Guild Wars 2

Hey,

I have recently leveled my necro to 80 and get into some 2v1 battles. The problem I am having at the moment is trying to stomp people without taking too much damage.

Is there an ability or special thing I can do in order to make this happen?

Currently the only safest options for stomping is to either use Stomp then Plague or have 30 points in Soul Reaping and jump in and out of DS for Stability.

Only a matter of time before Plague stomping is nurfed though, ANet love to nurf all possible stomp methods for Necromancer whilst leaving alllll the other abusable ones (Elixir S, Mist Form, Stealth etc) in the game.

Don’t even bother to stomp people.

Ezeriel.9574:

Don’t even bother to stomp people.

Pretty much this, ill get off my Plague stomp for the match and then tend to use downed bodies as free targets to stack conditions on and Epidemic.

Ezeriel.9574:

Don’t even bother to stomp people.

Sadly this really is true most of the time. Attempting a stomp mid fight is a huge risk for a necro.
Also shroud and plague stomping… meh. People who use foot in the grave are a minority among necros. And plague, burning a 3min cd elite just to stomp someone doesn’t sound like a good trade off, better use lich and out-damage everyone.

This is perhaps the greatest reason, even beyond our bad deception and mobility, that we might be the worst profession at taking on multiple opponents. No safe stomps easy to get. And if you are condition your dps also goes to crap on downed opponents since you can’t use 1/2 your attacks (marks do nothing).

I’ve gotten many enemies downed while low on health only to have them pull off miraculous rallies due to this its not even funny. Then of course our own downed state is one of the easiest to finish off. Great balance by Anet.

Pendragon.8735:

This is perhaps the greatest reason, even beyond our bad deception and mobility, that we might be the worst profession at taking on multiple opponents. No safe stomps easy to get. And if you are condition your dps also goes to crap on downed opponents since you can’t use 1/2 your attacks (marks do nothing).

True, true, true.

1. Stability through elites or DS via Foot in the Grave
2. Blind through Well of Darkness or Deathly Swarm
3. Reaper’s Mark on the downed opponent to delay revivals

That’s really it. I either run power/wells or condition so if I’m 1v2 I’ll usually try and drop well of suffering on the downed target while I keep pressure/CC the standing target to prevent him from reviving. If I’m conditions I’ll use Blood is Power > Deathly Swarm > Enfeebling Blood > DS#2 > Epidemic to help bleed out the other target.

In 2v1 it’s rarely ideal to stomp, because going for the stomp means opening yourself up to the second person to attack you.

The better option is to use your PBAoE’s to deal consistent enough damage to the downed player to prevent them from reviving themselves, and pressuring the second player to either try and res his ally (opening himself up to be attacked by you) or to flee once you get the higher ground.

If you’re able to dance in and out of the downed players Downed State attack range then even better because it’ll mean he’s out of the fight as long as you can land a single attack every few seconds to interrupt his self-heal skill.

I’d also argue that keeping a player in the downed state is usually more beneficial unless he’s on a cap point because it keeps him out of the fight longer.

Well of darkness works on most enemies. Either use that or just finish them off with regular attacks. Or DS stability.

2v1 as a necro you should rarely attempt a stomp. Generally it is best to keep the downed player “bleeding out”. This way if you are subsequently downed you will have a better chance to rally by finishing him from your downed state.

That said, Shroud stomping (even if you don’t have stability) is generally a good idea when you are trying to stomp because it soaks the damage you take whilst stomping. While you can plague stomp it is usually a waste of elite, so I discourage it. Many people overlook the utility of Dagger 4 when stomping, but it is a great tool to use. If you carry a damaging well on your bar it is also wise to drop it on downed characters that lack movement abilities or have used them. This slows rezzes dramatically and punishes those attempting to rez. Bottom line is that stomping is not something necros are really good at, so try to make the most of the tools that you have and if you have a teammate around with better stomp ability, then let them handle it.

Ratphink.4751:

In 2v1 it’s rarely ideal to stomp, because going for the stomp means opening yourself up to the second person to attack you.

The better option is to use your PBAoE’s to deal consistent enough damage to the downed player to prevent them from reviving themselves, and pressuring the second player to either try and res his ally (opening himself up to be attacked by you) or to flee once you get the higher ground.

If you’re able to dance in and out of the downed players Downed State attack range then even better because it’ll mean he’s out of the fight as long as you can land a single attack every few seconds to interrupt his self-heal skill.

I’d also argue that keeping a player in the downed state is usually more beneficial unless he’s on a cap point because it keeps him out of the fight longer.

Having 3 ppl lying around a node with 2-3 bleeds keeping them perma downed… I’d say its a lot more useful then letting them res :P Granted smart people will stop struggling but… well… no shortage of people who will keep on trying.

Ususally if there’s more than one enemy, I just try to either daze the others then quickly stomp or Chill+Fear them with staff, then quickly stomp…
If not, just wait until the enemies cluster around the dying enemy and throw marks and dmg them all to hell :P

Bunzy.8674:

Hey,

I have recently leveled my necro to 80 and get into some 2v1 battles. The problem I am having at the moment is trying to stomp people without taking too much damage.

Is there an ability or special thing I can do in order to make this happen?

It’s incredibly difficult to do as a condition necro. You can fear mark revivers, or go DS/fear to disrupt a single reviver. Condition necros aren’t going to typically have DS stability, well of darkness, warhorn daze, etc.

Power necro has some better tools available but is still quite lacking in this department.

Bleeding them out doesn’t really work with multiple revivers. I’ve started to just give up on stomping completely. I’ve been poisoning the downed and just loading up the reviver with conditions. If they get the revive off then I epidemic and see if I can get them both downed at the same time.

It’s worked a few times, but I just don’t think necro is a top tier soloing class because of this one issue. It’s a very good duo/trio class if you team up with someone with solid stomp mechanics.

Oozo.7856:

Bunzy.8674:

Hey,

I have recently leveled my necro to 80 and get into some 2v1 battles. The problem I am having at the moment is trying to stomp people without taking too much damage.

Is there an ability or special thing I can do in order to make this happen?

It’s incredibly difficult to do as a condition necro. You can fear mark revivers, or go DS/fear to disrupt a single reviver. Condition necros aren’t going to typically have DS stability, well of darkness, warhorn daze, etc.

Power necro has some better tools available but is still quite lacking in this department.

Bleeding them out doesn’t really work with multiple revivers. I’ve started to just give up on stomping completely. I’ve been poisoning the downed and just loading up the reviver with conditions. If they get the revive off then I epidemic and see if I can get them both downed at the same time.

It’s worked a few times, but I just don’t think necro is a top tier soloing class because of this one issue. It’s a very good duo/trio class if you team up with someone with solid stomp mechanics.

I play terror condition spec in spvp. I always take well of darkness. And it really is amazing at allowing you to stomp. Not to mention in a 1v2 if you dont stomp, the 2nd guy will res his teammate if he has half a brain. Which will cause you to lose unless you succeed in stomping.

Also worthy of note is that you can corrupt boon stability into fear against rezzers who try that. Can easily turn your opponent’s stability rez into a fear combo with corrupt boon > reapers mark > doom, then cripple them now that they’re further away from their downed team mate to buy some more time.

For my power necro in sPVP most of the time I just wail on the downed party with the dagger auto attack to build up lifeforce. In WvW I use downed players as bait to stack bleeds and use epidemic.

Though in 2 vs 1 there are very few things you can do to truly “stomp safely”. Here are some suggestions to help out:

#1: Use bone fiend and/or dagger #3 to immobilize the second player while you stomp the first.

#2: Use Well of Darkness to make half of your opponent’s attacks miss.

#3: Use that opportunity to do something like stack swarm of locust, well of suffering, and bone minion’s putrid explosion while downing. Often times the second player will try to run in and combo you while you stomp, but bone minions can be detonated without interrupting a stomp. It can do a surprising amount of back damage.

#4: Use Flesh Golem’s charge and/or the warhorn’s daze to stun a target for a large amount of time.

#5: Place a bunch of marks on the downed player. The marks won’t trigger until the second player runs in and activates all them.

And unfortunately those are our best options. Though to be fair, well of darkness is pretty good.

Warrior: Can quick stomp and has lots of stability
Guardian: Has lots of stability
Theif: Can Quick stomp and stealth stomp.
Ranger: Can quick stomp multiple times. Has stability via non-transform elite.
Engineer: Elixier S stomp + stability
Mesmer: Stealth stomp and quick stomp but not as good as theif (long cds)
Elementalist: Mist stomp and stability.

Necro: Shroud stomp + stability (with 30 point trait in a not so wonderful tree)

Our problem is that stability with Shroud isn’t inherent or at least more accesible. All the ‘slow stomping’ classes (Guardian, Engineer, Ele) have loads of stability. We don’t. in fact we have some of the worst stability access in the game and our enemies know it. When they see you are a necro you can expect to get chain knocked around. Especially now since certain Anet changes have resulted in a proliferation of Hammer Guards/Wars. Against competent WvW teams you will spend entire fights on your back from the Ele/Guard team up. Necro/Guard is good too but Ele brings their own stability, in addition to the guards as well as better survivability too.

Learn to shroud stomp. It takes practice, but try to do it everytime you stomp. I use foot in the grave and its a godsend to have stability on a 10 sec cd