Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone. Guide has been updated on Dulfy (2nd August 2015). If you have any questions feel free to ask here or whisper me in game.

http://dulfy.net/2014/06/30/gw2-necromancer-pve-guide-by-spoj/

This forum version is out of date. I may fix this at a later time. But I recommend readers visit Dulfy for the up to date version anyway.

Intro

Necro is far from optimal when it comes to organised groups and speed clears. However when built and played right they can be pretty strong. Their main strengths are good single target dps, good access to aoe blinds and dark fields, some fairly good condition support and reasonable vuln access. What they lack is mobility, cleave, projectile defence, vigor and other defensive options. What you get with this build is the highest possible single target dps, very nice burst aoe and the flexibility to change to a rampager spec for clearing trash mobs in fractals with sustained condi aoe. This build is mainly suited for organised groups. But It works very well in pugs as well, you just have to be prepared to adapt to your group more.

Equipment

As expected, your equipment will be full Berserker’s trinkets with Berserker’s armour. Exotic is fine if you cant obtain full ascended right away. If you are finding it difficult to survive with no defensive stat gear then try Knights armour with Berserker weapons and trinkets. It shouldn’t take long to get used to full glass cannon due to how durable the necro is. In fights where dodges are important tanky gear isn’t going to make much of a difference so you may as well just focus on damage and learn the encounters and maybe take energy sigils if needed.

Using assassins gear is now ideal when using the dagger build. If you have some pieces of berserker already dont worry about it too much as the difference is minor. Assassins will be the ideal choice if you want to be completely optimal. But for most people it shouldnt matter whether you use berserkers or assassins. Bare in mind if you have a full set of assassins then it might be better to use power food instead of precision food, depending on the group buffs available to you.

For runes you have several options. The best choice is a full set of Superior Runes of the Scholar. The cheap alternative is ruby orbs. You could use ruby orbs until you can afford runes of the scholar. Ranger runes are also good and the 6th bonus can be triggered with minions or a mini pet. In most groups and especially a group with banner of discipline and/or spotter covered you should use Scholar.

For weapons you should have the following (all berserker):

• Main hand Dagger with a DPS sigil (force/night/slaying)
• Warhorn with a sigil of strength/energy
• Focus with sigil of strength/energy
• Staff with DPS sigil + sigil of energy
• Axe with a DPS sigil

Additional optional weapons:

• Berserker offhand dagger.
• Rampager/Berserker scepter.

Your main weapon set will be dagger + warhorn with a focus in the second set. Staff is useful for more difficult skipping sections where you might need to cc some mobs to get passed.

Having Sigils of Strength on your offhands is even more beneficial thanks to the buff. I also recommend having a warhorn and focus with energy sigils for skipping sections and more difficult boss fights such as Lupicus.

The main hand axe is an option you can take in your second set if you aren’t completely comfortable staying full melee (This is recommended for less experienced players especially when starting out). Its also fairly decent for fights like the legendary imbued shaman or Dredge Powersuit/Ice Elemental where most groups tend to kite them between the lava buckets.

The optional weapons are simply for better aoe, especially when swapping to a hybrid build for certain fractals. Also the offhand dagger can be used for extra aoe weakness which is helpful in the dredge fractal.

Traits

6/6/0/0/2

Spite
The first adept trait you take is Spiteful Talisman because focus is such a good offhand to have and having reapers touch on a 14 second cool down is just amazing. You have several options for the master tier major trait. Chill of Death is good for long boss fights as it will proc multiple times (every 20 seconds) once the boss is below 50% hp. Another option is Spiteful Spirit which is good for clearing trash as it adds to your aoe damage when hit. If you are running Flesh Golem you can take Training of the Master to boost his damage and make Golem Charge hit that much harder. Just go with whatever you prefer or feel is more useful for the situation. Finally we take Close to Death for the grandmaster for obvious reasons.

Curses
For curses we want to go all the way in for the grandmaster minor Target the Weak. This is one of the best traits a power necro can get, 2% damage per unique condition is nothing to smirk at. In an average group you can easily see over 5 conditions permanently on a boss which amounts to a permanent 10% boost with the possibility of going even higher. All the traits we take in curses supplement this trait. The 1 point minor, Barbed Precision, allows the necro to sustain permanent low duration bleeds which guarantees a 2% damage boost with Target the Weak. The 3 point minor (Furious Demise) boosts personal dps when flashing DS assuming your group doesn’t already provide permanent fury.

For major traits we pick Weakening Shroud and Banshee’s Wail. Weakening Shroud adds to our dps when flashing DS, making it worthwhile even when the group provides perma fury. It does some nice aoe damage on your location and provides weakness and bleed for a few seconds which boosts your damage by another 2% thanks to weakness synergising with Target the Weak. The second major we take is Banshees Wail. This is a must have when using the warhorn, it increases the uptime of locust swarm by a huge amount making locust swarm a pretty good dps increase. Also allows us to interrupt with Wail of Doom more often. For the final trait we have two options. For groups which dont maximize might stacks we take Master of Corruption so we can get Blood is Power on a lower cooldown. For other groups you could take Withering Precision for extra weakness uptime.

Soul Reaping
For soul reaping we now only go 2 points in for Path of Midnight. This allows us to be able to burst aoe more often. It also puts Tainted Shackles on a lower cooldown which should be included in your dps rotation. You could also swap the major trait to something else which better suits your preferences. If you find you use life blast every now and again you could take Unyielding Blast. You could also take spectral mastery for reduced cool down on spectral walk (decent stunbreak).

Consumables

For the optimal dps food I recommend taking Bowls of Curry Butternut Squash Soup. This is quite expensive though, so for cheap alternatives I recommend Omnomberry Ghosts / Omnomberry Pies / Slice of Candied Dragon Rolls. Precision food is the best for groups. For solo play precision food is also superior. Bowl of Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash Soup is what you should use if you have banners, fury and spotter covered. In most other situations precision food is better.

For potions you should use the dungeon specific slaying potions. For the rare instances where there isn’t a dungeon potion worth bringing you can use Scale Venom.

Utilities

For your standard skill bar you want to take Well of Suffering and Signet of Spite most of the time. This leaves one situational utility slot. Well of Suffering is a must have due to the damage and vuln it provides, it is especially useful for aoe’ing groups of mobs. Also be aware that Well of Suffering may get in the way of your groups might stacking in fire fields, so try to use it after a fire field is placed down (first field placed down takes priority). Signet of Spite is also important simply for the passive (180 power).

The third slot is situational. If you don’t need any extra blinds, condition removal or a stunbreak there are several dps options. The most common one and probably the most beneficial for single target dps is Blood is Power. This provides 10 stacks of might for a pretty reasonable duration. Blood is Power is wasted if your group can keep permanent 25 might on you, so keep that in mind when choosing the 3rd slot. The other option I use quite often is Well of Corruption. This provides some extra aoe and is particularly useful for mobs and bosses that stack boons. If im about to reach a large group of trash I will usually take this for a more potent aoe combo.

For some encounters you may find that having signet of spite or well of suffering isn’t worth the loss of utility and that’s fine. Go with whatever you feel you need. If you need a stunbreak or swiftness for running sections then I find Spectral Walk is the best choice, especially when traited. Another utility I occasionally use is Summon Bone Minions. The reason for this is the blast finishers. You can summon the bone minions before engaging on a boss and if your group is pre stacking might with a fire field you can detonate the bone minions for 6 stacks of aoe might. Or you can detonate 1 bone minion for 3 stacks of aoe might and then swap it out for another utility before getting put in combat.

Elite
Your elite slot is also pretty situational. Most of the time I run with Plague because it has great access to aoe blind and its an instant cast 30 second stability transform. If you engage in fights where minions should survive for a reasonable amount of time then you can take Flesh Golem and abuse the charge into a wall for some pretty nice damage. Flesh Golem is your standard dps elite. Lich Form is rarely used and doesn’t scale properly when down levelled but it can be useful if your group decides to range certain encounters.

Heal
For your heal slot you will probably stick with Consume Conditions. Blood fiend can be good for improving dps slightly if it doesn’t die. Well of Blood is very situational and not really worth it most of the time especially as the light field could overlap your groups fire fields. Vampiric Signet can be used as a middle ground between Blood fiend and Consume Conditions. It will heal for less while also helping your party members slightly and it will be less of a dps loss than casting consume conditions.

Rotation

The basic rotation for single target dps is fairly simple. You want to start with dagger + warhorn. Cast Locust Swarm as you engage and immediately swap to focus. Then cast Reaper’s Touch and proceed to dagger auto attack until Reapers Touch is off cool down, cast it a second time and then swap back to warhorn. Cast Locust Swarm as soon as you can and then dagger auto attack until you can swap back to focus. Cast Reaper’s Touch twice and repeat. You Should also be flashing DS (double tap) on cool down while doing the dagger rotation and using Tainted Shackles on cooldown. Basically you want to cast reapers touch twice while on focus and use locust swarm whenever you can on warhorn, you should be staying on dagger + focus for most of the time. Don’t forget to DS flash for fury and weakening shroud and cast tainted shackles whenever you can!

Another important combo to use is the aoe burst combo. For this I will assume you have both Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption equipped but it works pretty well with just Well of Suffering. Start off by casting Locust Swarm. When the mobs are mostly grouped up cast Well of Suffering first then Well of Corruption. Go into DS, cast Tainted Shackles and then use Life Transfer. If mobs aren’t quite dead after that. Come out of DS and use Reaper’s Touch, dagger auto and flash DS to finish them off. You can also use one well for the initial burst and then save the second for after you come out of DS. Spreading out the wells is good if your group needs the blinds from blasting inside the dark fields while clearing the group. It also allows you to tag a second wave of mobs more easily by spreading out your aoe damage.

Alternative Traits

There are many alternative trait setups you can use but most of them arent worth mentioning. The builds that went further into soul reaping recieved a large nerf when Ferocity was introduced so 30/15/0/0/25 is no longer a viable solo build.

The old trait setup (6/5/0/0/3) still works very nicely. It is however weaker than 6/6/0/0/2 in most situations because the extra 50 precision is worth more than the 50 ferocity. The only times 6/5/0/0/3 is superior is when your group has fury, spotter and banners covered and you have fully stacked up with perception. You will rarely be in this situation so you are probably better off just sticking to 6/6/0/0/2.

Summary

The most important thing is to learn to adapt and use the right skills/weapons at the right times and in the right situations. This all comes with experience and these are just guidelines. Feel free to give feedback, ask questions and alter as you see fit. If you think I’ve missed anything please let me know.

Quick link

Thanks for reading.

Reserved for future use.

have well of power instead of signet of spite and you have a way to heal and break stun in one go, only going for damage kills you allot faster then having at least a backup.

If you need well of power for the situation you can take it. I mentioned you can use whatever utilities you need and you should adapt for each situation. Sometimes that means taking well of power and well of darkness.

may i ask why not going 30 10 0 0 30? i mean you can litteraly gear up full valk or partial valk to get your 70% crit chance without even having fury (the 30 in spite is for the 20% damage increase to foe under 50% health and god know bosses often are under that percentage) i dont get why you need precision this much when the build litteraly provide a base + 50% to critical strike chance (with a base 20% crit rate your already at 70% fury less o.o) Again this would apply only if your constantly in Death shroud wich with that new 50% DS trait is very likely to happen.

Using DS for dps isnt reliable and its less than using dagger. I tried theory crafting a valk build back when deathly perception first came about. It was pointless, you may aswell go beserker because the increased power/precision you get from converting vit with a consumable is barely anything.

A somewhat band-aid to our now nerfed aoe weakness, we can use the corrosive poison cloud, which should give above 20 seconds of weakness when you factor in enfeebling cloud. It’s not omg deepz but it’s something for those high end fractals maybe.

Spoj, thanks for the post

What kind of results do you get in longer boss fights without having Close to Death? Does the combination damage modifier of Target the Weak and Strength of Undeath throughout the fight make up for losing the non-conditional 20% increase when less than 50% health.

I can see that theoretically you could maintain a damage modifier of 29% with all conditions on the target throughout the fight and maintaining full life force but how many conditions do you generally have on the target during the fight and how often does your life force stay up there?

Not being difficult – just dont know the answers to those questions and know you have figure it out so thought I would ask

Close to death equates to about a 9% boost overall so its only 4% more than strength of undeath. The difference is kind of made up for by being able to get weakening shroud damage every 7 seconds instead of every 10 seconds. Plus you have better fury and weakness uptime like this. Sometimes when clearing trash in an organised group there isnt time to buff up and if you run with only one warrior the extra fury helps a lot.

For a typical group you should be able to easily maintain 4+ conditions permanently possibly more depending on what classes you take. If you were to take a grenade engi it would really help maximise the target the weak bonus. Life force should always be above 50%. The only time it would drop is if you screw up on a big hit but even then it might not drop below 50%. And even if it does you can gain it back from 0% very quickly with dagger + focus 4.

I originally wrote the guide on the assumption that we would have strength of undeath buffed up to 10%. So I kind of just decided to alter it slightly and keep the traits as they were because 20/25 is definately more suited for pug/casual dungeons than 30/25. The damage lost is not enough to worry about especially when necro isnt a class taken for record runs. Plus i find it a bit more fun being able to flash DS more often.

Gyler.8150:

A somewhat band-aid to our now nerfed aoe weakness, we can use the corrosive poison cloud, which should give above 20 seconds of weakness when you factor in enfeebling cloud. It’s not omg deepz but it’s something for those high end fractals maybe.

Good suggestion. Unfortunately I dont see myself taking my necro into fractals much anymore now that mob armour scaling has been reduced. Corrosive cloud is a skill id basically forgotten about but i can definately see it being helpful during the dredge fractal and maybe cliffside. Thanks for the input.

So much funny or useless threads here, and the good ones are ignored.

Push, and a question. I wrote an older Necro DPS guide (german) is it ok for u. If i just translate your guide? All credits to u and a link to your original thread!
Because it´s written well i see not much to change here.

Ofcourse. Feel free to translate it. I have no problem with other people sharing the build.

Thank u much, i´ll do it tomorrow or sunday.

Nice. I think with ascended armor now. I’ll give power necro another go. Before I didn’t quite like the play style but I’ll try again.

Nice guide spoj Gonna try this build soon ^^

Updated the quick link to include ascended armour. Also altered the equipment section regarding armour.

Basically taking assassins helm, chest and legs is slightly better in organised groups. For everything else or if you dont care too much you may aswell just stick to full berserker.

Whats about the new Healing skill. Is it worth it?

It maybe worth it if you dont need to heal much as the cast time is the same as consume and you will get some damage back in return. Its still a dps loss to cast but its less so than any of the other heals.

Bump.

spoj.9672:

Basically taking assassins helm, chest and legs is slightly better in organised groups. For everything else or if you dont care too much you may aswell just stick to full berserker.

If one is not a very skilled player, and he will only be doing dungeons / world pve, would you:
– reccomend the power necro for him ?
– if yes, what type or armors should he use? the described ones?
– of no, what class except warr would you say come close to this build’s play style?

1. If you are not a min/max type of guy, take necro.
2. Zerker all the way, but with ascended armor its better to swap to assasins with the above mentioned pieces.
3. Everything is fine or better in melee, except engi (granades are … weird) and ranger (sword auto is weirdestest).

Dalanor.5387:

1. If you are not a min/max type of guy, take necro.
2. Zerker all the way, but with ascended armor its better to swap to assasins with the above mentioned pieces.
3. Everything is fine or better in melee, except engi (granades are … weird) and ranger (sword auto is weirdestest).

1. I am not an elitist, but I want to feel good: I want be useful – so decent dmg, and I want to be able to survive decently – some defensive skills / evades / etc
2. recently back to gw2 after 6 months, not sure yet what ascended “armors” are will check
3. sounds good

thx for your reply

1. Dont play necro then. Necro cant do much, mainly just damage for the group. Utility or support options with other classes outshines the necro.
2. Its a “new” item tier between exotic and legendary. Check out the wiki for more.
3. In melee you just swing your weapon and things die, so narrow your options a bit, so we can help you decide what could be better for you.

rogerwilko.6895:

spoj.9672:

Basically taking assassins helm, chest and legs is slightly better in organised groups. For everything else or if you dont care too much you may aswell just stick to full berserker.

If one is not a very skilled player, and he will only be doing dungeons / world pve, would you:
– reccomend the power necro for him ?
– if yes, what type or armors should he use? the described ones?
– of no, what class except warr would you say come close to this build’s play style?

To answer your first question. Yes power necro should be fine in open world. And theres really no other build choice to be useful in dungeons. You could go condi necro but thats subpar and can be rendered useless in openworld or in dungeons if others are running condi specs. So I would definately recommend power necro for all things pve.

Necro isnt the best choice to feel useful. But if you enjoy the class and want to stick to it then yes you should go full beserker to try and be as useful as possible. If however you dont feel too comfortable being that squishy you could start out with knights armour and then swap it to beserker one piece at a time the more comfortable you get. You should start with beserker trinkets and weapons though.

For your final question. If you dont like how necro plays. All classes can be fun. I cant really say what would be best for you. Warriors and guardians are always welcome in pug groups. Guardians require pretty good knowledge of encounters to be good though. Eles are very strong and fun but a lot squishier than necros and have a high skill cap. Mesmers are also pretty useful but are a little tricky to master. For easy classes to be useful id say warrior and engi are the best choices. Engi because you can just chuck nades all day and you are covering most of what an engi is good at just by doing that. Warrior because its versatile, easy to get good dps and provides great dps support with banners, fury and might.

Hope that helps.

Also if you like being useful in dungeons you will probably end up like most of us min/maxers and level multiple classes to 80. Gives you lots of variety and you can swap to whatever is most useful for your group.

Also note when i talk about other classes for pve they are always beserker builds. Because those are the only builds I deem useful in dungeons.

Bump because he told me to

as an update:
@spoj, I do have a thief, warr, ranger and engineer lv80 and I have done dungeons / WvW / PvP/ open world pve with each. I chose to stick to necro some time ago… the reasons for that are getting more fuzzy each day

I went zerk gear. Axe + focus / dagger + wh. So far, for dungeons it’s decent (Mediocre when compared to other prof dmg output) but it feels Much Much better than my prev condition setup.
In open pve it’s…. Ok…

I did some testing regarding my setup and different sword ranger setups and IMO the dps of the ranger is above the necro.

For now I will stick to necro because of the “rarity?” of it, and because the build feels fresh… but I guess sooner or later I will be sick of being the bottom feeder of the party.
We’ll see.

Most classes will feel like they do more dps in a solo situation. But in a group where buffs are equal necro will beat warrior, ranger and engi for dps. Ranger is very similar to warrior in solo situations. Has pretty good self buffing. Which is why it is quite strong in small groups or solo.

yeah… plus they have that stiking pet… blerh !

Thanks for the sticky <3

let me just preempt what im about to write by saying that this is a great build, i even have similar gear in my inv for when its needed….

but:

in light of “We are taking some steps towards shifting the meta in the near future. I suspect some concrete info will come out about this next week”, does it not seem very disjointed that they would sticky this only a few days before making this statement…?

I requested the sticky. And if the changes effect the build in a big way then I will be updating this thread. Dont worry.

I already have ideas for decent damage builds which also have a lot more survivability. But they arent needed in the current meta.

Also if the meta shifts to taking a condi class in groups I will most likely update this to include whatever meta condi build we come up with.

ah, makes a lot more sense now

Keeping in mind how often I have to repeatedly pick dagger necros from the ground in dungeons and fractals, you should maybe add that this guide is useful mostly for people comfortable with melee /skilled dodgers.
Putting emphasis on how berzerker is the only viable gear is all well and good, but it only works if you know how to play. A living party member with sub-par DPS is far more useful than a party member who constantly needs to be revived…
(This is also why I usually avoid mainhand dagger – I hate melee ankitten ot particularly good at it.)

Noted. I will make it a bit more clear that you should only use dagger full time if you are comfortable with encounters and the class.

spoj.9672:

in a group where buffs are equal necro will beat warrior for(at?) dps

I find that very hard to stomach. Can you please provide some video links?

Its not really something you can show. But when calculating dps it was slightly higher than warrior. In real settings warriors will probably do more most of the time. Because the necro needs to be carried by other classes for those buffs.

This is an old vid i have. I dont have max might for most of it and vuln isnt always capped. Also dont have stacks and proper dps food.

If you take into account cleaving then necro is pretty much bottom compared to every other class.

very nice. what ability was doing the 5-8k hits?

rogerwilko.6895:

very nice. what ability was doing the 5-8k hits?

Watch the skill bar. Dagger #1.

Does Strength of Undeath works out of DS?

Yes it does. And I tested it recently. Some people have been saying its bugged and is only 90 power. Thats not the case anymore. Its been fixed and works as a permanent 5% boost aslong as your lifeforce is above 50%. You can be in DS or out of DS to recieve the bonus.

spoj can you post a video of your output damage. Want to compare it to my hybrid.

Ty

=D

Reaper.5698:

spoj can you post a video of your output damage. Want to compare it to my hybrid.

Ty

=D

Im going to try and get a big crit video done hopefully before the crit damage changes. But I will also be going for various lupi solos on different classes first. So it may be a while before I get it done.

spoj.9672:

I requested the sticky. And if the changes effect the build in a big way then I will be updating this thread. Dont worry.

I already have ideas for decent damage builds which also have a lot more survivability. But they arent needed in the current meta.

Also if the meta shifts to taking a condi class in groups I will most likely update this to include whatever meta condi build we come up with.

If the changes to critical dmg will be big, then I guess there will not be a problem of changing the build but probably the issue will be to switch to another game:-)

Haha that maybe true. Nah im hoping it wont be too big a nerf. It may make rampager superior though, depending on what happens. We shall see. I will be rather kittened if rampager is the new meta for necro though. I only just finished my ascended armour the other day…

Spoj, great advice and build. Can you tell me how you would change it or what you would use specifically for solo PvE? I started the game with my awesome necro, Dalila Darkness, but when I got to Orr I stopped playing her because I couldn’t do enough damage and was dying constantly. The build I’m using now is WvW use. I really want to finish the PvE map with Dalila, and I really think going high DPS is the way to do it. I’m comfortable using dodge and most weapons.

Any and all advice is appreciated.

I would recommend 20/25/0/0/25 for solo open world pve (30/25/0/0/15 also works nicely). Most mobs will be vets and trash so target the weak will work great on them even in solo settings. If you do dungeons or champs solo you might want to consider 30/15/0/0/25 which is what I use for soloing lupi.

Also if im running around I usually just take spectral walk, Well of suffering, signet of locust and plague form. Gives you mobility and you still have enough dps for most stuff in open world. The stunbreak comes in handy aswell.