Guild Wars 2

I’m level 12 and a little lost… I heard Death Magic was good because of the Jagged Horrors at five points, and increased range on Staff circles at 10 points.

I’m doing Death Magic now, and love staff, but… I have no idea what other weapons to use, and what to invest in after that. Does anyone have links to a guide, or a build? Any suggestions on stats to use? I’m using power and condition damage and it seems to work well.

Thanks!

Jagged Horror is one of the worst traits in the entire game in my opinion… Greater Marks on the other hand is really good.

There are generally 2 effective ways to level… wells and minions
I would stay away from conditions for leveling because 1) simple mobs die faster with pure power 2) structures are not affected by conditions and many quests involve killing structures.

(the following is a repost from an older thread)
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When i was leveling i really liked the Staff+Axe/Warhorn or Dagger/Warhorn with damaging wells and Power-Precision gear. As for traits i took Greater Marks in Death Magic as soon as i could. I dont really remember what i took after that. Maybe i added some points in to the Spite trait line to get more power.

Run around gathering mobs and drop 1 or 2 wells, staff marks, DS 4 and any other AoE u may have. Finish of single mobs with either Dagger 1 or Axe 1 and 2.
Since LF builds quickly in PvE you ll be pretty durable even with full dps gear.

Another good way to level are minion builds. You are safer since they provide a distraction for enemies but i think you kill things a bit more slowly because u dont have that much AoE. As far as traits go take almost anything with ‘minion’ in the description. Lower cooldown, more life (Death Magic trait line) and more dmg (20 into Spite trait line) are very important.

I leveled up to lvl 50-55 with events and open world exploration and then used crafting and some CoF (Citadel of Flame dungeon) path 1 runs to get to 80 fast. Each crafting proffesion gives around 10 levels and some are cheap so you can afford them even with your first character.

Dungeons are probably not a good way to level since they are pretty slow and often hard for new players. Also avoid farming mobs. Doing quests and events and exploring the world gives you more exp than just farming mobs.

Finally dont be afraid to buy gear from the Trading Post. Fine (blue) quality items are very cheap. If u want u can take some masterwork (green) items when available, it helps and u can often sell them to an NPC when u want to replace them and get back most (if not all) of the buying cost. Try to replace armor and weapons every 5 levels or so. Trinkets with the stats u want might not be available every 5 levels, so you ll have to keep them for a bit longer.

Thanks! I actually have two 80’s so I’m not completely new to leveling and such in general. If I’m leveling with Staff, what traits should I use after ten in Death Magic? What utility skills should I use? I’m just curious if I should use minion skills even if using a staff.

bump. Any more input?

Use well of suffering and well of corruption. Go into spite as much as you can for power. Curses for precision. Soul reaping isnt bad either.

I would definitely recommend Nemesis’ tutorials that are on the main necro forum page. The tutorials will help guide you on how to build your necro depending on play style.

AkiLeaves.2613:

If I’m leveling with Staff, what traits should I use after ten in Death Magic? What utility skills should I use? I’m just curious if I should use minion skills even if using a staff.

Since minions dont scale with your stats its common that people get Axe/focus for the extra vulnerability stacking to boost their minion dmg. But i think that any weapon can work with minions. Obviously take as many minions and minions traits as u can if u go for a minion build.

Apart from Greater Marks i wouldnt take any other staff trait for PvE.

And what Spoj said for well builds…