Guild Wars 2

Hey all,

Call me lazy, but I was wondering if anyone would be willing to devise a set up for me that focuses purely on siphoning health? I know a life siphon build isn’t that viable; however, due to time restraints / lack of interest in pvp, I’m purely focused on making a pve life siphon build based off of my first GW1 character.

For example: In the blood magic tree, there’s…

II: Bloodthirst – Siphoning health is 50% more effective
V: Vampiric Precision – Siphon health whenever you critical hit

I have some other ideas of what traits I’d also use, but for now, I’d rather here what ideas ya’ll had to my dilemna

Thanks so much!

Here’s a start. I’m new to necro, so if I’m missing something, let me know. Currently have a URI and I can’t sleep due to the coughing… The build is here:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAodWjMah6Vaea07JipHczbiDqg7jeEshxMA-jQyAIMioRKSGJMCRJwioxW4KiGraBTZqUrNDk3oIa1A-e

You might have to copy and paste the link for it to work properly.

It’s dag/foc with staff as backup, using wells for all 3 utility slots and flesh golem as the elite. Siphon health is going to come from Life Siphon (dagger 2), your blood magic tree (II, V, XII), and wells. This is augmented by some regen and health gain in the first Spite minor, Reaper’s Touch (focus 4), Mark of Blood (staff 2), and Sigil of blood.

The following is what I use for most PvE and WvWvW. It’s not the only life siphon build out there, but it’s what works for me. Your mileage may vary.

Gear

All exotic Knight’s armor with Emerald Orbs in the upgrade slots.

Exotic Staff – Power, Precision, Toughness with Superior Sigil of Energy (we have no access to Vigor; I like being able to get in an extra dodge when needed).

Exotic Dagger – Power, Precision, Toughness with Superior Sigil of Blood.

Exotic Warhorn – Power, Precision, Toughness with Superior Sigil of Blood (if the sigil on the dagger fails to process on critical hit, this second sigil gives me a second chance at life stealing on crit).

Amulet of the Skies – Power, Precision, Toughness (primary) with basic precision infusion.

Cirque of Arah – Power, Precision (primary), Toughness with fine precision infusion.

Band of the Brotherhood – Power, Precision (primary), Toughness with fine toughness infusion.

Molten Ore – Power, Precision (primary), Toughness with basic toughness infusion.

Emerald Orichalcum Earring of the Knight – Power, Precision, Toughness (primary). Eventually to be replaced by Totem of the Gorilla or Warmaster’s Family Heirloom.

Magi’s Spineguard – Healing Power (primary), Precision, Vitality (just waiting for the day Knight’s back items become available).

A discussion regarding precision and critical chance

My magic number for precision is 1979. That will give 55% critical hit chance with almost no wasted points in precision. This is based on the formula on the wiki :

Critical Chance = round down ((precision – 822) / 21)

Critical Chance = round down ((1979 – 822) / 21)

Critical Chance = round down ((1157) / 21)

Critical Chance = round down (55.0952381)

Critical Chance = 55%

You can actually go with a precision of 1977 to achieve a 55% crit chance. The way the precision stat adds up from the various sources, though, I found it just wasn’t possible to get exactly 1977 without compromising power or toughness. Technically, then, I’m wasting 2 points of precision; I can live with that.

To squeeze another 1% into the crit chance I found came with too many compromises to power and toughness. My goal is to have 3,000 each for armor and attack. I fall just short of that, but consider it an acceptable compromise. With an Omnomberry Ghost and Master Maintenance Oil, my crit chance increases to 66%.

Traits

Spite – 30 – V, X, XII

Curses – 10 – III or IV

Death Magic – 10 – II or IV

Blood Magic – 20 – II, V

Skills

Consume Conditions

When in a group in WvWvW, I generally use the following:

Well of Darkness
Well of Corruption
Well of Suffering
Plague Form

When running between encounters across the map, I’ll swap Signet of the Locust for Well of Suffering.

When sieging a tower, I’ll swap Corrosive Poison Cloud or Flesh Wurm for Well of Corruption and Spectral Grasp for Well of Suffering to apply additional pressure to the walls (on top of marks) and pull enemies off the wall.

When in a larger coordinated group, I may swap Spectral Wall for Well of Suffering.

Soloing supply camps, I may swap Lich Form for Plague Form.

Food / Consumables

Master Maintenance Oil

Omnomberry Ghosts or Mango Pie

(continued)

How I play the build

Aggressive. Be the first one to lead a charge with Staff. Throw down staff #3 followed by staff #4 for Area Weakness to reduce the damage you may take during your charge.

On arrival at your target, cast staff #2 to get some regen going.

Next, cast your Well of Darkness to shut down opponents with blind and chill. This buys time to cast your remaining utilities and give your allies a window of opportunity to rush in, as well.

Follow up with other well(s) equipped.

Swap to dagger. Use Wail of Doom to daze as Well of Darkness will have worn off by then.

Throw in a dagger #2 Life Siphon if you’ve taken some hits and need a little healing. Try to reserve your Consume Conditions for when you really need it, relying instead on your various sources of life stealing to maintain your health.

Cast Locust Swarm. You gain swiftness, you inflict cripple on up to 5 opponents you come into contact with, you deal direct damage (which will life siphon as well as set up the possibility of crits which will siphon even more health), and you gain 1% life force each second the swarm is in contact with each opponent.

Enter Death Shroud and use Life Transfer. Locust Swarm will persist even while in Death Shroud.

Exit Death Shroud and enter Plague form. Use only Plague of Darkness; in conjunction with the Chilling Darkness trait, you will blind, poison, chill, and damage opponents for 20 seconds.

If the enemy isn’t dead by the time Plague form is wearing off, consider falling back a bit, swapping to staff, and kiting while your long cool downs recharge. Alternately, pick out the weakest targets and attack with your dagger.

You will be life siphoning with every hit you make with your wells, Locust Swarm, dagger, and Plague form. You will also have multiple opportunities to life siphon through critical hits; from the Vampiric Precision trait, the Omnomberry Ghost, and your Superior Sigils of Blood.

Between the toughness and life siphoning, you will have pretty decent survivability while bringing a fair amount of shut down and crowd control to your party, group, squad, or zerg. If you’re into WvWvW, you can solo supply camps if you prefer while gaining respectable cross-country speed swapping to Signet of the Locust between encounters.

Cultivate a sense of when you’re running out of sources of multiple hits. Your survivability is tied to how often you can hit and crit. If you’re not hitting multiple times per second, then it’s time to back off and let other members of the party take over the front-line role.

With this build, you are a shock trooper. In the first opening seconds of an encounter, you can conceivably tank through an entire zerg. Your survivability drops off rapidly after that, however; at which point, it’s time to pull back, dodge, juke, kite, recover, heal, etc. until your skills have recharged.

Good luck and have fun

Kraag, what an excellent, mathhammered lifesteal on crit build! I’ve bookmarked this page and look forward to giving it a go in WvW : -)

Wangatang, I don’t know if you’re looking for WvW, PvP or PvE. For PvE Dungeons, I’ve been having a great time with Nemesis’ ‘Abomination’ build, here. That’s a 15/0/25/30/0 Power-Tougness-Vitality tank build. It steals life via wells rather than on-crit, goes for regen from focus as opposed to lifesteal from warhorn, and trades some damage for survivability. I swap the dagger out for an axe for the most dangerous boss fights.

Finally, necro lifesteal doesn’t seem so popular in PvP. It scales with the number of available targets, and is pretty lackluster one-on-one.

daimonos.9831:

Kraag, what an excellent, mathhammered lifesteal on crit build! I’ve bookmarked this page and look forward to giving it a go in WvW : -)

Wangatang, I don’t know if you’re looking for WvW, PvP or PvE. For PvE Dungeons, I’ve been having a great time with Nemesis’ ‘Abomination’ build, here. That’s a 15/0/25/30/0 Power-Tougness-Vitality tank build. It steals life via wells rather than on-crit, goes for regen from focus as opposed to lifesteal from warhorn, and trades some damage for survivability. I swap the dagger out for an axe for the most dangerous boss fights.

Finally, necro lifesteal doesn’t seem so popular in PvP. It scales with the number of available targets, and is pretty lackluster one-on-one.

Thank you.

You are correct; the life siphoning scales up considerably when you can hit as many opponents as the AoE cap allows. You may see your health take a 50% hit in that opening charge, only to watch it fill right back up to 100% from life siphoning when all your wells, Locust Swarm, and dagger #2 Life Siphon are active. During that time, you can afford to be aggressive (but not reckless). Once all of those start to come to the end of their durations, though, it’s time to back off.

It really shines in WvWvW and makes PvE easy mode because you can herd mobs into a tight group, which then plays to the strengths of the build. It’s very much a support build disguised as a shock trooper. The life siphon isn’t there to kill your opponents; it’s there to keep you alive while you remain the center of attention, locking them down with blind and chill until your allies come in and kill your opponents. Make sure the group of players you’re running with know this. To leverage the build to its fullest requires your teammates rush in right on the heels of your initial charge; you are the eye of the storm. If they hang back or hesitate, they miss that window of opportunity and your efforts will be wasted.

I do agree it’s a bit lackluster in one-on-one, though. Not impossible; but you’ll really be fighting to maintain your health in a 1-vs-1. Fortunately, it’s such a rare build to encounter, that you may find you can get the drop on an opponent who doesn’t know what to make of a necromancer dancing around them like a thief and slashing away with a dagger. That moment’s hesitation has cost a few players.

Wow. Amazing responses u three!

It’s reassuring to know that the build I was planning out was pretty much the exact same as Nemesis’ build. I’ll definitely have to try out Kraag’s build though and see whether crits or well heals are more my playstyle.

Thanks for giving me exactly what I was looking for