Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

I been playing the necro since a couple of days after release. I have to say that I really like him. Hes a pretty difficult class to master, and in my honest opinion maybe the toughest. I know a lot of people have been raging about the dps value of a necro or that they might flat out just be borderline semi ok for any set up… I dont see that to be exactly true. I am really wondering exactly how some of you are playing the class. Not saying L2P or anything remotely close to that… im just wondering what your rotation is or how you are going about your traits. Kind of like mentioning something along the lines of using scepter/dagger and popping “blood is power” and immediately hitting #4 to get the extra bleed off you and on to your enemies… many necros told me they avoid the corruption skills due to them hurting not only the enemy but you as well. (also “blood is power” is a great skill for piling bleeds as it is a 30s bleed and allows a little give to manuever or switch up your skills and not have to constantly spam #1 to achieve a high bleed stack. )

Here is a more complete example of what I am looking to see in this thread. I have been toying with this build for pve. I am using basically an axe/focus set up and a staff off hand. My traits are 20/0/25/0/25. My exclusive traits I use are “reapers might” “death shiver” and “unyeilding blast” … “spiteful talisman” also is a good one to keep the combo’s rolling but not exactly necessary.

Basically using that set up i gear with lots of power and some decent crit here and there and toughness. Mostly looking for toughness and crit due to getting more power just from using toughness. Also i use the signet that grants extra might.

if your curious and want to try it out go to the mists and get a axe and focus… no sigils required… and grab the beserkers amulet. Now start once you get to nice spot to try out this set up start this rotation.

hit #4 for spreading vulnerability

lay on some #1 for more vulnerability

DS and hit #1 for yet again more vulnerability and also stacking some might on you…you also have an aoe pulsing vulnerability when you pop DS if you were unaware in this set up… so it stacks decently to jump up to about 17-20 stack quickly.

by this time you should potentially see some nice 2-3k crits from your #1 in DS then pop right back out….

finish the guy off with #2 and again if your lucky you will also see the total value climb to about 4K damage…. if hes still standing…

i havent quite worked out a nice rythm as to how or when i should pop in and out of DS but i have seen good damage pve wise. I’m still working on some utility for for pvp. the spectral wall is nice cause when you shoot through it with your staff not only am i getting about 600 or 1k crits… i combo confusion on the enemies. #3 on the axe is also nice as i get retaliation. Im trying to work in a extra skill using weakness as thats my core combo in scepter build as with no toughness i stay alive due to my enemy constantly having nothing but glancing blows at me. I could try and combo back and forth with retaliation on my #3 and using the trait for retaliation when i pop DS so im going in and out of that buff. Not too sure…

anyways, I think you guys get the idea. I am in no way a awesome player. Nor am I saying anything negative. I just wanted to see what other players are bringing to the table and how they have tried their class. I know their was a dev who posted about DS being used more to be more effectful. I went over this build in particular to advertise that idea as well as show that I think a power build can be useful and do some decent damage. Most of the posts ive seen over the last week have just been flat out saying that anything other then conditionmancer spec is total garbage. Again i have not tried this particular build for pvp as I am more used to wells and being a bunker/debuffer for my team. Maybe later I will do a few matches and see how I fair. The npc’s in the mist are rather easy for me when I face off against them aside from the thief…. party due to jumping in and out of sight so I cant super stack my vulnerability on him.

Please, anyone who reads let me know what your doing. Maybe we could actually use these forums to help each other instead of bugging and raging about our class being broken. From my point of view all i see are a bunch of bugs in my class and a slight slight slight lack of synergy between the traits as other profession trait lines have. Keep in mind my set up is part of the Minion Master set up… and that whole over view was damage from me not using pets… if they worked properly im sure my damage would be even better…

so yeah. I will be checking this post here and there. I have a few other builds that have really worked well for me both offensively and defensively and support wise… I dont mind sharing if you share. I really just want to avoid the whole “must reroll” “fix my guys, hes broke” stuff. We all are aware that he needs some love. But lets try to look at what works so when they fix it… he will be that much more fun to play.

by the way ill be in the mists testing more builds if anyone is curious to see more and happens to be on Ferguson’s Crossing.

Later peeps. Please leave some good stuff so we can have a decent list of combos and set ups that actually are more then just conditionmancer. I know there are people out there who are actually putting the sting on the enemy, help out and share… even if it’s just a hint of what would make a necro better. Sorry if this post is way out of control overboard in length.

TL:DR – yeah … you should really read it in depth, but its basically donate some suggestions to build a nice compendium of Necro builds/tips/tricks… and DeathShroud is more then a tempory health bar —--see above for one example of how I use my DS —--

I posted in segments because the forum told me I was over character limit … i know… i talk too much.

Thanks guys.

I use the Scepter + Staff combo. Bleeding is amazing. And the staff is awesome for support skill.

I just made this video, first you will see me fighting againts two people… doing it pretty well.. And then you will see me using staff to CC and AOE :-)

@Marianitten

Decent tip for you. (nice vid btw) If you take the trait “weakening shroud” in the first tier of curses ( i am assuming using scepter you are slightly in the curse line up) you can combo “Enfeebling Blood” … basically sustaing a constant state of weakness debuff to anyone near you. So if they are trying to jump you you can drop Enfeebling Blood(25s CD) and start stacking some bleeds ( i use blood is power and #4 right after) after about 5 to 7s just hit DS real quick and renew that Enfeebling Blood.

If Im right the internal CD on the DS skill is is about 15s and the DS itself is about 10s… and the actual #5 skill is 25s… if you can time these things right your opponent will have glancing blows as well as slow down his evasion mechanic by 50% keeping him from dodging your attacks… it also puts out a rather nice bleed to keep that bleed stack rolling and not dropping off… even better should you worry that your gonna miss your restack of weakness pop epidemic and switch targets… boom its right there again so you can get a lil more time to reapply it….

just something to play with if you wanted to try a different approach

@XXVI Red: Nice tip.. i will check it. My build is this:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.5.2.7.13.0.0.0.0.0.106.125.109.117.129.0.0.0.306.309.0.320.317.326.0.0.0.350.352.0.0.0.0.20.30.0.20.0

:(

i tell ya… i see all these links to builds. they always come up empty when ever i look at them… hence why i just list the 0/0/0/0/0 type of set up and name my needed traits for my build

but i hope my info helps. maybe more people will chime in with other builds. thanks for your contribution.

XXVI Red.5718:

:(

i tell ya… i see all these links to builds. they always come up empty when ever i look at them… hence why i just list the 0/0/0/0/0 type of set up and name my needed traits for my build

but i hope my info helps. maybe more people will chime in with other builds. thanks for your contribution.

Is’s

20 With Reaper’s might and Training of the master
30 With Reaper’s precission, Hemophilia and Lingering Course
0
20 With Vampiric Precission and Vampiric Master
0

@marianitten

sounds cool.

i avoid the minions as of yet due to them having really bad AI. they tend to do what they want some times.

as for me my build is similar.

15 spiteful spirit
20 weakening shroud / master of corruption
0
15 vampiric precision
20 path of midnight/unyeilding blast

thats more for survival then actual damage… i could tweak it more in curses and soul reaping for better damage output… but i like a little more safety nets, besides it lets you pile on a few more conditions at a time with that set up, not just specifically worrying on bleeds. I use that in conjunction with #3 on the scepter. 8% to 10% is a nice refill on my LF bar. Although i tend to notice the rate things die is good enough where i dont worry about filling it. Either way my off hand is a staff which will insta fill my LF if i really need it. Also with the set up gives a nice burst of solid damage as opposed to swapping conditions around. One trickyness about the build is that i constantly am debuffing myself as well as my opponents so i have to watch my #4 is off CD or not so i can stack those buffs back at the enemy to increase durations/stacks/intensity.

I usually start pulls with Scepter/Warhorn as I’m using the swiftness to get from place to place.

Grasping Dead (2 stacks) + Scepter auto attack (til 7 stacks), switch to staff, Chillblains, Mark of Blood (3 stacks), Epidemic at this point. Death Shroud, Dark Path (3stacks), Fear, Life Transfer and back to Scepter.

If I start from staff, Chillblains, Mark of Blood (3 stacks), if it’s PvE, I putrid Mark for AoE weakness combo, if PvP, save for condition control, Reaper’s Mark, Mark of Blood (3stacks) Death Shroud, Dark Path (3 stacks), Fear, Grasping Dead (2 stacks), Epidemic.

There really is no set “rotation” though. It’s all about being able to chain abilities that drop multiple stacks back to back while weaving in situational abilities and using cool downs efficiently. You also usually can squeeze in two Marks of Blood by the time weapon change CD is up. Going into Shroud is a good way to not waste time with staff auto attacks as needed in between Mark of Blood CDs.

@Lumines

very true. I also have noticed in this game that there is no right or wrong rotation, or rather a real rotation in the elitist gaming sense for maximum damage. It all really depends on what your traited to do and the current situation at hand, like you said. I personally just have a priority list of what i should be dropping first if the situation is right. Too many years of hardcore raiders max min charts i guess.

yeah… I too, like the staff. With my builds it tends to feel really bursty when you just drop #2,3,4 real quick at a mobs feet… its always my off hand weapon set, just for the utility of it.

thanks for posting. hopefully more people chime in with how they roll their necro.