Mad Skullz | 80 Necro | Piken Square
(edited by SupahSpankeh.8452)
Full Spectral Warrior
Do you ever find you prefer Spectral Mastery to Vital Persistence, or do the cooldowns of the spectral abilities not bother you?
Well this is embarrassing.
Spectral Mastery is the lynchpin of the build, and when setting it up on gw2skills my necro muscle memory selected Vital Persistence.
Oh, the shame.
Have also switched reaper to Chilling Nova, as an experiment. Fury is the only source of crits in this build so the miserable 10s cool down isn’t too big of a deal.
Mad Skullz | 80 Necro | Piken Square
Also, having played a good few games last night, this build seems to struggle with dual pistol thieves (or the two I fought were exceptional).
Mad Skullz | 80 Necro | Piken Square
Do you ever find you prefer Spectral Mastery to Vital Persistence, or do the cooldowns of the spectral abilities not bother you?
It’s simple :
Vital persistance is a trait you use when you are not expecting a lot of incoming hits. With this trait you are a glassy shroud necromancer. Best use in small scale battle with low aggro/focus on you.
Spectral mastery is a trait that you use only if you expect a lot of incoming hits. With this trait you are a balanced shroud necromancer. Best use in large scale battle with high aggro/focus on you but balanced to low incoming damage (mostly WvW zerg v zerg situation). You then use SA and SWalk for survivability in highly dangerous area and otherwise use SWall, SG and lich form when you are out of the dangerous area.
No core profession should be balanced around an optional elite specialization.
(edited by Dadnir.5038)
This sounds really fun, i’ll have to try it later. I also want to try spectral grasp because I miss that skill and I think it would actually do well in this build.
Why do you use carrion instead of rabid though? You’d get more chills, more bleeds, and more weakness from crits.
Interesting build, looks fun. I’d also probably go for Grasp as well, since it provides a way to single out an enemy, gives a huge chunk of chill/LF, and I’m just not a huge fan of walk.
Do you ever find you prefer Spectral Mastery to Vital Persistence, or do the cooldowns of the spectral abilities not bother you?
It’s simple :
Vital persistance is a trait you use when you are not expecting a lot of incoming hits. With this trait you are a glassy shroud necromancer. Best use in small scale battle with low aggro/focus on you.Spectral mastery is a trait that you use only if you expect a lot of incoming hits. With this trait you are a balanced shroud necromancer. Best use in large scale battle with high aggro/focus on you but balanced to low incoming damage (mostly WvW zerg v zerg situation). You then use SA and SWalk for survivability in highly dangerous area and otherwise use SWall, SG and lich form when you are out of the dangerous area.
I gotta disagree with this. I like Spectral Mastery a lot but I certainly don’t feel like it makes me more tanky. In fact, it’s pretty easy to prove it makes you LESS tanky because on average you will be in Shroud for shorter periods. As long as you equate being in shroud to tankiness then any time you don’t take Vital Persistence you are LESS tanky.
Do you ever find you prefer Spectral Mastery to Vital Persistence, or do the cooldowns of the spectral abilities not bother you?
It’s simple :
Vital persistance is a trait you use when you are not expecting a lot of incoming hits. With this trait you are a glassy shroud necromancer. Best use in small scale battle with low aggro/focus on you.Spectral mastery is a trait that you use only if you expect a lot of incoming hits. With this trait you are a balanced shroud necromancer. Best use in large scale battle with high aggro/focus on you but balanced to low incoming damage (mostly WvW zerg v zerg situation). You then use SA and SWalk for survivability in highly dangerous area and otherwise use SWall, SG and lich form when you are out of the dangerous area.
I gotta disagree with this. I like Spectral Mastery a lot but I certainly don’t feel like it makes me more tanky. In fact, it’s pretty easy to prove it makes you LESS tanky because on average you will be in Shroud for shorter periods. As long as you equate being in shroud to tankiness then any time you don’t take Vital Persistence you are LESS tanky.
Try taking vital persistence and enter into an enemy zerg. You’ll be blown up. What’s important to understand is that vital persistence only affect your natural LF degeneration. It doesn’t make you more “tanky”. You don’t gain LF from vital persistence nor lower cool down or toughness. The very point of vital persistence is that you can stay longer into the shroud if you are NOT hitten.
Take spectral mastery and use your spectral skills before entering in shroud and in the enemy zerg : You’ll survive.
Simply put, Spectral mastery allow you to whistand more hit when you are in shroud due to the fact that you will gain life force when you are hitten if you are under the effect of of SA or SWalk. The fact that your spectral skill have a lower cool down and last longer also add even more survivability.
NB.: I’ve been playing with spectral as a frontliner in WvW for over 2 year now and I’m well aware of how good this trait is in this kind of environment. And just so you understand that I clearly read what you wrote, you’ll stay longer in shroud with Spectral mastery because your spectral skill will last longer on you. (you’ll also be ready to enter again in shroud faster due to spectral mastery). Now if you don’t use spectrals in your build, there is no point to take spectral mastery.
No core profession should be balanced around an optional elite specialization.
Dadnir put it really well. The only thing wrong with Spectral Mastery right now is that it doesn’t properly work with all spectrals, specifically issues with Spectral Wall, and then some general weaknesses with spectrals, specifically Wall/Grasp.