Guild Wars 2

Ive been playing a necro since launch and have tried everything I could think of to make good necro builds.

The reality of it is that Necro builds are extremly restricted due to the fact that we dont have stability. Yes we have a trait for it but it requires such an investment in a weak trait line that its not worth it to take as it gimps the rest of the build for such a short duration and no break stun to go with it.

So where does that leave us?

Of all the builds the one that works best is MM necro.
Its an old build but the effectiveness of it remains even after the new skills that were added it chnges nothing.

So this is the build.
4/0/6/4/0 Dolyak runes/soldiers amulet
Axe/focus Bloodlust/Purity
staff Bloodlust/chilling

Skills:
Consume conditions
bone minions
shadow fiend
bone fiend
flesh golem

Traits:
Spite:
Spitefull spirit – Training of the master

Death:
Minion master – flesh of the master – Death nova

Blood:
Blood thirst – Vampiric Master

99% of the games played with this takes there whole team to come and kill it.
once that happens try to take as many of them with you as you can but even as tough as it is its likely that youll get downed.

The damage out put of this build is stupendus and not lacking in any way.
flesh golem can 1 hit kill dps classes thieves / rangers
shadow fiend haunt is used to break stun chains
and fear/bonefiend rigormortis used as an effective root to push someone off point and hold them there.

Im not gona go into detail on the finer points of how to play it but if you are frustrated/new/want more power on the field then give this a try.

Thks for the build info. Gonna try it out. Always wanted to try a MM build ^^

When shall I explode the bonefiends?

Cheers!

I highly suggest dropping either bone or shadow fiend for flesh wurm. DPS is right about the same, however the stun break is absolutely necessary for not dying against good opponents, and he enables the ability to roam which is also really important.

Being a Necro, the first thing I do when I walk into a undefended cap point is look for the flesh wurm, and if present; kill it. But we’re talking hotjoins here so…yeah flesh wurm is great. idiots stand right next to it thinking they got a free cap and then poof; there you are.

Lorelei.3918:

Being a Necro, the first thing I do when I walk into a undefended cap point is look for the flesh wurm, and if present; kill it. But we’re talking hotjoins here so…yeah flesh wurm is great. idiots stand right next to it thinking they got a free cap and then poof; there you are.

This is why you should always be looking at home as an MM. Flesh Wurm enables you to beat or tie (via dark path right after porting) anyone coming home if you are paying attention. But if you don’t people will just kill it.

Edgar.8063:

Thks for the build info. Gonna try it out. Always wanted to try a MM build ^^

When shall I explode the bonefiends?

Cheers!

Bone minions are good when you get CC’d to allow you to continue dealing damage.
Eles and any one trying to heal will get poisoned slowing that process, once that hapens they die as fast as anyone else.
When a player is downed with someone trying to heal him up it slows that down too.

Bhawb.7408:

I highly suggest dropping either bone or shadow fiend for flesh wurm. DPS is right about the same, however the stun break is absolutely necessary for not dying against good opponents, and he enables the ability to roam which is also really important.

Ive tried that and I found it to be a pain but it is viable.
If you decide to go with worm trade it in for the shadow fiend, they serve the same function to prevent stun chains weather you do it with shadow fiend blind or worm stun break.
I prefeer the fiend cause its damage doesnt get left behind when you need to extend a bit off point. It also annoys me to have to mess around with it when you need to move .

Shanos.2459:

Ive tried that and I found it to be a pain but it is viable.
If you decide to go with worm trade it in for the shadow fiend, they serve the same function to prevent stun chains weather you do it with shadow fiend blind or worm stun break.
I prefeer the fiend cause its damage doesnt get left behind when you need to extend a bit off point. It also annoys me to have to mess around with it when you need to move .

The issue is shadow fiend only blocks a single CC, and that’s if you get lucky on its timing (since it has a 1s animation), whereas Flesh Wurm not only can get you out of a bad situation fully, but actually allows you to do more than sit around twiddling your thumbs at home. Without flesh wurm you can’t press far or help mid, which is massively important as a side bunker.

I use a similar build on my Necro for Hotjoins, except that I used the Grandmaster Death trait that allows minions to strip boons on hit. With all 6 minions out, that’s a LOT of chances to strip boons, and it’s amazing how much more squishy enemies are without their boons. Mighted-up Warrior? Poof, no more Might. Guardian with Stability trying to stomp? Minions remove the Stability and you Fear them away. Coupled with the minions’ baseline damage and condition spam from myself, enemies usually can’t last very long.

On the downside, there is one hard counter to this build. Moa Morph. :P

You say “requires such an investment in a weak trait line” and tho I think FiG isnt worth it as a Grand Master, imho Soul Reaping is our most balanced and strong Traitline we have. The other issue I have with Minions is I really dont like to be depending on them, they ususally bugs out, die off to fast(cant be helped by Life Transfusion some).

Also both Vampiric Master and Training of the Master has bin nerfed in Feature Pack.. Death Nova is effective specially used with Bone Minions u dont wanna see the other minions die really. I like Powerbuilds however so keep them comming, dont wanna take the easy way out again and go Condi

Zaxares.5419:

I use a similar build on my Necro for Hotjoins, except that I used the Grandmaster Death trait that allows minions to strip boons on hit. With all 6 minions out, that’s a LOT of chances to strip boons, and it’s amazing how much more squishy enemies are without their boons. Mighted-up Warrior? Poof, no more Might. Guardian with Stability trying to stomp? Minions remove the Stability and you Fear them away. Coupled with the minions’ baseline damage and condition spam from myself, enemies usually can’t last very long.

On the downside, there is one hard counter to this build. Moa Morph. :P

Ive tried that too, it doesnt make a difference.
minions deal a tonn of damage and the only real boon you need to worry about is regen cause that slows down the rate at which you kill them.
I guess protection does too but at least with protection once you’ve done the damage you dont need to redo the damage. to counter this boon the axe applies vulnerability.
so with that said poison works against that regen so thats what you need.
also you get your minions on kill with death nova cause they bundles 2 traits together.

what classes would you need to have boon striping againt? (retorical question)
Elemental
we strip there boons but they just get reaplied almost instantly.
its not worth it when I could hit them with frozen/crippled/immobalised, and poisoned.
the fastest way to kill a elemental is to take away his mobility, once you do that thay nearly always go pop, or instantly try to leave the fight which isn’t as easy when your frozen/cripled/immobalised.

Guardian
Fastest way to kill a guardian is to poison him and then cc the cr*p outa him while your minions nibble at his toes.
he will likely try to For Great justice at about half or lower health(if hes shout speced) but by that time its too late for him. you just hit him with a charge and he keels over, usually.

those are the 2 classes in my opinion that you would think about removal on but it hardly seems worth it, its more of a novelty.

Ravezaar.4951:

You say “requires such an investment in a weak trait line” and tho I think FiG isnt worth it as a Grand Master, imho Soul Reaping is our most balanced and strong Traitline we have. The other issue I have with Minions is I really dont like to be depending on them, they ususally bugs out, die off to fast(cant be helped by Life Transfusion some).

Also both Vampiric Master and Training of the Master has bin nerfed in Feature Pack.. Death Nova is effective specially used with Bone Minions u dont wanna see the other minions die really. I like Powerbuilds however so keep them comming, dont wanna take the easy way out again and go Condi

I was thinking about listing out the traits and giving you my critique on them but that seems like something for another thread, I dont want to derail this so ill ask you a simple quetion.

If you were playing a Fear build and Master of Terror was a 2 point Trait instead of a 4 point, would you still invest 4 points into that line and if so what would you pick that would be better than even just the base atributes given by any other trait line let alone trait?

bhawb. on the shadow fiend I forgot to mention that its also usefull at preventing downed people from using there cc skill, makes the stomp easier.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW3djM00UbXN+1webidBRyWzmu4ymQG4FA-TJxGABAcFAy9hAwUZAO2fAA

I’ve been having a lot of success with this version of an mm especially effective on mid but you can hold home with it.

Shanos.2459:

bhawb. on the shadow fiend I forgot to mention that its also usefull at preventing downed people from using there cc skill, makes the stomp easier.

I don’t stomp, almost ever. Dagger 1 will refill my LF instead, meaning I enter every fight with 100% LF, and Death Nova’d Putrid Explosions + minion attacks guarantee that the target can’t get up if someone is healing them.

Hmm… I guess I could try swapping out the boon strip trait for Death Nova. (I run Death Nova all the time in PvE.) My worry was just that since PvP enemies are much more mobile and positionally aware than AI mobs, enemy players would just run out of the poison fields and I wouldn’t get much mileage out of the trait.

The trait deals direct damage, has a pretty severe ramping poison stack, plus bone minions self-combo off the field, and your minions will So you can very easily get 100% uptime of poison off the fields, and 50% uptime of weakness, in addition to the area denial, ability to deny enemy rezzing, and pretty harsh punishment to people mindlessly killing them.

So the damage boost from Death Nova stacks with the base damage from Putrid Explosion?

I was thinking about listing out the traits and giving you my critique on them but that seems like something for another thread, I dont want to derail this so ill ask you a simple quetion.

If you were playing a Fear build and Master of Terror was a 2 point Trait instead of a 4 point, would you still invest 4 points into that line and if so what would you pick that would be better than even just the base atributes given by any other trait line let alone trait?

No I would most likey not since Soul Reaping Traitline is mostly for power Builds wich I play to 95% since Iam bored with the cheeze Condi builds running all over the game after Feature Pack. So if u build a Terror Build (wich is Condi) then I would stop at 2pts.

Still would argue Soul Reaping as our best put together traitline

Zaxares.5419:

So the damage boost from Death Nova stacks with the base damage from Putrid Explosion?

No. It still activates any time a minion dies except by the activation of their skill.

The boon strip trait just doesn’t happen often enough in a real situation to make up for the loss of poison/weakness/direct damage of death nova. It needs some buffs, mainly by making it active instead of passive.

Bhawb.7408:

Shanos.2459:

bhawb. on the shadow fiend I forgot to mention that its also usefull at preventing downed people from using there cc skill, makes the stomp easier.

I don’t stomp, almost ever. Dagger 1 will refill my LF instead, meaning I enter every fight with 100% LF, and Death Nova’d Putrid Explosions + minion attacks guarantee that the target can’t get up if someone is healing them.

This is actually one.of the better tactics instead of stomping.

Also on MM a vampire power well build would win every time. When you minions surround me I drop wells and heal and damage they can do all while pounding the necro.
Verry effective and will poss of any MM build. I get a lot.of hate from MM cause of this

Then they don’t know how to play MM.

Yeah wells are so awesome in pvp people just stand right in then because they are so hard to notice and are so big and tick so fast…. they are pretty much op should probably be nerfed.

Doylak runes are worthless compared to Pack runes. 13 seconds of fury, swiftness and might every 20 seconds to all your minions.

I believe it speaks for itself

NeXeD.3042:

Yeah wells are so awesome in pvp people just stand right in then because they are so hard to notice and are so big and tick so fast…. they are pretty much op should probably be nerfed.

Much like MM so is.so advanced, you minions will.swarm me even without.you wanting.them to, and.we’ll will eat them up. Healing me in the.process, not to mention I can.force.people.off points and hold a point 1v2-3
Pull you in wells immobilize you in and and.watch you melt. And as a bonus.I don’t even have to be.in my well to get heal from it.

They are by no means op, but drastically under rated. Which in turn makes them devastating

alamore.1974:

Much like MM so is.so advanced, you minions will.swarm me even without.you wanting.them to, and.we’ll will eat them up. Healing me in the.process, not to mention I can.force.people.off points and hold a point 1v2-3
Pull you in wells immobilize you in and and.watch you melt. And as a bonus.I don’t even have to be.in my well to get heal from it.

They are by no means op, but drastically under rated. Which in turn makes them devastating

Have fun doing that through charge, wail of doom, doom, and multiple fears while perma poisoned and only dealing damage to flesh golem.

Power Necros are only annoying because they get LF from minion death as well, and if you have mostly melee minions. There is more than enough CC, weakness, poison, and other conditions to demolish a power necro.

I’m pretty sure even with the dumb minion ai I could still control them long enough to stay out of the giant red circles for 5 seconds. But if they do die I’m not totally helpless, my utilitys are on cool down but more than likely so are yours. The only real problems I ever have with minion build is perm stealth theives, but usually I can down them as well since minions keep attacking and I will win the downed state battle.

I would love to play against any MM build to show people how effective wells are.

Are you NA? I’d be happy to allow you to show off the superiorority of wells.

US west cost time, I’ll be on just after 7am for 20min or so. If you can’t make it I’ll update you the next time I can play. Spvp custom arena I’ll call it necro something,

Rain check… I have to work a double unless some one comes in

It’s Memorial day anyway I’ll be hammered in an hour.