Guild Wars 2

whats up people.

This post will be probably really long, so I apologize in advance. I have been following the necro forum for a couple of weeks now looking for insight and any and all advice to better my abilities with this class…. however, im left feeling like I have to work insanely hard to come up short in every aspect. A lot of people are saying that there is nothing really wrong with this class aside from the mechanics of certain traits/abilites being broken. I can completely agree with that, except when I pvp. Maybe im totally trash or maybe im doing something wrong. That brings me here….

I know a lot of different playstyles and for the most part a lot of them dont seem to work. A direct power build with daggers or a axe just seems to close for me. Wells build I do decent with as long as I run around in a group and strictly avoid walking off by myself to back cap or something… kinda feels this ruins the idea of being strategic, but yeah… Conditions… yeah, conditionmancer feels extremely situational. The damage output also seems slow and rather risky for being so squishy. Ill admit I am more of a defensive player, but a lot of people mentioned the necro as being the “tanky” caster… I feel squishy… DS or not. And the whole notion of DS is key to being OP still sounds like complete lies to me. I have even read a post from someone stating they have mastered it ( as well as not making any mention of how ) and can 1v1 with ease, 1v2 no problem, and make it out of 1v3… all this in a conditionmancer spec, which again feels way to squishy for that to be true.

If someone can pull that kind of skills off, I really think I am doing something wrong. He could be full of it, or maybe im just trash. Either way I see a lot of posts stating that they manage just fine in pvp. Half me wants to believe this due to being 72 and just facerolling all the content pve wise so far. But then when I go to sPvP I get steam rolled by mesmers/theives 1v1 and god forbid there are more then one person I get either blinded the whole time, knocked around like a ping pong ball, or my combat log says I just got hit with 790324932049 damage… seriously?

so yeah, please… anyone… a little help or advice. I really like the look and feel of a necro and Id hate to put all this effort into learning combo fields, rotations, and builds (not to mention all the pve stuff I worked up) in the trash. Been playing this guy since release jumping around from place to place, kinda sad that when I walk over to the mists I feel the glaring eye of other classes whispering “free kill”.

TL:DR – sPvP/tPvP help:

builds – playstyle – favorite traits – solo pvp experience – group pvp strategy – rotations – best combo’s – class that gives you the most problems – easiest class to face – advice on better damage out put – burst damage countering – strategy strategy strategy…. looking for insight on stuff like that.

Thanks in advance

Ok, first off: I’m mainly a WvW player, and far from an expert at SPvP or TPvP. That said, when I dabble in such things, I have had good success and a lot of fun with a build that’s very much based on what I play in WvW. It’s a build where I rarely lose 1v1s (in fact, I’ve only ever lost a 1v1 if the enemy had 3 orbs and I had none, and never in SPvP or TPvP), where I’m not afraid of going 1v2 unless it’s something serious and I should play safe, and where I can manage to pull out a win from a 1v3 (such wins probably depends on the enemy being bad, of course). However, it’s a defensive build, so against any decent team in TPvP you’re not gonna be allowed to win such fights even if you could, since it would take too long, which leads up to the role — bunker/team fight support (again I remind you that I’m far from an expert, and I wouldn’t be surprised if people that actually do play these things regularly have multiple objections against my build).

• Gear: Clerics amulet and gem, 6 runes of the grove, staff with sigil of energy, D/F with sigil of life + sigil of hydromancy (alternatively D/D for somewhat better condition management and a more defensive weapon set).
• Traits: 0-20-30-20-0 [Chilling Darkness, Focused Rituals, Ritual of Protection, Staff Mastery, Greater Marks, Transfusion, Ritual Mastery]. NOTE: I would like to have Shrouded Removal, but it would have to replace Greater Marks, and I’m a fan of being able to keep regeneration up on a larger group of allies, and the condition transfer from Putrid Mark becomes so much more powerful with Greater Marks (and larger AoE fear doesn’t hurt either).
• Skills: Well of Blood, Well of Suffering, Well of Darkness, Spectral Armour, Plague.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that this build is all about knowing when to use your skills, and where to place them, but I thought I’d point it out, because it makes a huge difference. Anyway, the staff is used defensively and for support purposes, and you switch to dagger mainly when you go aggressive on a single target or to assist with locking someone down.

Your DS is very important. Use it to eat burst if you have to; use Doom to interrupt certain bursts, stomps, revives, and heals; use Life Transfer to stall, AoE heal, or deal some AoE damage, but remember that it’s on a long cooldown; use Dark Path to tackle, and sometimes you can manage to juke with it. Also, don’t be afraid to throw out a Life Blast or two (or maybe three) — it’s your best ranged dps if you’ve got high life force (it’s not mad by any standards, but you can kill people). As such, if you get into a fight that’s not lopsided to your advantage (and you’re not full on life force already), blowing Spectral Armour early if you eat focus is not a bad idea.

Some things to consider:

• Putrid Mark does clear conditions off your allies too, and as such is an excellent support tool, apart from all the other good stuff it brings (decent AoE damage, condition cleanse off yourself, and a blast finisher).
• Speaking of which: blast finishers in your Well of Blood grants AoE retaliation (and in your other two wells: AoE blind … and in Chillblains: AoE weakness).
• Well of Darkness can be used to zone out some ranged for a short while, but it’s there to counter close range bursts against you and/or your allies; it’s got a short cast time (and is ranged), and will usually completely demolish any attempt at burst from someone caught in it.
• Well of Blood scales very well with Healing Power. In my WvW gear it heals for ~700 per second for 10 seconds, and without sigil charges — and ~830 per second with a fully charged sigil (should be around the same in SPvP and TPvP, though slightly lower because of food and probably some other stuff too). If you use it when your allies can stand in it, it will not only grant them protection for more than 4 seconds, but it will also heal them for more than their own healing skill does.
• You have 100% uptime (or close to, depending on the amount of disables etc.) on regeneration in combat on the group of allies fighting in your Marks of Blood.
• Don’t forget that you can strip boons with Spinal Shivers, though it’s got a fairly long cast.

There’s (as you probably can tell) not much of a rotation — you use your stuff situationally, except if you’re gonna try to “burst” someone down, which is done with: Dark Pact > Well of Suffering > Reaper’s Touch > dagger auto attack (very advanced stuff).

Peace.

much thanks

I actually run a similar build most times. I just started using a Minion based spec and the survivability is pretty insane. I do crap dps but I last just as long as the bunker/wells spec. I get good spike/burst from my pets should they focus an enemy. Rather touch AI as everyone knows.

The only real difference between my normal spec and yours is I tend to run a scepter/dagger for my off. I try to stay off to the side lines. Dagger requires a litte in your face action. My asura is small so I hide in a niche and drop wells and giant marks from afar and swich to S/D for kiting away from enemies when I am discovered. Not the best again at dps but I do decent if the sPvP team is decently balanced and my guys arent completely out of it.

Thanks for the post, awesome info. As a extra I’ll mention incase you didn’t know (though im sure you do) that if you rock spectral wall it combos confusion with projectiles as well as pop choas armor when you use blast. Really nice if you happen to roll around with the little bone minion guys (dark combo blindness, light combo retaliation, spectral combos choas armor on blast… for those that missed it )