Guild Wars 2

I quit for about a year, came back recently just to dabble around and I figured I’d finally share my secret with everyone.

I get laughed at when I say I’m a bunker but then when people see the amount of damage this build can soak up I get a lot of tells asking how/what etc.

So here’s the build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRAoY3djc0UcbvN22wfbijBRyGfiMwBqnOMIA-TJxHABPXGwgTCAAPBgg2fAA

Basically the way this build works is you generate life force at an insane rate. That’s what the weapon sets are for. Axe 2, Dagger 1, Focus 4 are all huge life force gains. Spectral skills give life force on use and then subsequently generate life force from being attacked.

Spectral Wall is great for both the protection it gives and pulling heat off yourself. (not to mention the life force gain from casting it).

The 400 toughness from channeling is better than you think. Lots of the weapon skills are channeled along with DS 4. It’s a huge boost to your survivability.

There’s no real rotation other than not blowing all your spectral skills at once. Spread them out. Use Spectral Armor first as it will pop again at 50% health. Once life force is full, pop into DS to eat damage. By the time it wears off your spectral skills will be up again. By rotating through the skills you can keep a nearly endless rotation of:

Spectral Skills
DS
Leave DS
Heal
Spectral Skills
DS
Repeat

If you find yourself under huge focus fire this build actually gets even better as you generate LF while getting hit. The more people hitting on you the better. Pop Plagueform when you need a breather in between cooldowns as it will keep you alive enough to generate more LF. As soon as it drops pop into DS.

It’s truly insane the amount of damage this build can soak up. I encourage you all to try it. It’s a lot of fun and makes use of our DS in a very good way.

It doesn’t have a lot of team utility but the stability from FitG is great for stomps, rezzes etc and Spectral Wall is a great team skill.

The best part of it is that teams ALWAYS focus me first thinking I’m power necro and once they start they don’t stop. This gives your team plenty of time to pick them off.

Let me know what you guys think and if you think there are any changes that would make it better. (I’ve played with it a lot and this seems to be the best I’ve found).

Enjoy!

Seems really fun, i used to roam with something similar. but can you please tell me why rune of the forge? wouldn’t you consider swapping with traveler runes for more mobility? you would be still tanky imo.

anyway, i think its a great and fun to play build overall. thanks for sharing it.

I use forge for the protection boost and the survivability boost. 10 seconds of protection is a lot and that triggers for free. The increase in protection duration is great from Spectral Wall as well. I’ve played around with some different runes but Forge seems to make me live the longest.

I also play bunker necro. Although my build is really different. Here is my build for reference:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAnYWjc0UUbtN+0wfbinhS6JIAa2pCBq/hdIGA-TJxHABOVGo2TBgP7PAwTAAA

I do like your build though. Your build is more get LF, absorb all the damage in DS while avoid taking damage to your health pool, your weakness is your healing.. if your heal gets stunned your pretty much screwed. My build is more healing and party support orientated with some LF tanking. Also your build looks like it does more damage than mine.

Also… I know you probably don’t want any criticism of your build but I would switch out near to death and take Vital Persistence. The 50% less DS decay is awesome and will increase your survivability by a significant margin.

I don’t mind criticism at all! I’ve tried a build very similar to yours but I’ve found the wells to be underwhelming. I’ve waffled between Vital Persistence and Near to Death. The main reason I choose Near to Death is because of it’s synergy with Foot in the Grave. Not being able to pop into DS at the right time is deadly. Also with FiTG and very fast DS recharge it helps immensely against things like engi knockback and hammer warrior.

I will say the weakness of this build is that it doesn’t have a lot of support and if teams get smart and stop focusing me it’s rather useless, but so far even after absorbing 100k worth of damage teams still seem to get tunnel vision and try to burn me down.

Toughness while channelling trait has been broken for the longest time. Its probably hurting this build a tonne.

You do not gain any toughness currently while channelling.

Lol Im loving the Bunker Necro thread we have started. If you made a hybrid of the two builds that have been posted so far, you would actually end up with something really similar to what I use.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW7Yjc00bbtNG3wfbCihS6T4CG3IDgGgyqIKA-TJRAwAsLDA4iA8b/BPPBAA

Jelzouki.4128:

Toughness while channelling trait has been broken for the longest time. Its probably hurting this build a tonne.

You do not gain any toughness currently while channelling.

It’s not broken, but is misleading. You truly don’t gain any Toughness while channeling, but you do get 400 armor during that period. Basically the same result, except for stat conversions

thank you for sharing a build that I’m sure no one has tried before because this game is so new and no necros ever seem to experiment with survivability traits because our survivability is pretty good.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jelzouki.4128:

Toughness while channelling trait has been broken for the longest time. Its probably hurting this build a tonne.

You do not gain any toughness currently while channelling.

It’s not broken, but is misleading. You truly don’t gain any Toughness while channeling, but you do get 400 armor during that period. Basically the same result, except for stat conversions

So you do get the buff?

Jelzouki.4128:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jelzouki.4128:

Toughness while channelling trait has been broken for the longest time. Its probably hurting this build a tonne.

You do not gain any toughness currently while channelling.

It’s not broken, but is misleading. You truly don’t gain any Toughness while channeling, but you do get 400 armor during that period. Basically the same result, except for stat conversions

So you do get the buff?

Your armor goes up by 400, yes. But, for example, if you have 5 points in Death Magic, you do not gain another 40 Power (10% of 400).

That build so secret. Kappa.

Also – won’t work against good players.

I’m salty, I know, but also honest.

Im gonna go ahead and say that when someone comes out, and gives a build theyve been using to good effect for a long time, its pretty demeaning to say “well you must never have been fighting good opponents”.

Well it’s because he and anyone who isnt delusional know all we are good for on a necro is +1 nuking people.

It’s a crap build. Nice idea as are alot of what people try, but most of the time someone else has already tried it. It is extremely rare when someone figures out something new.

Also he said he quit for a year, hes probably not very good atm even if he was a year ago. But with around a 50% wr probably nothing special to begin with. NOT TO SAY THAT I AM.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jelzouki.4128:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jelzouki.4128:

Toughness while channelling trait has been broken for the longest time. Its probably hurting this build a tonne.

You do not gain any toughness currently while channelling.

It’s not broken, but is misleading. You truly don’t gain any Toughness while channeling, but you do get 400 armor during that period. Basically the same result, except for stat conversions

So you do get the buff?

Your armor goes up by 400, yes. But, for example, if you have 5 points in Death Magic, you do not gain another 40 Power (10% of 400).

still not seeing the stats just tried it out now

Jelzouki.4128:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jelzouki.4128:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Jelzouki.4128:

Toughness while channelling trait has been broken for the longest time. Its probably hurting this build a tonne.

You do not gain any toughness currently while channelling.

It’s not broken, but is misleading. You truly don’t gain any Toughness while channeling, but you do get 400 armor during that period. Basically the same result, except for stat conversions

So you do get the buff?

Your armor goes up by 400, yes. But, for example, if you have 5 points in Death Magic, you do not gain another 40 Power (10% of 400).

still not seeing the stats just tried it out now

I think someone tested this, they to damage while channeling and damage when not channeling, and found there was a damage reduction while channeling but it just won’t show up on the stat panel.

While in no way a “secret” build it is fun for hotjoins. But when it comes down to it you’re just a meatbag that takes up space. Hard to kill, but easy to knock off a point and lacking cc of your own to decap a point. No group support really, and not enough damage to down a foe. You’re kind of just ….there. No offense to you of course, just I’ve toyed around with the Spectral Bunker build alot myself before.

This looks like a spectral condi build but I do not understand why you chose to put 6 points into soul Reaping instead of 2. You spent 4 points on toughness and boon duration. If it is your intent to flash DS and hide under spectral armor, would it not be better to just choose one or the other?

For a spectral build, why not 66002 or 64004? Even 64022 has less conflict in purpose.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRAoY3djc00TbjN+1webCohQ2mg56ouP+F-TJxHABnt/gBnEAjLDAwTAAA

-Good condition removal
-More evades
-Good Boon Removal
-Stun breakers ( stun breaker on DS + stab), teleport.
-Good chill/cripple/immobilize
-Steady damage + burst
-Small sustain healing

this is the build i use, on the bunker side but can still deal out the damage.

Hard to kill, but easy to knock off a point and lacking cc of your own to decap a point.

I don’t PvP very seriously but I’m curious about this: with Foot in the Grave and two other stun breaks, is it really that easy to push a Necromancer off point?

Softspoken.2410:

Hard to kill, but easy to knock off a point and lacking cc of your own to decap a point.

I don’t PvP very seriously but I’m curious about this: with Foot in the Grave and two other stun breaks, is it really that easy to push a Necromancer off point?

No its not. The only class that will be able to knock you off point if you don’t play against them correctly is Engineer. You just have to save your Stun Break for the instant knock back immobilize combo. If you stun break right after they knock you back and dodge onto point they can’t knock you off for a long time. The stun break on the 10 second cool down is awesome. I played my build with the old Stability (not one stack) and its actually easier now to stay on point because of the 10 second stun break. Although I do miss that extra stability the stun break helps in some situations.

However.. if you are facing 2 coordinated engineers or 3 others coordinated people… sure they can knock you off point (if you are 1v2 or 1v3)… I don’t think any bunker build can hold the point vs that for that long (except in the middle of Foefire).

Spazza.6024:

Softspoken.2410:

Hard to kill, but easy to knock off a point and lacking cc of your own to decap a point.

I don’t PvP very seriously but I’m curious about this: with Foot in the Grave and two other stun breaks, is it really that easy to push a Necromancer off point?

No its not. The only class that will be able to knock you off point if you don’t play against them correctly is Engineer. You just have to save your Stun Break for the instant knock back immobilize combo. If you stun break right after they knock you back and dodge onto point they can’t knock you off for a long time. The stun break on the 10 second cool down is awesome. I played my build with the old Stability (not one stack) and its actually easier now to stay on point because of the 10 second stun break. Although I do miss that extra stability the stun break helps in some situations.

However.. if you are facing 2 coordinated engineers or 3 others coordinated people… sure they can knock you off point (if you are 1v2 or 1v3)… I don’t think any bunker build can hold the point vs that for that long (except in the middle of Foefire).

Stunbreak =/= Stability. Against players that have a clue, or any Rifle Engi with half a brain, a few stunbreaks will not keep you on the point. Not to mention if a bunker can’t keep a couple of enemies from decapping a point until help arrives then he really isn’t of much use in that department. In 1v1 situation the ability to simply kill the enemy player is so much more useful. Like I said, it’s a fun build for Hotjoin, but has no practical use in organized matches.

What’s the point of Necro bunker when any two classes will cc lock you and kill you while you can’t move? Our base survivability is top tier, but the lack of active defense outside of two dodges really hurts our ability to stay alive when focused.

This thread is just like the celestial necro thread. You can make something that seems good in a vacuum, but it’s absolutely not scaleable in survivability and therefore not worth the investment like it is for other classes.

I love playing bunker necro and I just started using a build very similar to the op’s:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAodWjc00abtNG3wfbChhS6UoDO3IDgIgyuoJA-TJxHwAc2fwwpAAwTAQZZAA

I’ll explain my build with the op’s in mind-

STATS
I’m using zerker amulet for the extra damage which allows me to carry pug groups a bit better and ds absorbs so much I don’t need too much survivability.

If I was going to transition into a dedicated pvp group or wvw I would definitely use sentinel stats. I’ve run the numbers and with deadly strength (5 pts in death magic) and a sharpening stone in wvw sentinel actually does comparable damage to full zerker in ds at least.

WEAPONS
As for weapons, dagger does crazy damage and with the ample amount of chill with the occasional pull, dagger does really well, not that I’m outside of ds very long. Axe works great as well but I think dagger fits my playstyle more. I love staff too much to swap it out for anything else, the cc it brings is really hard to pass up and the 1200 range is nice.

UTILITIES
Sarmor and Swalk are kind of staple utils, I like Sgrasp instead of Swall because it brings enemies into dagger range for a quick combo and when coupled with focus 4 I can fill 50% of the ds bar in 2 secs.

Swall protection isn’t needed imo, 2x Sarmor gives 28s of protection with 5s protection on earth rune proc is near 32s of protection with a 40s cd. I don’t think the extra protection is needed and Sgrasp gives 22% life force compared to 5% from Swall.

TRAITS
Reapers protection trait to help with cc, shrouded removal could probably swap with dark armor, I haven’t tried dark armor much. It’s hard to choose between 6 points in death magic vs soul reaping but I think, for my set-up at least, unholy sanctuary helps a bit more.
———————————
I haven’t played with the build too much, like I said I just started using it. I’ve won quite a few 1v2’s easy enough and I can bunker against a large group for a decent amount of time even with zerker stats. I think the op is on to something

Sabwa.7358:

I love playing bunker necro and I just started using a build very similar to the op’s:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAodWjc00abtNG3wfbChhS6UoDO3IDgIgyuoJA-TJxHwAc2fwwpAAwTAQZZAA

I’ll explain my build with the op’s in mind-

STATS
I’m using zerker amulet for the extra damage which allows me to carry pug groups a bit better and ds absorbs so much I don’t need too much survivability.

If I was going to transition into a dedicated pvp group or wvw I would definitely use sentinel stats. I’ve run the numbers and with deadly strength (5 pts in death magic) and a sharpening stone in wvw sentinel actually does comparable damage to full zerker in ds at least.

WEAPONS
As for weapons, dagger does crazy damage and with the ample amount of chill with the occasional pull, dagger does really well, not that I’m outside of ds very long. Axe works great as well but I think dagger fits my playstyle more. I love staff too much to swap it out for anything else, the cc it brings is really hard to pass up and the 1200 range is nice.

UTILITIES
Sarmor and Swalk are kind of staple utils, I like Sgrasp instead of Swall because it brings enemies into dagger range for a quick combo and when coupled with focus 4 I can fill 50% of the ds bar in 2 secs.

Swall protection isn’t needed imo, 2x Sarmor gives 28s of protection with 5s protection on earth rune proc is near 32s of protection with a 40s cd. I don’t think the extra protection is needed and Sgrasp gives 22% life force compared to 5% from Swall.

TRAITS
Reapers protection trait to help with cc, shrouded removal could probably swap with dark armor, I haven’t tried dark armor much. It’s hard to choose between 6 points in death magic vs soul reaping but I think, for my set-up at least, unholy sanctuary helps a bit more.
———————————
I haven’t played with the build too much, like I said I just started using it. I’ve won quite a few 1v2’s easy enough and I can bunker against a large group for a decent amount of time even with zerker stats. I think the op is on to something

I just feel like youre wasting some stats/ trait points by taking Unholy Sanctuary without a significant amount of healing power. Wouldnt you benefit more from some more weakness uptime or something?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBIhZakjmWbbpx2G+bTcMIS9J6AJWQ9zhBB-TpBFwAMOEAEOBALOCAVLDA4BA4b/BA

I used to use something similar to that to some good effect.

The healing from unholy sanctuary even with a load of healing power is near useless. I use the trait for the free ds pop after a lethal blow. With the build I should always have some LF in the bar and I can usually stay in ds for a good while. The only thing is that it’s hard to come out of ds with only ~3% health but a well timed fear before leaving ds should give enough time to get a heal off and put me back in the game. It’s almost an extra life which is really nice in 1v1’s and helps me defend a point that much longer in 1vx’s.

The other 5 points in death magic aren’t bad either and the last minor trait in the line gives a significant damage boost giving life blast an extra ~7% damage with zerker and ~11% extra damage with sentinel. So I’m not sure I’m wasting traits or stats but it’s really hard for me to give up foot in the grave or 50% crit chance…

The weakness on crits is really nice but the 20s cd always turns me away, I would probably swap it out for spectral attunement but I’ll have to try the build out first.

Keep in mind it doesn’t take that much for Unholy Sanctuary to be providing a useful heal. 15 seconds is all it needs with 0 healing power to hit 2k health, and it’s laughably easy to stay in death shroud that long in a spectral build.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Keep in mind it doesn’t take that much for Unholy Sanctuary to be providing a useful heal. 15 seconds is all it needs with 0 healing power to hit 2k health, and it’s laughably easy to stay in death shroud that long in a spectral build.

Not in pvp it’s not.

NeXeD.3042:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Keep in mind it doesn’t take that much for Unholy Sanctuary to be providing a useful heal. 15 seconds is all it needs with 0 healing power to hit 2k health, and it’s laughably easy to stay in death shroud that long in a spectral build.

Not in pvp it’s not.

I do it all the time when I run US in PvP. Super easy. Pop Locust Swarm and hop into death shroud is usually enough to manage that.