Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow necromancers. I’m an ex-wow player looking for someone familiar with WoW classes or someone who can help me anyway.

I’d like to play a demonology warlock – Which results a death shroud/pet build (This should be clear for people who never played wow too I geuss)

I’m not really good or horrible at the game, but I prefer control/damage hybrid build if it is possible. I prefer doing damage and having some toughness too if possible. I’m going with “Flesh Golem” all the time and I’d like a secundairy pet too.

Thanks in advance! – Joep Hakkers.

I don’t think what your looking for is really viable…. Or its not going to be optimal and you may struggle in some content… I would go with the bone minions or wurm as your secondary pet though. Also minions are in a horrible place right now… Ai is very broken.

PvE, WvW or PvP?

First of all, ive never played wow. So my pov is from gw2 only.

About a build
For traits check which traits benefit ds/minions. So Soul Reaping and Death Magic. Two more traits are +30% minion power in the spite line and minion hp siphon from Blood Magic. Soul Reaping line gives critical damage, so your build probably should be a power type build (most effective dmg wise for power builds are armors/weaps with power/precision/critical damage). From death magic you get toughness and boon duration. That is actually good, since necromancers have high hp.

Some pointers i want to write down. Life Force scales with hp, so the more vitality you have, the more life force you get. Life Blast (auto attack in ds) hits harder if you have a 2-hand weap equipped (like staff) becauses it uses the stats of a 2-hand weap instead of an 1-hand. And as you cannot lose hp while on deathshroud, you also cannot gain any, so keep in mind that any regen/siphons arent effective while on ds.
A build i just made based on your preference, you can switch the berserker armor for more defensive stats (like power-toughness-vitality) if you have problems surviving.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQEQNAndWjMax7tbaa87JEpHRD18LQFePqHrD68hA-jkyAYrAi5gIMg0HIqAQyrIasthioxqWwUlER1ejioVHEQoA-w

some tips
For Pve (dungeons and events) its better to focus on damage, since surviving is relatively easy. Minions aren’t that good in pve. In my opinion control/dmg hybrid isnt compatible with pet build and needs condition damage/duration to work. Imo a power type build with some control would be a power/well necromancer. I’m guessing you are still leveling or just hit 80, so i would suggest to get some rare gear, run some dungeons with guildies, get gold, and buy armor. Also read the stickied thread about pve guide and i suggest the youtube videos of ’’iamoneandiamlegion’’ to get you into the necromancer way-to-play for any type of build/situation.
About pvp, the gear is free so you can try any combination you like:) Minionmancer is very effective at the moment (also brainless). The build i posted could maybe be effective in WvW with some trait swapping and some more defensive stats..i dont do wvw much so dont take my word for it:P

PS: Flesh golem works with any build !

For PvE DS + Minions work pretty well actually, due to the fact that you cant use any other utility skills when in DS. Flesh Wurm is similar to Demonic Portal (?) for warlocks, Shadow Fiend is tanky like your Voidwalker (on use skill helps DS maintainence) and Flesh Golem is a boss like the Dreadwalker. For Minions to work well, you really should slot Minion Master while Flesh of the Master is also very helpful, and DS works well with Vital Persistence while both Unyielding Blast and Deathly Precision are helpful. If you are talking about PvP however, the two doesn’t work really well for the reasons other people gave above. Hope it helps.

Also above where someone stated you can’t lose or gain health while in ds that is so wrong. You cannot gain hp in ds but you can definetely lose it.

Just my two cents with a quick build that should suit your needs. Hybrid damage isn’t very good in my opinion, as it requires too many stats at once and forces you to sacrifice too much.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndWjMap7Vama07JEJFRD1Ap49qFqHrD68hA-jgCBYLCiEEgkIQEBApqasJPCR1WFRjVtATViIq2boIa1yAkvFA-e

Skills: flesh golem, and bone minions as secondary pets. Why them ? They provide blast finishers to trigger area might on fire fields, and necros don’t really have access to those besides these minions.

Traits: in spite, the first trait gives you might with Life Blast, and the second trait is up to you. Either Axe training or Training of the Master (though with only two pets it might be a little bit wasted in my opinion). In Death Magic, your minions gets lower cooldowns and more health. This traitline also gives you your wanted toughness. In Soulreaping, Life Blast is further buffed with the first trait, the second one is whatever you want, and the last one gives you +50% crit chance while in DS, which is simply awesome. With the gear, you’ll have over 90% crit chance.

Gear: Berserker everywhere, except a few piece of Cavalier armor for added Toughness. If you feel you already have enough, just replace them with Berserker pieces. The rune I put in the slots was for the toughness again, but you’re free to change it with scholar runes or their cheaper alternative, ruby orbs (though I would not advise those, as they give precision and the 30pts in Soulreaping already gives you enough crit chance).

Hope it helps!

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all the responses and tried to create builds myself meanwhile, tested some of yours too. It was for PvP mainly, should have said that at the start ^^.

Although, not the most useful combination indeed due poor minion control (well atleast for me) and it’s hard to maintain DPS/survival in such a build/combo. Killing is pretty easy in death shroud and going into defense mode wasn’t hard aswell although it requires things off-cooldown and full life force to start bursting.

I’m going to try some new builds myself now too and check some on websites – Anyway thanks for the responses and had some fun trying these builds out 1 by 1. Not a really bad spell/ability combinations but surely not one of the worst.

Thanks ^^. – Joep Hakkers