrong; by the moment you apply poison, your opponents won’t gain full Hp from their healings: in pvp it’s important to use correctly your heal; also it’s an awesome spell you have to tank bases or taking time to keep opponents busy or wait till yor teammates come.. There are more tricks to use it, that now i won’t explain.

Good Luck with it!

Bad link – cant get to your build as the link is bad.
REDO pls

Copy paste the link..

Esoteric.4395:

20. Signet of Undeath: Another troll skill and noob trap by Anet. 180 seconds… for 3 seconds = 1% life force? Sigh.

You forgot to read the rest of the Signet (Yes, I know. It’s so bad that you stop reading after that.)
I’m a power/DS necro and I offen run in dungeon&fractals with this Signet. chance to revive 1+ mates without even standing near them is always usefull. I prefer sacrifacy an utility slot just for having Signet of Undeath in my Skill bar.

There are many application:
-Reviving 2 near downed players in no time (Max ammount is 3, but it will not be a common situation having 3 mates down and close in the same time)
-Reviving some one impossible to reach, or risky (For bosses aggro/Aoe)
-Reviving some one fast.

Signet of the Locust can’t be “combined” with Quickening Thirst.

Bellocchi.4593:

Signet of the Locust can’t be “combined” with Quickening Thirst.

Did not know that, will change! I never take both anyways haha

Zaganna.6034:

Esoteric.4395:

20. Signet of Undeath: Another troll skill and noob trap by Anet. 180 seconds… for 3 seconds = 1% life force? Sigh.

You forgot to read the rest of the Signet (Yes, I know. It’s so bad that you stop reading after that.)
I’m a power/DS necro and I offen run in dungeon&fractals with this Signet. chance to revive 1+ mates without even standing near them is always usefull. I prefer sacrifacy an utility slot just for having Signet of Undeath in my Skill bar.

There are many application:
-Reviving 2 near downed players in no time (Max ammount is 3, but it will not be a common situation having 3 mates down and close in the same time)
-Reviving some one impossible to reach, or risky (For bosses aggro/Aoe)
-Reviving some one fast.

I understand the usefulness of signet of undeath, and I’ve seen times in WvW where it shines. I just feel that the 180 second cooldown is REALLY long, especially since you won’t have the passive effect after using the active. If Anet were to buff the life force passive, this would be viable to take up a utility as, but as of now, there are better skills to take. As for bosses, it is generally recommended that everyone spread out so people do not get hit by the same AOE’s, but I feel like the 180 second should at least by cut in half.

Esoteric.4395:

Zaganna.6034:

Esoteric.4395:

20. Signet of Undeath: Another troll skill and noob trap by Anet. 180 seconds… for 3 seconds = 1% life force? Sigh.

You forgot to read the rest of the Signet (Yes, I know. It’s so bad that you stop reading after that.)
I’m a power/DS necro and I offen run in dungeon&fractals with this Signet. chance to revive 1+ mates without even standing near them is always usefull. I prefer sacrifacy an utility slot just for having Signet of Undeath in my Skill bar.

There are many application:
-Reviving 2 near downed players in no time (Max ammount is 3, but it will not be a common situation having 3 mates down and close in the same time)
-Reviving some one impossible to reach, or risky (For bosses aggro/Aoe)
-Reviving some one fast.

I understand the usefulness of signet of undeath, and I’ve seen times in WvW where it shines. I just feel that the 180 second cooldown is REALLY long, especially since you won’t have the passive effect after using the active. If Anet were to buff the life force passive, this would be viable to take up a utility as, but as of now, there are better skills to take. As for bosses, it is generally recommended that everyone spread out so people do not get hit by the same AOE’s, but I feel like the 180 second should at least by cut in half.

AOE rez on 90 sec cooldown in PvP would be too much.

Luke.4562:

Fighter Runes are way better in both pvp and pve with those traits.
Sigil of Fire when you have nothing more than 4% critical chance isn’t worth.
Life Transfer its an useless Trait, it’s much better having Ritual of Life or Mark of Evasion.
You don’t have traits or utilities to charge Life Force in Wvw or Pvp, so you will suffer it.
Soul Reaping traits aren’t “meh”, in Pvp are way much better than Blood, atm with your build Soul Marks is the better way to gain some extra Life Force.

Well of Blood “useless” it’s a nonsense.
Signet of Undeath is an unvaluable tool in both Pvp and Pve.
Saying Plague it’s useless it’s wrong; by the moment you apply poison, your opponents won’t gain full Hp from their healings: in pvp it’s important to use correctly your heal; also it’s an awesome spell you have to tank bases or taking time to keep opponents busy or wait till yor teammates come.. There are more tricks to use it, that now i won’t explain.

Good Luck with it!

For sigils, I agree sigil of fire is not the best for the PvP build, as for when you were reading this, I have not put up the PvE build yet. But for PvE I run toughness/power/precision, and sigil of fire is a very affordable way to add damage. I generally run sigil of force for pvp, since as of now, none of the sigils are real game changers besides the flat damage increase ones.

As for your comment about life transfer, I feel like it is a underestimated trait, as in dungeons, if can heal every ally beside you for a nice amount of health that scales with your healing power. Mark of evasion, I used to run it alot before I realized that life transfer heals more, and its effects are more immediate. As for ritual of life, mark of evasion is a better choice if you want extra marks of blood.

For WvW, I feel like death shroud should be used more as an escape tool, and for PvP, you will reap plenty of life force with your daggers so charging life force is not a glaring problem. As for your comments about soul reaping, I realized I rushed over it, and have changed it, thanks!

Krilce.7864:

Esoteric.4395:

Zaganna.6034:

Esoteric.4395:

20. Signet of Undeath: Another troll skill and noob trap by Anet. 180 seconds… for 3 seconds = 1% life force? Sigh.

You forgot to read the rest of the Signet (Yes, I know. It’s so bad that you stop reading after that.)
I’m a power/DS necro and I offen run in dungeon&fractals with this Signet. chance to revive 1+ mates without even standing near them is always usefull. I prefer sacrifacy an utility slot just for having Signet of Undeath in my Skill bar.

There are many application:
-Reviving 2 near downed players in no time (Max ammount is 3, but it will not be a common situation having 3 mates down and close in the same time)
-Reviving some one impossible to reach, or risky (For bosses aggro/Aoe)
-Reviving some one fast.

I understand the usefulness of signet of undeath, and I’ve seen times in WvW where it shines. I just feel that the 180 second cooldown is REALLY long, especially since you won’t have the passive effect after using the active. If Anet were to buff the life force passive, this would be viable to take up a utility as, but as of now, there are better skills to take. As for bosses, it is generally recommended that everyone spread out so people do not get hit by the same AOE’s, but I feel like the 180 second should at least by cut in half.

AOE rez on 90 sec cooldown in PvP would be too much.

Yea silly comment by me, but a boost in the passive would be nice

Esoteric.4395:

CONT:

Staff 3 is your your Chillblains…err Chillbrains (Silly Anet can’t hire some grammar Nazis)

Chillblains is an actual medical condition. It’s not a typo.

SeraphAnimo.2356:

Esoteric.4395:

CONT:

Staff 3 is your your Chillblains…err Chillbrains (Silly Anet can’t hire some grammar Nazis)

Chillblains is an actual medical condition. It’s not a typo.

You know, that’s really interesting, just looked that up. Thank, will edit (: