Guild Wars 2

I’ve read that D/D is a common weapon set for necros, and I definitely love a dagger in the main hand, but I’m wondering if the D/F combo isn’t even better. I know the off-hand dagger provides a bleed and blindness, and on top of that, the #5 focus skill is not all that useful for a main-hand dagger user, BUT the #4 focus skill seems to make up for all of this. It inflicts vulnerability, which makes the dagger even stronger, and it gives you regeneration, which is very helpful in melee combat. Also, if it’s just a one-on-one fight, the vulnerability will stack 12 times (3 stacks of 4) on the mob, giving you a nice boost to damage. And since the dagger damage is more burst than prolonged, it seems like this would be better than the longer bleed from the off-hand dagger skill.

Any thoughts on this? Is the D/D set still better somehow, or does the #4 focus skill compliment the main-hand dagger like I think it does?

Oh yeah, this is strictly PvE I’m talking about. Thanks.

Actually, I thought that D/W or D/F was used more than D/D.

Mainhand D is better for power builds, while offhand D gives conditions, so it’s kind of an awkward fit. Moreover, offhand D is a 900 range weapon while main works at pointblank to 600.

D/D is far from common.
I think that the best combo with MH Dagger is Warhorn, thanks to CC and PBAoE, which is helpful considering that you should stay all time in close range.

Focus fits better with Axe imho because they are both ranged but, of course, it can play well also with dagger MH.

sorrow.2364:

D/D is far from common.
I think that the best combo with MH Dagger is Warhorn, thanks to CC and PBAoE, which is helpful considering that you should stay all time in close range.

Focus fits better with Axe imho because they are both ranged but, of course, it can play well also with dagger MH.

power/crit build and that is exactly what I use. The synergy with this is great.

The major reason people look towards using D/D is aesthetics. They are the two most mismatched weapons you can come up with.

For a PvE power build, I find Dagger/Focus with the Spiteful Talisman trait to be the best combo.

I actually prefer warhorn right now in spvp and a little in tpvp. The on hand daze is good for interrupting bunker heals and the swiftness/cripple is good for slowing roamers. , two things that I love about the offhand dagger, the condition transfer on number 4 is phenomenal, especially when immobilized, and the on demand blind for number 4 for stomping. Only problem is its really only useful if your not stomping and sitting on the side assisting in a stomp otherwise it gets blown on a downed regular attack.

Focus I haven’t messed with too much, regen IMO isn’t all that great right now without some healing power (unless you are a bunker), compared to the burst that is getting tossed around by roamers. The chill is good though as is the removal of Boones which is great. Other than that I don’t use the focus that often.

It all depends on what you are doing, and you said PvE.

First, to the people saying OH dagger isn’t really matched for a power build, it can be pretty useful.

The #4 is an aoe (3 target) blind. I think we can all agree blind is useful when you’re fighting melee and more so when it’s on all the enemies attacking you. The transfer conditions is just a bonus.

The #5 also benefits a dagger user. Without looking at utilities or weapon swaps, the MH dagger has no aoe to it. Enfeebling blood is another aoe to help an otherwise single target weapon when you’re fighting large groups (hint, I’m always fighting large groups PvE). Not only that, but it provides weakness. Weakness is pretty underrated. The only part useful in PvE: “50% of Non Critical hits are glancing blows (50% damage)”. I don’t know what the crit chance is of mobs but I’d assume under 50%. That’s basically a 25% aoe damage reduction.

I would say that the focus doesn’t have much use outside of PvP, but that’s just me. If you didn’t want the dagger offhand I’d say warhorn just for the swiftness but I personally don’t find warhorn useful PvE (but it is amazing PvP).

D/D is usually only used for hybrid (rampager or otherwise) crit based necros. using dagger as a compromise between the worlds of power and conditions while utilizing precision to crit for bleeds and healing to compliment such a build.

otherwise, you’ll see powermancers running around with d/w and MAYBE d/f (god, who uses focus these days? :P )

Tbh I can’t find a single reason to use dagger offhand for PvE over focus. Deathly Swarm still appears to be broken (only removes one condition) and the trait Weakening shroud almost does a better job than Enfeebling Blood does, instantaneous bleed and weakness (only 1 stack of bleed though).

Compare that to a nice and quick 12 stacks of vulnerability and regen from the focus it appears completely lacking. Also, dealing with conditions isn’t something necromancers tend to have a lot of problems with anyways, instead we have less ways of dealing with boons, which is why spinal shivers is very handy.

Don’t forget condition removal is nearly useless PvE so it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s broken. The real life saver is the blind.

What use is there in the warhorn PvE? There’s nearly no use for cripple against mobs as they don’t try to run away, and the daze isn’t useful for anything more than an interrupt without condition duration and +daze duration from mesmer runes

Levian.6742:

Don’t forget condition removal is nearly useless PvE so it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s broken. The real life saver is the blind.

What use is there in the warhorn PvE? There’s nearly no use for cripple against mobs as they don’t try to run away, and the daze isn’t useful for anything more than an interrupt without condition duration and +daze duration from mesmer runes

Warhorn in PvE is the premiere tool for travelling quickly between the craft station, bank, and BLTC in lions arch. The deathly swarm projectile actually travels really slowly sometimes, I’m not sure if this affects the blind or not but blind is only 10% effective against bosses, honestly I’d rather just dodge.

Levian.6742:

Don’t forget condition removal is nearly useless PvE so it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s broken. The real life saver is the blind.

What use is there in the warhorn PvE? There’s nearly no use for cripple against mobs as they don’t try to run away, and the daze isn’t useful for anything more than an interrupt without condition duration and +daze duration from mesmer runes

d/w is good because w5 adds swiftness (cant live without it imo) the cripple is an AoE snare and Dps.. which is good for power builds and generally running around. w4 daze is a fast interrupt and works on bosses as such. this is important for a good player who uses it in say…
SE path3 first boss that burrows.. when he starts to burrow, you can hit horn4 and interrupt his burrow, probably saving 1-3 lives in the party. (when he pops out, it insta-downs people)

focus is a good weapon too. i use that or warhorn.. but warhorn is my main thing.

Sheobix.8796:

Levian.6742:

Don’t forget condition removal is nearly useless PvE so it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s broken. The real life saver is the blind.

What use is there in the warhorn PvE? There’s nearly no use for cripple against mobs as they don’t try to run away, and the daze isn’t useful for anything more than an interrupt without condition duration and +daze duration from mesmer runes

d/w is good because w5 adds swiftness (cant live without it imo) the cripple is an AoE snare and Dps.. which is good for power builds and generally running around. w4 daze is a fast interrupt and works on bosses as such. this is important for a good player who uses it in say…
SE path3 first boss that burrows.. when he starts to burrow, you can hit horn4 and interrupt his burrow, probably saving 1-3 lives in the party. (when he pops out, it insta-downs people)

As a necromancer, you could use DS fear, which interrupts more reliably, (defiant resists daze, unless you’re one of those weird fractal bosses), is near instant, WH4 is not, has better range, and has better cooldown.

Cripple in pve. Well…enemies hardly ever run away, so you don’t really need to catch them. You’d want to cripple an enemy that is powerful in melee, yet the cripple is melee range..hmm, go figure.

Oh it does hit several times though, it actually acts as a decent pbAOE with vampiric traits.

kKagari.6804:

Sheobix.8796:

Levian.6742:

Don’t forget condition removal is nearly useless PvE so it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s broken. The real life saver is the blind.

What use is there in the warhorn PvE? There’s nearly no use for cripple against mobs as they don’t try to run away, and the daze isn’t useful for anything more than an interrupt without condition duration and +daze duration from mesmer runes

d/w is good because w5 adds swiftness (cant live without it imo) the cripple is an AoE snare and Dps.. which is good for power builds and generally running around. w4 daze is a fast interrupt and works on bosses as such. this is important for a good player who uses it in say…
SE path3 first boss that burrows.. when he starts to burrow, you can hit horn4 and interrupt his burrow, probably saving 1-3 lives in the party. (when he pops out, it insta-downs people)

As a necromancer, you could use DS fear, which interrupts more reliably, (defiant resists daze, unless you’re one of those weird fractal bosses), is near instant, WH4 is not, has better range, and has better cooldown.

Cripple in pve. Well…enemies hardly ever run away, so you don’t really need to catch them. You’d want to cripple an enemy that is powerful in melee, yet the cripple is melee range..hmm, go figure.

Oh it does hit several times though, it actually acts as a decent pbAOE with vampiric traits.

I actually use both ds3 and w4. personally my tastes i use wh>focus but that’s because i also WvW on top of dungeons. the swiftness is just too good =/ but otherwise, focus is the way to go for PvE if that’s what you do.

Sheobix.8796:

kKagari.6804:

Sheobix.8796:

Levian.6742:

Don’t forget condition removal is nearly useless PvE so it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s broken. The real life saver is the blind.

What use is there in the warhorn PvE? There’s nearly no use for cripple against mobs as they don’t try to run away, and the daze isn’t useful for anything more than an interrupt without condition duration and +daze duration from mesmer runes

d/w is good because w5 adds swiftness (cant live without it imo) the cripple is an AoE snare and Dps.. which is good for power builds and generally running around. w4 daze is a fast interrupt and works on bosses as such. this is important for a good player who uses it in say…
SE path3 first boss that burrows.. when he starts to burrow, you can hit horn4 and interrupt his burrow, probably saving 1-3 lives in the party. (when he pops out, it insta-downs people)

As a necromancer, you could use DS fear, which interrupts more reliably, (defiant resists daze, unless you’re one of those weird fractal bosses), is near instant, WH4 is not, has better range, and has better cooldown.

Cripple in pve. Well…enemies hardly ever run away, so you don’t really need to catch them. You’d want to cripple an enemy that is powerful in melee, yet the cripple is melee range..hmm, go figure.

Oh it does hit several times though, it actually acts as a decent pbAOE with vampiric traits.

I actually use both ds3 and w4. personally my tastes i use wh>focus but that’s because i also WvW on top of dungeons. the swiftness is just too good =/ but otherwise, focus is the way to go for PvE if that’s what you do.

I think Unshakable/Defiant is primarily the problem with dungeons in the game atm. It makes a necromancer too good (yet people don’t realize this yet). I see why its needed, because otherwise bosses can just get permastunned into oblivion, but it also leaves other classes with no reward for good reaction and CC.

That said, I take warhorn for WvW, focus for PvE, dagger for sPvP. Its so nicely categorized!

kKagari.6804:

Sheobix.8796:

kKagari.6804:

Sheobix.8796:

Levian.6742:

Don’t forget condition removal is nearly useless PvE so it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s broken. The real life saver is the blind.

What use is there in the warhorn PvE? There’s nearly no use for cripple against mobs as they don’t try to run away, and the daze isn’t useful for anything more than an interrupt without condition duration and +daze duration from mesmer runes

d/w is good because w5 adds swiftness (cant live without it imo) the cripple is an AoE snare and Dps.. which is good for power builds and generally running around. w4 daze is a fast interrupt and works on bosses as such. this is important for a good player who uses it in say…
SE path3 first boss that burrows.. when he starts to burrow, you can hit horn4 and interrupt his burrow, probably saving 1-3 lives in the party. (when he pops out, it insta-downs people)

As a necromancer, you could use DS fear, which interrupts more reliably, (defiant resists daze, unless you’re one of those weird fractal bosses), is near instant, WH4 is not, has better range, and has better cooldown.

Cripple in pve. Well…enemies hardly ever run away, so you don’t really need to catch them. You’d want to cripple an enemy that is powerful in melee, yet the cripple is melee range..hmm, go figure.

Oh it does hit several times though, it actually acts as a decent pbAOE with vampiric traits.

I actually use both ds3 and w4. personally my tastes i use wh>focus but that’s because i also WvW on top of dungeons. the swiftness is just too good =/ but otherwise, focus is the way to go for PvE if that’s what you do.

I think Unshakable/Defiant is primarily the problem with dungeons in the game atm. It makes a necromancer too good (yet people don’t realize this yet). I see why its needed, because otherwise bosses can just get permastunned into oblivion, but it also leaves other classes with no reward for good reaction and CC.

That said, I take warhorn for WvW, focus for PvE, dagger for sPvP. Its so nicely categorized!

i do the same.. hehe

kKagari.6804:

Sheobix.8796:

kKagari.6804:

Sheobix.8796:

Levian.6742:

Don’t forget condition removal is nearly useless PvE so it doesn’t really matter too much if it’s broken. The real life saver is the blind.

What use is there in the warhorn PvE? There’s nearly no use for cripple against mobs as they don’t try to run away, and the daze isn’t useful for anything more than an interrupt without condition duration and +daze duration from mesmer runes

d/w is good because w5 adds swiftness (cant live without it imo) the cripple is an AoE snare and Dps.. which is good for power builds and generally running around. w4 daze is a fast interrupt and works on bosses as such. this is important for a good player who uses it in say…
SE path3 first boss that burrows.. when he starts to burrow, you can hit horn4 and interrupt his burrow, probably saving 1-3 lives in the party. (when he pops out, it insta-downs people)

As a necromancer, you could use DS fear, which interrupts more reliably, (defiant resists daze, unless you’re one of those weird fractal bosses), is near instant, WH4 is not, has better range, and has better cooldown.

Cripple in pve. Well…enemies hardly ever run away, so you don’t really need to catch them. You’d want to cripple an enemy that is powerful in melee, yet the cripple is melee range..hmm, go figure.

Oh it does hit several times though, it actually acts as a decent pbAOE with vampiric traits.

I actually use both ds3 and w4. personally my tastes i use wh>focus but that’s because i also WvW on top of dungeons. the swiftness is just too good =/ but otherwise, focus is the way to go for PvE if that’s what you do.

I think Unshakable/Defiant is primarily the problem with dungeons in the game atm. It makes a necromancer too good (yet people don’t realize this yet). I see why its needed, because otherwise bosses can just get permastunned into oblivion, but it also leaves other classes with no reward for good reaction and CC.

That said, I take warhorn for WvW, focus for PvE, dagger for sPvP. Its so nicely categorized!

I guess I’m the oddball here then! I run dagger for PvE (don’t do many dungeons though), warhorn for sPvP as I’m a dagger build, and focus+axe in WvW

I’ve found the AoE weaken and bouncing blind/condition transferral are extremely useful for PvE. Combined with the right skills, you can take attention as well as any heavy. Stacking weakness with poison cloud, for example, gives you enough durability between all the oter mitigation you get from DS, snares, plague form…

I’ve never seen anyone run the skelk spike traps in AC on a guardian/warrior than I can on my necro.

Keep in mind the offhand Dagger #4 is not exactly an aoe blind. The locusts are a bounce attack. And they will transfer one condition per bounce. So the first target receives one of your conditions and the second target receives your 2nd condition..etc. I believe there is a 3 target maximum.

Sheobix.8796:

otherwise, you’ll see powermancers running around with d/w and MAYBE d/f (god, who uses focus these days? :P )

Raises hand!

Full conditionmancer that runs Staff + Scep/Focus primarily. Horn comes out for speed buff, and Dagger comes out for keep offense, since #5 can hit the walls.

If they ever make Weakness not-medicore, then I’ll revisit using Dagger as a primary offhand. (or if they give it some LF regen).

Vexor.3640:

Keep in mind the offhand Dagger #4 is not exactly an aoe blind. The locusts are a bounce attack. And they will transfer one condition per bounce. So the first target receives one of your conditions and the second target receives your 2nd condition..etc. I believe there is a 3 target maximum.

I’m pretty sure it’s three bounces for a max of four targets. If there’s only one target, no bounce. If there are two targets, each gets hit twice. Not sure about three targets.