Guild Wars 2

I don’t like doing damage over time, and I love stealing life. Everything I’ve read about the necromancer so far is basically telling me that I should trait for conditions in sPvP and use a scepter, but the lifesteal/power build I’ve been using seems to be working for me.

My build focuses on stacking might, being tanky, and having lot’s of healing. I end up with about 28k HP, 2.4k Power, 1.8k Vitality, 1.5k Toughness, and only 900 Precision.

I don’t have a lot of sPvP experience, I’m only rank 8, so hopefully there are some necros here that can improve my play/build.

Spite: 30 Points
VI: Reaper’s Might – Life Blast and Plague Blast grant Might for 15 seconds.
VIII: Signet Power – Activating a Signet gives you 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds.
IV: Signet Mastery is a decent alternative for a more defensive playstyle.
XI: Axe Training – Axe damage is increased, and Axe skills recharge 20% faster.

Blood Magic 30 Points
II: Bloodthirst – Siphoning health is 50% more effective.
III: Mark of Evasion and IV: Ritual of Life are probably better, I haven’t tried them yet.
VII: Ritual Mastery – Wells recharge 20% faster.
XII: Vampiric Rituals – Wells also siphon health every time they pulse.

Soul Reaping 10 Points
VI: Unyielding Blast – Life Blast pierces and causes vulnerability.
V: Speed of Shadows seems like a good defensive alternative

Sigils and Weapons
Axe: Sigil of Superior Life = Snowball healing.
Focus: Sigil of Superior Restoration = Small health burst on kills.
Staff: Sigil of Superior Life

Other Skills
Well of Blood
Well of Corruption
It works well (ha..), but Well of Darkness is a great defensive choice instead.
Well of Suffering
Signet of the Locust
Some move speed, greatly needed because I don’t take an “escape”.
LICH
Marked for Death (2) + Deathly Claws (1) DOES SO MUCH DAMAGE

Runes
Superior Rune of Vampirism x6 = Lots of Power and Healing

Amulet
Soldier’s Amulet with Soldier’s Jewel = Power Toughness Vitality

How I Play

With a single target I generally start with Spinal Shivers (5) to slow them so I can get in range for my Axe skills. I wait until I’ve taken some damage to cast Reaper’s Touch (4) so I can benefit from the regeneration. This spell is a lot stronger in a 1v1 because you’re guaranteed to hit your enemy multiple times. I try to save Unholy Feast (3) for when I’m trying to escape since my target is already chilled from Spinal Shivers (5). Unholy Feast is a great escape because I don’t need to face my enemy while I cast it so I can run away at full speed while applying cripple. I can generally catch fleeing enemies with Dark Path (2) in Death Shroud and Spinal Shivers (5). I use Ghastly Claws (2) and Rending Claws (1) for general damage.

I generally use my wells after jumping in to the middle of a big fight at a capture point. People are less likely to notice them, and I’ll need the healing after jumping in. They’ll also be more likely to move into them if they’re on a capture point. I try not to use them all at once so I don’t lose any healing while at full health. Signet of the Locust is also very useful in the middle of a big fight. Unholy Feast (3) can be strong in a fight, but I like to save it when I’m trying to get out.

Once my Wells and Signet have been used and my health is starting to drop, I pop into Death shroud. I Life Transfer (4) while running out, cast Life Blast (1) for damage, and use my Doom (3) to keep enemies off of me. Once I’m at a decent range, I switch to Staff after hopefully saving some Life Force for in case I get jumped on again. Staff is pretty simple, just save Chillblains (3) and Reaper’s Mark(5) to keep people off of you. If Lich form is up, I can use Chilling Wind (3) to maintain distance while also gaining some health temporarily. Then I just use Marked for Death (2) and Deathly Claws (1) to deal damage. Lots and lots of damage. Lich is also great to use before jumping into a fight and using Wells. Lich is great almost whenever you use it.

Try it out and let me know what you think! Does the build work or am I just playing against bad players?

It works against bad players. Necro has no mobility, impractical access to stability, no burst damage in any spec. Anything they do, they are outshined by other classes in those areas. They are are hard to fit on any 5 man tPVP team. They need lovin.

A few questions..

What do you mean by stability?
Doesn’t (3) in a condition build do decent burst? I’ve heard it does, but haven’t tried it.
Do they get outshined even with a condition build? By what class(es)?

Edit: Also does Lich form count as burst damage? Or does it take to long to put out all your damage?

stability allows you to not get knocked down and stunned

Necros shinny at condition damage(well thats is what ppl incapable of do some simple math say). Yet everyone can put more conditions than usfaster, easier and reestack faster after the cleans.

Relax they wil fix it(or maybe not, since day 1 ppl say about op stuff and they keep buffing it, and overnerfing the wrong things)

Burst? Outside some weird one-off builds the profession has no burst. As designed. Play a thief or a warrior, they have some 15k+ bursts, if that’s what you want. (On a short cooldown, 5-10 seconds.)

However if you discovered something do let us know, please. I’m sure people are still working out builds.

I like this build, I tried it out tonight and I feel it gives pretty good survivablity. I’m looking forward to playing with it more! =)

Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think Vampiric Rituals correctly siphon health atm.

How much of a heal are you getting per tick?

Elusive, I guess using the word “burst” is a bit misleading. I don’t expect (or want) the Necro to be a bursty class like the thief or warrier. I was trying to make a build that did moderate sustained damage without relying on conditions. “Burst” for this build would be stacking might for yourself and vulnerability on your target with life blast, then popping your signet for more might, then dropping your 2,3,4 marks.

Mattl, let me know how it goes, and if you find anything that works any better.

Uchi, not sure about Vampiric Rituals. Didn’t know that it might be bugged? I’m honestly to new to pay attention to how much it ticks, I just pay attention to how full my health pool is, and if it’s going up or down lol.

In an ideal world the Necromancer can do these builds effectively:
- Life stealing Necromancer that uses her life as another energy a la GW1 style with skills that sacrifice a % of your life based on your max life. This makes for interesting play where the Necromancer casts some very powerful spells that deals burst damage but loses life in doing so and has other spells that allow herself to drain health from others to heal.
- Minion Master Necromancer that is extremely tanky based on the minion she has (this seems to be what ArenaNet intends) and minions are able to focus fire. The Necromancer must use her minion skills to CC her opponents because she has no utility skills to help her survive. Maybe a minion-bomber variation as well.
- Condition-spreading Necromancer that deals more damage as time goes on. This is what most Necromancer play at the moment.
- Support-based Necromancer that heals her allies. Maybe there are interesting spells such as healing by sacrificing her own health and then gaining health by draining health of enemies. Maybe something interesting like Order of the Vampire.
- A power based Necromancer that tries to maintain in DS as much as possible and when she is not she has skills to help her gain massive amount of life force. In DS she is able to wreck everything.

But this is not a perfect world, and life draining sucks because it just doesn’t give you enough health back at higher level nor does it deal enough damage. Add to that the Necromancer has terrible mobility and low survivability…

Sadly that’s what it should have been… and what it was advertised. The reality is cruel and lame.

Seezer,

I will honestly say that it is a relief to finally see someone who has driven their build toward the exact same style as we have. A few friends and I took a very similar variant of your build and tested it in BWE 3 and most of our first launch days in sPvP before we decided to experiment with other potentially equivalent build styles. We started acknowledging that kind of build as an “Attrition” build, which had been discussed thoroughly in different GW2Guru.com threads prior to all of our testing. The only difference I see from yours and ours was that we tried to make a good niche for the retaliation boon, since you become pumped with all that power via might etc. So instead of the signet traits you chose in spite, we swapped that out Spiteful Spirit.

A consistency with Death Shrouding every 10 seconds to keep the vuln high on the target and the might high on you, combined with Spiteful Spirit and Unholy Feast, combined with several lifestealing factors, combined with all of that power to make you and retaliation hit just as hard right back, makes for one amazing build.

Zalaz, I’ll have to try that out, it sounds like it could work well. I’m still not completely sure about using Life Blast to stack vulnerability since the Axe can already do that, but traiting for retaliation makes it a bit stronger.

I don’t have many issues with melee classes, but struggle when it comes to fighting ranged classes in open areas. How did you try to deal with this?

The lack of easily accessed stability is the biggest problem with the class, honestly. Foot in the Grave should probably be made passive and replaced with something else. Or spectral armor should also give stability, like armor of earth does.

@Yukishiro

I agree that spec armor should have stability.

@Seezer.2073
Ranged giving you problems? Keep note of there dodges, Chill with focus, Chill with staff, or DS to skill #2 its a gap closer, Best way to land Ds #2 it to fear first then hit the gap coser.
Hope that helps

Not bad. I would never call this a Vampire build, you have very little life siphon. Similar to what i have run with. A problem with that build is that you generate next to no life force.