Guild Wars 2

I took Hesacon’s advice (marauder/soldier mix, i added couple of Cavs) and Flow’s many posts on the thief thread (which I gleamed that I needed some sort of lifeforce generation and sustain) and tried a new build…I WON FOR THE FIRST TIME AS A NECRO since the past couple of patches!!!!

It was against a condi chrono…um…I think I was supposed to win? not sure but I won and it felt great.

Will any of the better necros have a look at my build and advise on how I could fine-tune it?

Many thanks!

Also something that has been troubling me is, if I use the blood magic line as a power necro and go with axe/war horn + staff, what am I supposed to choose in the minor trait line? I don’t use a dagger, I don’t cast bleed, and I don’t run with allies often =/

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNAnYWjc0Q5N2TDG3A/NOqFK4cGAzA9NmjyYuETxWA-TVSBQBLSJYWUe8gnAAAOBAdRJ2+2fIf6DSo6PR4QAEAAB4mtZbezAHdoDdoDdod0jezduzjGA-w

Could always add reaper runes and go with deathly trait as a alternative so you can get that signet to proc, but thats my 2cents

Jskiirawr.2473:

Could always add reaper runes and go with deathly trait as a alternative so you can get that signet to proc, but thats my 2cents

sorry but could you explain further? I’m a little lost on what you meant.

He’s suggesting that you run the reaper trait line, it has a trait that causes all chills you apply to also apply bleeds. Along with that he’s also saying to run reaper runes which causes shouts to apply chill. This requires you to be running shouts for your utilities though, which requires the reaper specialization. If you are unwilling to take those, then the bleed from staff 2 should be enough, you also have mark of evasion in blood for some bleeds while you’re not on staff, and the possibility of corrupting a boon into bleed.

First of all, regarding your questions in the other thread, I haven’t seen all your videos but your Shroud timing seems to be pretty good and that alone makes you a decent necro.
I sometimes feel like you could use your skills more in response to what your opponents are doing, so it feels a bit spammy sometimes and there’s definitely some room for improvement.

As for my personal build, it’s not a secret at all. I’ve had a build thread on this forum for more than 3 years (it’s not really up to date except for the build calculator links) and most of the time I’m still using that build today. This would be the current WvW version.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Also something that has been troubling me is, if I use the blood magic line as a power necro and go with axe/war horn + staff, what am I supposed to choose in the minor trait line? I don’t use a dagger, I don’t cast bleed, and I don’t run with allies often =/

You have Mark of Blood, Mark of Evasion and you could corrupt vigor into bleeding, so Blood Bond is still a good choice here.
Other than that, if you don’t fight in groups I highly recommend Banshee’s Wail over VP when you’re using a warhorn. Personally, I don’t use VP in WvW at all, because the only times it would make a considerable difference (in zergs) there usually are several other necros sharing vamp aura anyway.
The only other thing I would change is sigil of force and Close to Death. I know it’s tempting to stack dmg mods when you’re running a power build, but I think you’d net better results with Spiteful Spirit and another crit or swap sigil in matchups you’re struggling with.

Flow I’m curious what server you run on?

I’ve never liked blood magic as a general rule, and even less so in a 1v1 situation. If you’re going to use it, you might consider well of corruption as a utility, as that’s one of the best ways to shut down many builds. Corrupting stability turns it into fear.

Your crit rate is pretty low, especially considering your choice of sigils. You might consider going knight’s over cavalier’s if you still want the toughness, or just having a berserker’s to switch to if you feel your DPS is low.

Lately I’ve been running this with a lot of luck:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRUQNAndWjc0Oaqst2WTbsRSb4v93OqFK6YMHVrcIG7AGmABwMA-TlDFQBN4IAQgHAg70gwu9HUiSt0oLQhKJajWABcICSiyA9p+TJ0QgFlgA4EIEAABwQH6QH6QHa38mH9mD9mFCo8WA-w

With the axe buff this (for me) went from good to great.

saerni.2584:

Flow I’m curious what server you run on?

Kodash

I run reaper, spite and blood. I run a 95% time as reaper. With 30k health it means lots of health. But I don’t 1v1 in every always small party. Using lots of chill to boost bleeding is a big help. As you are giving bleed and vulnerability. Cc can clear things out but you constantly apply it just means a constant roll over.
I found I run a modified version of Brazil’s build. Found his after mine. It’s a YouTube video just look up Brazil’s max dps necromancernot saying run his build saying look at different builds to compare. Find what skills etc causing issues and adjust.

For me no axe ever. Auto attack on axe takes 1sec. Dagger has no timer. It works out to 3-4 hits a second. I run similar to you but different enough I won’t veer off with my build so just offer suggestions

I think your build is generally fine; I’m a big proponent of playing whatever you want and making it work, and I’m decently known for doing such shenanigans, so I don’t really want to say you should change X, Y, and Z since that will change the “identity” of the build you’ve created. My only points of contention would be Spiteful Renewal and your crit chance being a little low. I like to shoot for 40% in general, and Spiteful Renewal doesn’t have great uptime or consistency, although without running Focus you have both marginal Chill uptime and no use for Spiteful Talisman, so it’s an understandable pick. You could probably trade off some of that extra Vitality for some more Precision, maybe even a touch more Power, but it’s all up to you.

As you yourself have stated you finally found out through the insights of someone else, a major component to Necro success is making sure that you have suitable methods of generating Life Force, creating sustain for yourself, or both. A lot of my builds utilize traits like Parasitic Contagion, Master of Corruptions, and Blighter’s Boon because you need to be capable of filling those gaps. A “bad” build can even be made reasonably good by taking some of these traits over others, even if it feels incorrect or simply wrong. A big thing about Necromancer performance, in my opinion, is understanding exactly what your build falls flat to. Necromancer’s might honestly have the greatest number of useful/viable traits and utilities in the game, but that’s because in general there are no catch-alls on our class, and you have to actively decide what you need for the job. We have Spectral Armor as a good catch-all, but that’s mostly it; everything else has drawbacks of some sort. Understand your good and bad matchups and where you are weakest at a given moment, and learn to be flexible.

flow.6043:

First of all, regarding your questions in the other thread, I haven’t seen all your videos but your Shroud timing seems to be pretty good and that alone makes you a decent necro.
I sometimes feel like you could use your skills more in response to what your opponents are doing, so it feels a bit spammy sometimes and there’s definitely some room for improvement.

As for my personal build, it’s not a secret at all. I’ve had a build thread on this forum for more than 3 years (it’s not really up to date except for the build calculator links) and most of the time I’m still using that build today. This would be the current WvW version.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Also something that has been troubling me is, if I use the blood magic line as a power necro and go with axe/war horn + staff, what am I supposed to choose in the minor trait line? I don’t use a dagger, I don’t cast bleed, and I don’t run with allies often =/

You have Mark of Blood, Mark of Evasion and you could corrupt vigor into bleeding, so Blood Bond is still a good choice here.
Other than that, if you don’t fight in groups I highly recommend Banshee’s Wail over VP when you’re using a warhorn. Personally, I don’t use VP in WvW at all, because the only times it would make a considerable difference (in zergs) there usually are several other necros sharing vamp aura anyway.
The only other thing I would change is sigil of force and Close to Death. I know it’s tempting to stack dmg mods when you’re running a power build, but I think you’d net better results with Spiteful Spirit and another crit or swap sigil in matchups you’re struggling with.

I’m curious about your build and playstyle – do you struggle against stun heavy opponents with only one stun break in your build?

Sephylon.4938:

He’s suggesting that you run the reaper trait line, it has a trait that causes all chills you apply to also apply bleeds. Along with that he’s also saying to run reaper runes which causes shouts to apply chill. This requires you to be running shouts for your utilities though, which requires the reaper specialization. If you are unwilling to take those, then the bleed from staff 2 should be enough, you also have mark of evasion in blood for some bleeds while you’re not on staff, and the possibility of corrupting a boon into bleed.

i see i see. thanks!

Hesacon.8735:

I’ve never liked blood magic as a general rule, and even less so in a 1v1 situation. If you’re going to use it, you might consider well of corruption as a utility, as that’s one of the best ways to shut down many builds. Corrupting stability turns it into fear.

Your crit rate is pretty low, especially considering your choice of sigils. You might consider going knight’s over cavalier’s if you still want the toughness, or just having a berserker’s to switch to if you feel your DPS is low.

Lately I’ve been running this with a lot of luck:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRUQNAndWjc0Oaqst2WTbsRSb4v93OqFK6YMHVrcIG7AGmABwMA-TlDFQBN4IAQgHAg70gwu9HUiSt0oLQhKJajWABcICSiyA9p+TJ0QgFlgA4EIEAABwQH6QH6QHa38mH9mD9mFCo8WA-w

With the axe buff this (for me) went from good to great.

hmm you are missing one utility skill in your build!

Also do you struggle against condi opponents with only one transfer and shrouded removal and healing?

Also is it worth using one utlity for the speed signet without the signet trait?

Also, like Flow, you got at most one stun break on your missing utility slot…do you struggle against stun heavy opponents?

lady godiva pet.9530:

I run reaper, spite and blood. I run a 95% time as reaper. With 30k health it means lots of health. But I don’t 1v1 in every always small party. Using lots of chill to boost bleeding is a big help. As you are giving bleed and vulnerability. Cc can clear things out but you constantly apply it just means a constant roll over.
I found I run a modified version of Brazil’s build. Found his after mine. It’s a YouTube video just look up Brazil’s max dps necromancernot saying run his build saying look at different builds to compare. Find what skills etc causing issues and adjust.

For me no axe ever. Auto attack on axe takes 1sec. Dagger has no timer. It works out to 3-4 hits a second. I run similar to you but different enough I won’t veer off with my build so just offer suggestions

i see thank you. I’ve never had much luck with dagger main hand though. I cant seem to get the hang of it =/

Zero Solstice.9754:

I think your build is generally fine; I’m a big proponent of playing whatever you want and making it work, and I’m decently known for doing such shenanigans, so I don’t really want to say you should change X, Y, and Z since that will change the “identity” of the build you’ve created. My only points of contention would be Spiteful Renewal and your crit chance being a little low. I like to shoot for 40% in general, and Spiteful Renewal doesn’t have great uptime or consistency, although without running Focus you have both marginal Chill uptime and no use for Spiteful Talisman, so it’s an understandable pick. You could probably trade off some of that extra Vitality for some more Precision, maybe even a touch more Power, but it’s all up to you.

As you yourself have stated you finally found out through the insights of someone else, a major component to Necro success is making sure that you have suitable methods of generating Life Force, creating sustain for yourself, or both. A lot of my builds utilize traits like Parasitic Contagion, Master of Corruptions, and Blighter’s Boon because you need to be capable of filling those gaps. A “bad” build can even be made reasonably good by taking some of these traits over others, even if it feels incorrect or simply wrong. A big thing about Necromancer performance, in my opinion, is understanding exactly what your build falls flat to. Necromancer’s might honestly have the greatest number of useful/viable traits and utilities in the game, but that’s because in general there are no catch-alls on our class, and you have to actively decide what you need for the job. We have Spectral Armor as a good catch-all, but that’s mostly it; everything else has drawbacks of some sort. Understand your good and bad matchups and where you are weakest at a given moment, and learn to be flexible.

hmmmmmm a lot of things i need to think through and digest from your post. especially the 2nd half of it! but yes the first half got me trying out more crit chance!

EremiteAngel.9765:

I’m curious about your build and playstyle – do you struggle against stun heavy opponents with only one stun break in your build?

Not more than any other necro build.
Of course there will be situations where I could avoid damage if I had more stunbreaks, but all of my utility skills primarily serve a defensive purpose. I might change them up sometimes depending on the opponent, but CB/WoC/WoP is my default setup, because for me they provide the best mix of defense and utility overall. Besides, counter pressure is an important defensive tool for almost every necro build.
So you might think that Corrupt Boon or WoC are a rather aggressive choice compared to more stunbreaks, but corrupting certain boons at the right times (stab, might, quickness…) can make a much bigger difference. Also, WoC generates a lot of life force and when traited gives protection and heals for up to ~5k hp.

If u prefer the DS Necro over Reaper i would recommened to change a few traits:

1. Bloodmagic:
   ‘Blood Bond’(solo rooming) instead of ‘Quickening First’ (cause u dont use dagger)
   ’Banshee’s Wail’(solo rooming) over ‘Vampiric Presence’ when using Warhorn offhand
   —> u are able to replace ‘spectral walk’ … for example with with ‘Plague Signet’
2. Soul Reaping:
   replace ‘Vital Persistence’ with ‘Spectral Mastery’
   —> DS attack speed is very slow and skill #4 could be interrupted easily … thats why u wont stay long time in DS and ‘VP’ isnt that usefull for
   —> ‘Spectral Mastery’ reduces cd on ‘Spectral Walk’ and furthermore gives u 12 seconds instead of 8 to teleport back to your last position
3. Replayce well of Power with either Spectral armor/Well of Corruption/Well of Suffering
4. Use other Runes granting more Power like ‘ogre’, ‘pack’, ‘privateer’, ‘scrapper’, ‘strength’, or even ‘warrior’, ‘wurm’ or ‘Sancturary’ … you wont need the expensive ones to play well

Another option of your build is to use the Signet Trait of Spite.

1. Synergy with ‘Blood Bond’ and ‘Plague Signet’ or ‘Signet of the Locus’ (Rooming/fighting small groups)
2. ‘Signet of the Locus’ when playing with Focus/Dagger offhand for more movementspeed

I managed to kill a guardian at the back of a zerg by putting marks on it and slowing it down enough for it to lose touch with the zerg. Instead of fighting back, it just kept trying to go back to it’s friends. What a noob! PWNT! #OPNecro!!

flow.6043:

First of all, regarding your questions in the other thread, I haven’t seen all your videos but your Shroud timing seems to be pretty good and that alone makes you a decent necro.
I sometimes feel like you could use your skills more in response to what your opponents are doing, so it feels a bit spammy sometimes and there’s definitely some room for improvement.

As for my personal build, it’s not a secret at all. I’ve had a build thread on this forum for more than 3 years (it’s not really up to date except for the build calculator links) and most of the time I’m still using that build today. This would be the current WvW version.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Also something that has been troubling me is, if I use the blood magic line as a power necro and go with axe/war horn + staff, what am I supposed to choose in the minor trait line? I don’t use a dagger, I don’t cast bleed, and I don’t run with allies often =/

You have Mark of Blood, Mark of Evasion and you could corrupt vigor into bleeding, so Blood Bond is still a good choice here.
Other than that, if you don’t fight in groups I highly recommend Banshee’s Wail over VP when you’re using a warhorn. Personally, I don’t use VP in WvW at all, because the only times it would make a considerable difference (in zergs) there usually are several other necros sharing vamp aura anyway.
The only other thing I would change is sigil of force and Close to Death. I know it’s tempting to stack dmg mods when you’re running a power build, but I think you’d net better results with Spiteful Spirit and another crit or swap sigil in matchups you’re struggling with.

About the wvw build. how much dmg do you do with axe#2 ish?

Let’s say against a veteran guard npc, I’d expect to land somewhere between 3-7k depending on crits, might, vuln etc.