Greetings fellow Necros!
It seems that most Necromancers I find myself in PUGs with are either straight condition builds OR glass cannon bursters. Personally, I could never build a glass cannon for ANY profession because, as they say, a corpse does no damage! I also wanted to separate my character from the typical scepter/dagger and staff condition builds that many run. So, as a dungeon and mid-to-high-level Fractal enthusiast, I’ve hopefully added a bit more survivability to the hybrid Necro (in keeping with the minimum desired armor rating of 2300 as prescribed by Sheobix).
Since rolling my Necromancer to L80 I’ve been doing a lot of build research as I wanted to create a more user-friendly hybrid. What I’ve come up with is based on Nemesis’ hybrid burst/condition build, but sacrifices some power in favor of toughness and (what I consider) pertinent sigils and runes.
So, without further ado:
Gear:
Keep in mind that this build incorporates Ascended trinkets and back piece, and I’ve included the amulet in these figures (I obviously don’t have it yet, but will be buying it once I accumulate enough laurels. Right now I have a Rabid exotic amulet with an Exquisite Coral Jewel). If you don’t have Ascended, you could substitute any combination of trinkets with Knight’s/Rampager’s/Rabid stats. I’d suggest enough Knight’s to keep your armor rating at least 2300.
Armor
Full Rampager’s set
3x Superior Rune of Lyssa (75 Precision, +10% Condition Duration)
3x Superior Rune of the Mad King (75 Power, +10% Condition Duration)
Weapons
Rampager’s Scepter (Superior Rune of Generosity)/Knight’s Dagger (Superior Rune of Battle)
Rampager’s Axe (Superior Rune of Generosity)/Knight’s Focus (Superior Rune of Battle)
Trinkets
Back – Tome of the Rubicon (Rabid)
Amulet – Hymn to the Prophets (Rabid)
Accessories – 2x Emerald Orichalcum Earring of the Knight
Rings – Khilbron’s Phylactery and Ouroboros Loop (both Rabid)
Traits
30 Spite, taking major traits II, X, and XII
30 Curses, taking major traits II, IX, and XII
10 Blood Magic, taking major trait I
Totals
Power 1753 > Attack 2718
Precision 2146 > 62% Critical Chance
Toughness 1404 > Armor 2324
Vitality 1016 > Health 19372
Condition Damage 976
Condition Duration 50% (70% for bleeds with Curses II trait)
Utility Skills
Of course they are situational, but I typically use Well of Suffering, Blood is Power, and Epidemic. Epidemic gets swapped out during boss fights, but it absolutely decimates hoards of trash mobs after stacking conditions on with weapon skills and other utilities. Plague for elite skill, as it grants stability, doubles power, quadruples toughness, and triples vitality for its duration.
For healing I tend to stick to Well of Blood so I can offer a tiny bit of support. If I know conditions will be a problem and the 10s cooldown on Sigil of Generosity won’t be fast enough I’ll use Consume Conditions.
Summary
This build is predicated on a few things:
1. No added vitality (except for 100 from trait line), taking advantage of the Necro’s large base health pool, as well as the Death Shroud and Plague abilities to extend life
2. Normal burst damage may leave a little to be desired, but with 62% base precision (plus another couple percent with consumables) you’ll be critting most of the time – nearly all the time if a party member gives you fury!
3. High Precision is also important to proc bleeds from Curses’ first minor trait and weakness from major trait XII, in addition to triggering our main-hand weapon sigil condition removal
4. No Critical Damage. Sorry, but couldn’t afford to add any and still achieve the goals of ~2300 toughness, ~1000 Condition damage, and as much power as possible. Ideally I’d give up some of this build’s Precision for Power or Critical Damage, but with the current gear stat combinations it just wasn’t possible.
Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by my Guardian (Rune of the Soldier-wearing, Altruistic Healing Shout build), but I’m really unimpressed by the Necro’s lack of access to condition removal (without having to wait on long cooldowns) and ability to heal. Perhaps that has everything to do with this build. Am I losing out on healing because I don’t use the Siphoning mechanic?
Anyway, since I’m new to this profession, I’ll appreciate any/all feedback on this build – as well as any suggestions/ideas for its improvement. Cheers!
(edited by destijl.3769)