Guild Wars 2

Just hit level 80 today on my necromancer (woot excited!) and am curious to see what is expected of necromancers in dungeons and/or fractals.

My plan was to learn the glass cannon build from Nemesis (I would love to go this route, but understand if this isn’t generally accepted) and have been running that spec in PvE for the past few days with some success. Prior to this I was running a staff and scepter/focus condition damage build.

Planning to start with low-end dungeons like Ascalonian Catacombs and Caudecus’ Manor then attempt level 1-5 Fractals.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I have tried Nemesis’s glass cannon build. It really just lacks too much survivability. Especially for dungeons and fractals where survivability is very necessary.

The Damage Hybrid build is really good though, it’s what I run 100% of the time.

It gains survivability because you invest in celestial ascended gear (Celestial gives all stats, rather than just 3, on trinkets). And doesn’t lack power or condition damage either.

Basically you use a scepter/dagger to apply bleeds and then swap to axe/focus to do your burst damage (And death shroud).

I have also tried the condition build, but it’s lack of burst damage is no good for dungeons either, because in a lot of dungeons you have to attack bosses that can’t be conditioned (so you’d become useless) like the boss in the ice fractal and final boss in CoF P2 and etc.

Definitely check out Nemesis’s damage hybrid build.

Thanks for the pointers. I can see how that build is actually better.

The annoying thing with necro is lack of power based aoe so if u want decent aoe damage you have to go condition or hybrid spec since 1. wells are really long cd plus taking up your utility slots. 2. marks do weak damage. they should all do the damage of mark #4 imo. You cant even use #5 in a group for dmge since the mobs will run out of other ppl’s aoe/cleave. Plus they are small unless specced. 3. Piercing autoattacks are crap compared to cleave or bouncing autoattacks. Also staff and deathshroud autoattack have long cast time.
I reckon:
cof/coe = glass dagger spec
hotw = hybrid or condi spec
arah, se = probably hybrid or dagger, idk much about arah :S. if u are gonna farm se p1 like many times maybe dagger spec.
ac,ta = hybrid or dagger with wells, need some power.
cm can’t remember.

This guy’s build would probably be the minmax farm/cof/etc go to spec:http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/82609-dps-necromancer-build-for-organized-dungeon-groups/page__st__30

I am doing Fractals level 30+ and many other dungeons nowadays. I mainly play Nemesis’ condition build with a few minor adjustments and it works really well. The hybrid build works as well, but it is a bit harder to play. I don’t have all the celestial trinkets yet though, so my stats are not maxed yet. I don’t recommend a glass cannon build because the lack of vigor and stability a necro definitely has makes these builds very unforgiving and they can really backfire in unorganised groups.

EDIT: Oh and by the way. You mentioned AC and CM. Those dungeons are actually not the easiest (especially CM). For a dungeon beginner and if you don’t have a guild I would definitely recommend joining a low level fractal group. I find the people there to be much more willing to explain things.

Thanks for the other pointers.

Will definitely take all into consideration.

I run a wells, support type build. Since wells do have a lengthy cooldown, you have to time them right. It works really well and I feel like I’m helping my team more. Can’t say I never die, but it has great survivability. Also, its learning the bosses and mobs, switching out things is a common occurrence depending on the fight. BTW AC and CM are nightmares in my opinion. I’d save those for a guild run and honestly haven’t done them in while.