Guild Wars 2

I hear a large majority of the Necro community say that there is something wrong with Necro. I can definitely see where they are going. We were told that we would all be able to make builds that fit our play style.

Then, there is the small majority that says Necro is fine. I can see where they are coming from. With 1,250 WvW kills (even though they aren’t going to change the way Necro is changed by devs), 109 kills in spvp, and (I feel) only 305 deaths (I am clumsy with heights too), I can see how Necro can be exactly what I love and want. I don’t like controlling the elements of nature, I like the darkness of the Necro.

Anyway, way off topic, but, I am just wondering if there is something wrong with me, or my build. I want to be more of a dark/blood mage, instead of a MM or conditionmancer.

My preferred weapon is the staff, but I have the scepter/dagger on backup.

I am planning this build, being only level 73 who just bought the last book, I have a 20/25/19/0/0 build right now. I know that I should probably get a grandmaster trait, but I am not sure any of those are worth sacrificing in one of the other trees.

I feel like I have to work at least 5x as hard to get the same effect as other power focused builds. My utilities are Consume Conditions, Corrupt Boon, Blood is Power, and Flesh Golem.

Any tips on getting the build that I feel would work for me? I have read the post where JohnPeters said that he wanted us to have more viable builds, so maybe I should wait and see what happens when that change comes?

So I assume by inference that you want a ‘power’ build. You are using the wrong weapon combo for it. Scepter/Dagger is the Conditionmancer build. The two weapons that are power oriented are daggers and axe. Both are considered quite weak. I like axe for a DS build as I find it’s #2 to be more reliable than the melee-ranged dagger. The DS build is actually quite fun but not super viable. Your main source of damage comes from a form that you get knocked out of rather quickly. That said, if you are able to free cast your damage isn’t bad at all.

I tried a life siphon build with daggers. It ended up so badly that I wouldn’t recommend it. Daggers are arguably our hardest hitting weapon (I believe). They also come with a very nice stun (#3). That said, they are difficult to keep on a mobile enemy, and you often compromise some defense for a power build, so melee range can be terrible.

Staff is okay on your build. It is generally accepted as almost a must have in most builds. It has a lot of utility regardless of the build with fear, condition transfer, and chill.

I couldn’t get your link to work. My advice on traits is that we have no glass cannon build. We need toughness or life. And frankly, we need them both. I see nothing wrong with your skills. You might tweak them depending on how you play and how they work for you.

I prefer lich in a power build (as left unchecked your damage is amazing), but it is underwhelming and you will get Moa’d… and you will scream obscenities.

Despite everything I said above, there really is only one viable build. Conditionmancer is the only build in which the ‘uphill battle’ is less ‘uphill’. You can make other builds work. You can even do well. But just know that you are working harder for the same results (sounds like you are already feeling this).

Ah, the link isn’t working for me either, anyways, I am trying a 20/25/25/0/0 build. I have the traits VI VII/II VII/ V VIII, all are focused on staff. It is sad that it seems that, as you said, conditionmancer is our only viable build. I would like to have SOME type of direct damage, which why I generally prefer the staff for my combat situations, because it does great damage with the marks for me, as compared to the other weapons (especially CQB weapons that don’t work for me, because I am a mage through and through XD), even without the trait for more damage.

I don’t want to discourage you from trying out dagger or axe (I was unimpressed with dagger completely if I didn’t make that clear :P ). I just want you to be forewarned that it will be difficult. I do it on occasion, but you had better be feeling pretty zen when you do try it.

I like staff direct damage if I get to stand back and use it (the range is amazing). I have also tried some interesting hybrid builds that worked fairly well with staff/traited for range wells using scepter/bleeds only for close fights.

That said, the best damage you are going to get is to run up into scepter range and autoattack 1 while stacking bleeds via #2 in DS, dagger(OH) #5, and scepter #2.

If you really want a frustrating but fun build though, I recommend trying a DS build. I haven’t perfected mine yet, so I won’t link anything. I would instead mess around traiting it and seeing what you like.

You will get murdered if someone gets on you, but if you are in the back casting untouched the damage is good and you feel a lot like a dark arts mage.

Go axe/staff with it. You need all of the LF you can get your hands on.

Oh, don’t worry, you didn’t discourage me from them, just the range and damage discourage me from them. I only used them when I couldn’t find a weapon smith when I started the game. I love to be in the back doing damage, but the bleeds are something else I have fallen in love with too. It really gives the dark/blood mage feel I like. I will do like you suggested and run with an axe/dagger as backup.

I am not a fan of the wells. They have such a short duration, and such a long cool down, that they just can’t take the place of my other skills. I would like to use them, because they are very good, but they just aren’t viable for me in the constant combat that I run into.

Yeah…the axe/dagger just doesn’t do anything compared to the scepter/dagger. I have been trying to work with it, but it is worse than the scepter. I guess I will just have to wait for the changes to come to my beloved necromancer.

Oh I didn’t mean go axe/dagger. I meant go axe or dagger + an offhand (I prefer focus for LF generation).

But I generally agree. They just don’t feel as complete as the scepter.

Ah, when I do the / I mean that for a combo. I am awful with cqb, so I have to avoid the daggers. I tried the axe and dagger off-hand, but it just produced nothing compared to my scepter with dagger off-hand, and my staff laughs in its face and takes its place back in my hands as I kill the hoard of risen following me with so much more ease.

I am Staff for marks.
Daggers x2 for grinding.
Usually I lay down marks around or on tooop of me, thne switch to daggers an pull them all to me.
30.30.10
“Spite”
Deaths Embrace
Training of the Master
Close to Death

“Curses”
Weakening Shroud
Hemophilia
Master of Corruption

“Death”
Minion Master

Now obviously you can chop an change these to suit, but this is for grinding in pve NOT pvp.

Does a huge amount of AOE damage.
by the way, I use “Taste of death” minion always. As well as, Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption, Corrosive Poison cloud, OR Blood is Power . It’s kind of up to you on that one.

I also am geared in 100% Crafted gear, with a mix of condition an power/precision evenly.

I used Dagger+Warhorn+Wells for quite a few levels and it works alright.

Well of Suffering deals a ton of Power-based damage and Well of Darkness spams blinds which allows you “tank” without taking damage from anything inside the well.

With both Life Stealing and Life Force you can survive a long time so long as you don’t get too greedy with how many monsters you fight with at the same time.

However melee is mostly worthless in WvW.
Thieves can pull it off by picking off stragglers but even the smarter Warriors tend to use banners or Longbow instead of melee in crowds.

Jon Peters (of Arenanet) agrees that Necromancer’s Power based builds need work, but there’s likely a patch within a week or so that fixes a ton of bugs.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and they throw in some buffs to less used builds as well?

I will point out that you hurt yourself by sticking with a theme instead of looking at the stats though.
But yeah the Staff is awesome.

I probably am making myself work too hard for what I want, but I look around (and played) at the other professions and I see that they have so many viable builds. I do think my build will work for what I want, later.

I think that it is disappointing that my weapon skills do so little damage, even if I build one of my other professions up with to do the same thing I am trying to do. The ele has one earth weapon skill that stacks 6 bleeds instantly in an aoe. The only thing we have close to that is mark of blood that stacks 3 bleeds, then even when we add Blood is Power on top of that, it only makes 4, and to get the 7, we have to transfer our bleeding over to them, which leaves one target with 7 bleeds, and others with 5. I am not a fan of ele at all. I never have been, never will be. The whole avatar thing doesn’t work for me.

I am trying to build myself back up to be able to join tournaments by just doing quick pvp matches. I used to have a Curse/Death Magic/Communing Necromancer that focused on weakening then damaging the enemy, it worked very well for me (I am by no means “l33t super awesome look at me pwnIpwnalwayspwnwin”, but I could hold my own).

P.S.: Thank you for the Well of Suffering tip LastDay, it helps my bleeding and attacks add some nice damage with the vulnerability, and does some damage while they figure out they are in a well.