Guild Wars 2

Hi fellow necros. I am currently running a power based well build for wvw, with a combo of knights/zerker/cava gear. I am using a 0/20/0/30/20 set up right now, and am considering dropping 10 points out of blood magic (sacrificing transfusion) for a 0/20/0/20/30 set up. The heals from transfusion is pretty nice, but its on a fairly long cooldown and often my life transfer will get interrupted half way through (which is infuriating). Further more, stability is a pretty big problem for necros across the board, and FITG sounds extremely tempting (especially in combination with Near to Death).

My initial thoughts on FITG

Pros:
-Self access to stability
-Basically guaruntees that you get a full life transfer off

Cons:
-Not a stun breaker, therefore if you get knocked down it might prevent the next knock down but you’ve still been cc’d.
-Cannot predict cc in chaotic wvw.
-Extremely short stability time (although you can access it easily)

My crit change/damage is floating around 44% currently, and i have also thought about going into deathly perception to benefit more from life blast (currently traited unyielding blast already) and life transfer.

I was hoping to recieve some feedback/thoughts from those of you who use FITG while zerging. Do you like it? Strengths/weaknesses with the trait? And do you think its worth the 30 points in Soul Reaping? Any tips/tricks you can suggest with the playstyle?

Thanks!

I use 30/10/0/0/30 so I can’t really comment on FITG but I don’t really think it is worth it over Death Perception. My reasoning: you can’t 100% predict when a warrior or some other class will use a CC on you, but you can predict when you will NEED to enter death shroud in a situation where you are not the aggressive. Death shroud can be used as an “Oh crap” button as well as offensively (esp. in a power build) and so you’ll be wasting your stability to stay alive.. then, when you do need it, you won’t have it immediately. It is rendered further useless by the fact that FITG doesn’t break stun. You could already be knocked down by the time you use it and it wouldn’t do anything besides make it so you can’t be knocked down again.. and.. when you’re knocked down, chances are, you’re already taking heavy damage which would just obliterate your remaining life force.

I find that using skills/traits that grant life force on hit/damage are better to have a continuously full LF pool to survive being knocked down as opposed to having to time it perfectly to avoid being chain CC’d or something.

For example, my main utilities are locust and spite. for the third utility, I am always swapping out spectral armor/grasp, well of suffering, corrupt boon, plague signet, etc.. whatever the situation calls for. spectral grasp gives 15% LF and spectral armor gives 8% on being hit and lasts for like 8 seconds, which is 64% LF gain. I also use dagger/warhorn on one set so I am at > 50% lf almost all the time.

As a power necro I feel like the only choice for survivability you have is to have a strong offense. lf-gaining traits don’t take away from my build as I can have all the traits and the skills I want without sacrificing 50% crit chance, which is absolutely critical in a power build.

With the DP, chill of death is an absolute joke. I have crit non-glass, level 80s for 13-15k before using life blast with chill of death. when you can end a fight that fast, 3 seconds of stability just isn’t worth it. Plus, I rotate out locust and the rotating utility I mentioned above for well of suffering/corruption then enter DS which is more crits which is more LF which is more survivability..

I agree with spicy in that FITG generally makes me enter DS when I wouldn’t have otherwise, and sometimes I don’t use it for what it is because I’ve learned what to dodge, sidestep, etc.

Maybe I’m not a good enough player, but when I spec for FITG I’m not overwhelmed by it’s usefulness. It’s been helpful when I try it, but not better than deathly perception, to me.

Yea this is kind of my initial thoughts about FITG as well. Deathly perception it is! Thanks for the feedback guys and keep it coming! Anyone FOR FITG?

If there were boon duration builds for necro that made sense it would be a great trait. Seeing as how Death magic is still a mess, there isn’t much incentive to get boon duration that way, and other ways are not practical. 3 seconds doesn’t make a big enough differnce when the real reason to go into DS is to either soak damage or land a fear, not avoid a stun.

If I could see the stun coming I would dodge if I was out of dodges I would likely tank it already be in DS and I might avoid the stun, but I would be scared to leave DS stunned or not with no cooldowns… just seems like a wasted trait for 30 points that may or may not be useful in lots of fights.

Now if we could get it up to 5 seconds with duration, it would be much more impactful… and pair it with fury. But…. DM needs a rework for that to be possible.

Rennoko.5731:

If there were boon duration builds for necro that made sense it would be a great trait. Seeing as how Death magic is still a mess, there isn’t much incentive to get boon duration that way, and other ways are not practical. 3 seconds doesn’t make a big enough differnce when the real reason to go into DS is to either soak damage or land a fear, not avoid a stun.

If I could see the stun coming I would dodge if I was out of dodges I would likely tank it already be in DS and I might avoid the stun, but I would be scared to leave DS stunned or not with no cooldowns… just seems like a wasted trait for 30 points that may or may not be useful in lots of fights.

Now if we could get it up to 5 seconds with duration, it would be much more impactful… and pair it with fury. But…. DM needs a rework for that to be possible.

Both it and SS would need to be BASE 5 seconds to make any combination of them + DM to be worth it even if they rework DM.

Power – deathly perception
Condi – foot in the grave
why fitg? if you are a backliner with stability, you will survive long enough for your skills to take effect. along with a guardian, stacking stability has never been easier.

Depends on if you have a guardian in party or not. You can swap the DS crit chance for stability quite fast if you find you need more. Every situation is different. Be flexible.

You kinda want to press a ‘brake stun’ as you hit DS. Spectral Armor is prob the best, as it’s going to gen you more life force as you take dam/take less dam. (Tho 1min CD)

The huge problem with it being soo short stability, is when there’s a big zerg around, the ‘syncing’ with the server can be out, and you can Spect Armor, DS+All life force, and be constantly CC’ed the entire time.
The other huge problem, is ‘knockback’ still get’s you thru stability.