Guild Wars 2

Power build and mostly wpvp with some pve leveling.

Do you suggest I use the staff or scepter as my ranged options.

Does either get anything from my dagger power build?

Staff seems to miss so much in wpvp with the slow projection time and wells are only ok in chokepoints. But it does have better range and I don’t see power helping scepter

Let me know, thanks

For tower defense, I use the staff. I especially like dropping 2, 3 & 4 on a group of rezzers and then 5 for the ones that stick around.

Staff is also handy for taking out cannons and oil as well as dropping your marks on the walls during a siege.

I don’t use scepter much at all. For WvW it’s a staff and dagger/dagger, though I’m going to try out the dagger/focus combo.

I recommend staff too. Lots of regeneration, long range slow, great condition cleanse, better at building life force than scepter. Just make sure you take the Greater Marks trait for wpvp.

I’m currently using dagger/focus power build with staff offhand. Also saving for an axe to go with my warhorn for a “getaway” offset which could be fun.

ok thanks.. So will go staff.

regarding off hand, I like both the dagger and the focus, but found the focus to be better for the #5 chill in pvp.

Staff probably.

Staff is extremely lackluster without Greater Marks, but Scepter is a medium-range condition based weapon that benefits almost nothing from power and requires good condition damage to be worth using.

You already got melee/close range covered with dagger/focus, and a non-condition build scepter will offer you very little there, so might as well go for a long range weapon, to just use when needed. Staff will be very lackluster compared to a Greater Marks + Condition damage one, but still brings a lot of utility to the table. The Auto-attack is crap at hitting moving targets, but it’ll let you snipe stationary ones (important for sieges and such), and you get a nice chill+poison, regen, fear and condition removal tools. Necro doesn’t really have any other long range options, to be fair…

You could maybe consider Axe + Warhorn…? For retaliation + swiftness and cripple from from warhorn…. Would let you fight somewhat at midrange, then trigger the swiftness + cripple and switch to dagger set.

So I got my axe today and had a blast in WvW, (I’m not sure were all these people saying “axe is terrible, needs buff” are getting it from, maybe they never fully specced & geared for a power build) first time I picked it up again since low levels.
Combined with a Warhorn it’s the perfect offset for roaming with a small group or solo. I swap to my staff instead of that when I want bloodlust stacks or in a larger group/keep defending.

i think people just find dagger to be more effective. dagger 1 outputs more damage faster than axe 1. and i only get about 500-1k difference with axe 2 comapred to dagger 2

trust me, ive ran the axe as a necro for a good 4-5 months before ever putting it down for a dagger. Ran wvw, pve , and spvp with it, only recently the last 2 weeks did i drop the axe for a dagger.

I am about to try a dagger/warhorn and axe/focus setup again tho. I think i can deal out some decent burst for a necro with that setup

edit:
yeah tried the axe/focus and dagger/focus combo not viable. i’ll stick to axe/focus or dager/focus + staff

unfortunately axe really isn’t that Good (Even though i Love it’s playstyle). However A2 Deals about the Same dmg as D2 but has a lower Channel Time -> more dps, but it’s still outDPSed (is that a Word?) by the dagger autoattack.

scepter is actually a better power weapon than axe. the autoattack can crit for 800 (normal Hits) to over 1k (Last Hit) plus applies bleeds (50-60 per Tick without cond) and poison to Take Down heals. S2 is mich like A3 but targetable and Bleed instead of retal. S3 is actually pretty Good. with a few conditions on your victim this can crit for 3k+ and give you lf per conditions. add a Focus and you will see huge lf-gen. and all of that at a Range of 900.

staff is our Standard weapon. AA crits for 1200+, Regen, chill, aoe weakness, Transfer all of your and your allies conditions to a target + Good DD and an aoe fear to Top it Off. what’s not to love? and try greater marks (and maybe Soul marks)

Edit: scepter is a worse weapon than axe if you’re in a conditions heavy team/large Events. you would just Remove the stronger bleeds with you small ones and vuln would amplify everyones dmg. but you still got your staff, dagger or ds for These scenarios

Vex.7486:

So I got my axe today and had a blast in WvW, (I’m not sure were all these people saying “axe is terrible, needs buff” are getting it from, maybe they never fully specced & geared for a power build) first time I picked it up again since low levels.
Combined with a Warhorn it’s the perfect offset for roaming with a small group or solo. I swap to my staff instead of that when I want bloodlust stacks or in a larger group/keep defending.

Most people hate axe because of its horrible low damage #1 skill. The #2 skill on axe is very powerful, and few people complain about it or the #3 skill, which are both great. The problem is that people want to main axe, and you can’t main a weapon that has a horrible #1 attack (like you can say main sceptor).

If you are within 600 range, you may as well be in melee range for all intensive purposes, and then your dagger chain is far superior for LF generation and damage. That is why people don’t like axe.

Also a small disadvantage, but you can channel Dagger 2 while running away from a target (as long as you start facing the target to cast), while Axe 2 will cancel if the target gets out of your 180 degree frontal area. In melee skirmishes, if someone dodge rolls to your side, it cancels, or if you have to turn to run. Of course most people hate dagger 2 as well because of its horrible low damage compared to the dagger 1 chain, and requirement for the target to not dodge roll/block/stun them.

Unless you want to specialise yourself in single target for some reason, I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t take staff.

Also, I love how people have proven since the first month after release that, even in a power build, scepter is our second most damaging single target weapon (after dagger). Yet 5 months after release, we still get to read all these awesome ‘Scepter on a power necro, you noob bro?’-opinions… At the same time, we can also enjoy the flood of ‘bug this, bug that… Anet you so slow, fix it already’-topics. Hooray!

Arvid.3829:

Unless you want to specialise yourself in single target for some reason, I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t take staff.

Also, I love how people have proven since the first month after release that, even in a power build, scepter is our second most damaging single target weapon (after dagger). Yet 5 months after release, we still get to read all these awesome ‘Scepter on a power necro, you noob bro?’-opinions… At the same time, we can also enjoy the flood of ‘bug this, bug that… Anet you so slow, fix it already’-topics. Hooray!

Lot’s of people bought/received the game during Christmas. ANet has stated that number of players has actually been increasing lately.