Guild Wars 2

Im interested in what builds experienced necros are running and what comp they run with in WvW when running a 5 man havoc squad. I don’t roam on my necro but i do havoc sometimes. Interested in synergy with a havoc comps and what stun breakers people use if any. Trying to get some more thoughtful conversation going on this forum opposed to QQ about some of necros weaknesses etc.

We have a three man squad on Anvil Rock : Thief, Elem, Necromancer.

I used to be a power vampire build, but the synergy with the team wasn’t good. I had a lot of single target damage, but not much AoE other then staff and one well, well that can be walked away easily by good team.

Our elementalist went full cleric, so I decided to go fear-o-mancer.

The hight toughtness from prec/thought/condition gear + 30 points in death traits for staff traits and fear on CC give enought armor to work well with the AoE healing from elem DD.

Fearomancer is just a wonderful build for WvW, especially when you focus someone with double fear + updraft and thief burst.

Uility : Epidemic, Flesh Worm and Signet of the locus and Plague form.

Epidemic → On condition build in WvW, it’s just too useful. Even after the nerf. Especially if you use it after Elem Churning earth. Crazy amount of bleed.

Flesh Worm → I can’t roam without it. Most WvWers don’t expect a necro to port away. Cast it pre-fight, when in trouble, act like you are running away, then port in the other direction. Good for kiting and release pressure.Also add some average damage during fight.

Signet of locus → I’m used to my engineer, so I just can’t travel without swifteness or in this case, 25% speed. Could use Spectral Walk, but I would miss the perma speed. Also can be useful for emergency healing. Can heal for around 5k in group fight.

Plague form → Flesh golem is good for CC, but it dies a lot, and bug often. Lich form is mainly for power user, and is a big target. Plague form is so tanky. I use it when I don’t have anything left to release pressure. Perma blind is awesome in team fight. Perma cripple too, saved my Elem kitten many time by holding the ennemy.

That’s what I’m running

an condition food → Veggie pizza and crystal.

^^ I was roaming with nearly the exact same set up, but I used corrupt boon instead of locust signet. So many boon heavy guardians and eles to pass on CB, in my opinion. But it works very well, the best condition build I’ve used.

I’ve also had success with hybrid builds, but I lose too much of my thief killing strategy without the staff.

I am trying a PVT set up of my own right now, I’ll post it if it seems to work well.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.5|b.1b.h16.8.1b.h5|6.1b.h16|1b.719.1b.719.1b.719.1b.719.1b.719.1b.719|2w.d1e.2w.d1e.1b.9b.1b.9b.1b.9b.2w.d1e|0.u26b.k25.k13.0|30.d|3r.3w.3x.48.0|e

thats what what I run most of the time in a group.
I might not be the hardest hitting but once people see the conditions and how much they tick for they panic

I’ve run both conditions (0/30/20/20/0 or 0/30/20/0/20, corrupt boon, epidemic, locust signet) and power/wells (30/20/20/0/0 or 30/30/10/0/0) in guild 5-7 man groups to good effect. I always use plague form with chilling darkness. I have flirted with spectral walk in my conditions builds, but usually don’t have room for a stun breaker in power/wells.

@Brando

I think I fought you once. When I came back on my necro.

I remember fighting a GF Necro. Well you killed my warrior friend from LD. You were low HP so I just jumped in with my power/blood necro and stomped you with plague stomp. (Nothing to be proud, you were already really low HP and were retreating)

I was on TS with the warrior and I just heard him say : Man a necro just instant dropped me What the h*ll.

Not sure what you did, but he didn’t like it. :P

I hope to fight you guys again.

Repping [STAR] now.

By the way, I never thought about using the dagger CD reduction for off hand dagger. Is it really worth it?

I can see why you took on dodge trait, and get the vampiric effect too. Would it be better if you went 20 in Reaping, for the 50% longer terror?

This is what I ran back when I still played.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.3|b.1b.h16.d.1b.h5|6.1b.h16|1b.7v.1b.7v.1b.7v.1b.7v.1b.7i.1b.7i|4x.0.2x.d1e.3x.0.1b.9b.1b.9b.3w.0|u47c.u69c.a2.0.0|30.d|3r.44.3x.4a.0|e

I exclusively played in small groups (up to 15 man). The survivability is admittedly lower than I’d like, but this is the only way to get across the board 100% condition duration, which I felt is worth the trade off.

Not only does it guarantee 2 tics of fear damage every time (which is near 3k damage with full stacks iirc), but it also makes keeping chill, poison, and weakness up on your targets much easier. Not to mention condition duration is of paramount importance when it comes to spreading confusion with epidemic.

Sometimes I also swapped out the focus for a dagger and slotted well of darkness and chilling darkness so I could really screw with people. But I found this to be a good base. Especially if you’re good at pre-kiting.

The rare few times I was solo I also sometimes slotted hounds of balthazar just for the extra damage from burn.

Kardiamond.6952:

@Brando

I think I fought you once. When I came back on my necro.

I remember fighting a GF Necro. Well you killed my warrior friend from LD. You were low HP so I just jumped in with my power/blood necro and stomped you with plague stomp. (Nothing to be proud, you were already really low HP and were retreating)

I was on TS with the warrior and I just heard him say : Man a necro just instant dropped me What the h*ll.

Not sure what you did, but he didn’t like it. :P

I hope to fight you guys again.

Repping [STAR] now.

By the way, I never thought about using the dagger CD reduction for off hand dagger. Is it really worth it?

I can see why you took on dodge trait, and get the vampiric effect too. Would it be better if you went 20 in Reaping, for the 50% longer terror?

usually I am very effective against classes with lots of boons and very few condition removal skills ( warrior/guardians )

I actually do think that the dagger cooldown is nice to have since I can transfer conditions with dagger 4 every 14-15 seconds and blind them, and also with dagger 5 I can apply 10 sec of weakness to an area which has saved my life several times. (1k damage turns into 500 tickles lol )

as for the dodge trait I like it because of the extra bleed stacks I can apply but also the regen i get. with that and staff 2 I can have neat perma regen. which is why I went 20 deep into Blood magic for that added health and regen.

while I have tried the 20 in soul for the added terror duration it just didnt fit with my playstyle and the group playstyle..

Torqky.3682:

I don’t roam on my necro but i do havoc sometimes.

Not to derail as this is great info but …. what’s the difference between roaming and this “havoc” business?

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Torqky.3682:

I don’t roam on my necro but i do havoc sometimes.

Not to derail as this is great info but …. what’s the difference between roaming and this “havoc” business?

well there really isnt a difference.
roaming usually has very mobile classes (thief, ele) that will just look to pick off other roaming groups. most of the time they get in and out before you know what hit you.

Havoc teams or squads are build to cause damage and take some because most of the time they go and fight larger groups and cause distractions or prevent a group from helping the enemy zerg.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Torqky.3682:

I don’t roam on my necro but i do havoc sometimes.

Not to derail as this is great info but …. what’s the difference between roaming and this “havoc” business?

I believe when people say roaming they usually refere to going solo. Havoc squads are small groups who basically do the same, but can’t be taken out as easily. Also small group fights don’t show up on the map, so theoretically they can ninja-sneak their way into towers and keeps.

As far as my build is concerned, I don’t bother changing it because I use a staff build =awesome in every situation and group composition.

Roaming is generally running around solo killing people. Havoc groups are small groups that are going around being a pain-in-the-kitten to the enemy team. They are going to back cap supply camps, kill dolyaks, kill other groups, pester the zerg, and maybe even snipe some forts if they happen to have the supply and time to do so. They do also sometimes just run around killing people, but generally speaking a “havoc” group is going to support the server with their actions vastly more than a roamer, who can really only snipe one or two guys doing their corpse run back to the front.