Guild Wars 2

Hey guys, i have been observing closely at the recent discussions on the state of our class.

Unfortunately, most of the said things are true, however there are still some viable if not ‘usable’ builds out there which i hope the more experienced Necromancer players out there can post up here.

I hope that these player-made and tested builds can shine some light in what appears to be a rather bleak state of affairs right now, and help persuade those who are either thinking about re-rolling another class to wishing to pick up the Nekro to tough it out and discover Nekro’s true potential.

Here are some of the builds i have used, tested, tested and failed abjectly with.

PvE

Minion Master
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQAQNBmQDbkQrUvWzVjePBIpIaqnU8N4QP2VanB

Strategies

Basically let the minions tank, while you bombard the enemies with your staff. With the Major Trait Flesh of the Master, your minions tank surprisingly well and with the Minion Master Trait, you can usually maintain a healthy number of minions to maximize your own toughness through Protection of Horde.

For single enemies, i use Dagger + Warhorn with its two disables + the flesh golem charge.

For group of mobs and crowd control, i combine the Mark of Blood from my staff and from the trait Mark of Evasion and Chillbane. Usually after a couple of dodges, the mobs are on 60% HP, which i could finish off by exploding one or two bone minions and using my flesh Golem’s Charge. In emergencies, you can always use Transfusion or put some distance between yourself and the mob with Locust Swarm.

Comments

Personally i find this build most effective for PvE. The sole reason is that it allows to run around the map with speed from the Locust Swarm and additional Boon duration, while my minions occupy the mob. Most importantly it lets me safely mine resource nodes as mobs will attack my tanked minions, while i mine and run out. (i feel very comfortable running into those Rich mineral nodes in Caverns guarded by Veteran mobs).

This build tanks extremely well, with 20% extra in toughness and vitality, plus life steal from your minions, you can tank most PvE mobs. Heck, you will even have the DS for emergency escape. you can also sacrifice your damage, by putting less Traits in Spite and more Traits in either Blood Magic or Death Magic.

The reason i went for the Staff + Power over Scepter + Conditional Damage was because Staff are mostly from the Death Magic line, so i can save the points for more Vitality/Base DPS (you can switch Minion Mastery with Staff Mastery of Greater Marks). Training of the Master is a MUST for PvE minionmancer builds.

The worst thing about the build is the horrible minion AI. But if ANET puts some simple Pet commands for minions, then the potential for this build is enormous. Both you or your Pet can tank and both you and your pet can dish out DPS + interrupts.

PvP

(still testing) PvP Minion Master
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fQAQNBmQDbkQrUvWzVjePBIp4aonU8N4QP2VanB

Strategies

So far, this appears to be my most effective tPvP build. Your army of minions will make you extremely tanky and hard to kill. it allows you to defend positions against multiple enemies until allies arrive or hold them up long enough for your team to capture their objective.

Offensively the army of minions are a great distraction for opponents who tab to switch targets.

For 1v1, the strategy i use is to switch to melee, time your disables. (Dark Pact, Wall of Doom, Charge, Rigor Mortis). Then switch to Staff and spam Mark of Blood and Chillbane as well as all your minion skills.

Try to dodge towards your minions, so that you form a little cluster inside your minion army, with your Mark of Blood + Vampiric Minions providing some health Regen.

In PvP, players will ignore your minions, so they don’t need to be tanky, but you do need Training of the Masters to make sure all your minions are dishing out +30% Damage.

Comment

I am still undecided whether i should stick with a Staff+Power build or use a Scepter with conditioning. I can also see the huge potential in using Plague Wurm as both offensive condition damage along with exploded bone minions and as defensive tool for instant Teleport out. I will test both of these options later today.

Once again, if only the minion AI was better, it would make PvP encounters for minionmancers much easier to manage. (A lot of the time, your full arsenal of minions will simply stand next to you while the opponent knocks you down and apply the finish move. How i wish my Flesh Golem could use his Charge)

Failed Builds

Fear Build.

I tried to max out all the Traits for Fear (Fear and duration, fear damage, cause fear when downed, etc etc). The mechanic is simply horrible. The three second Fear simply puts opponents one dodge or one move away from me, and simply helps with their skill cool down. We only have one AOE fear skill – the one that has the longest CD + one move in DS (don’t get me started on DS), and even when traited for Fear Damage, the amount is minimal.

Then i see a Thief (or is it a warrior), jump into a full team at a capture point, use the skill Fear Me, and our whole team is feared away from the Way Point for 5 seconds. Right now, Fear is only useful for interrupting finish moves, and even then, it is not direct, and is often bugged by terrain, ie, the the target for the Mark is stuck on a building’s wall.

Death Shroud Build

I honestly have no idea how to incorporate DS into any meaningful PvP apart from as an annoying tool to escape/delay the inevitable death.

Firstly, the Damage from Life Blast may be decent, but the speed is so kittenn slow. Someone should time it, but it feels like every Life Blast is same as three normal attacks from a Scepter, so in terms of DPS, it adds nothing.

The second skill teleports you into death rather than away, and fear is laughable right now. Transfusion is the only decent move, but the I am not 100% sure of the the mechanic. Does the Life Drain add to your original HP Pool or your life force bar. It appears that after Transfusion and when i leave DS, i still have the same amount of HP as when i first entered it, so in other words, you drained some life hoping to heal your HP, and when you finished draining, you are still on 1/10th of your HP, which prompted you to hit DS in the first place.

The worst thing is it completely removes your utility skills, which are more useful than the DS skills, and the recharge time, means that you can’t hop in and out of DS just to spam your utilities. Theoretically, with DS traited, you should be able to stay in DS for longer and have more DPS and tank, but in reality, it only makes you more of a glass cannon and more of a mosquito.

In theory, i can see DS acting like a finisher. Once your opponent’s conditions are stacked, you jump into DS to finish them off. But in PvP, it appears that the time you switch to DS, and the time for the first Life Blast to hit, your opponent has probably had enough time to run out of your range. And the worst thing is while in DS, you can’t extend your opponent’s current condition duration, which allows them to purge it all.

Spectral Build

Spectral Grasp (lol). There should be an achievement for the number of Spectral Grasps you can land. Every single one of mine in PvP has been a miss or an obstruction.kitten it’s a single target spell.

Spectral Armor is actually pretty decent. In theory combined with DS, should provide the nekros with command over life and death. Use spec armor to absorb Damage, Hit DS, and repeat. But DS right now is ineffective as an offensive tool, and without the utilities, it makes it even more cumbersome. Each time i hit DS i know i am going to die rather than Life Blasting my opponent to death.

If anyone out there has an effective DS build or Fear build, please pots it here. In the coming days i will be testing other builds, and if you have a viable builds, please share them here so other Nekro’s can be more of a use.

Thanks all