Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone, I recently hit Level 80 on my necromancer and I’m wondering where to go from here. I’m thinking about becoming a conditionmancer but wonder if theres any other viable PVE builds that are better (I’ll mostly be running 5 man dungeons)

Honestly? Best place to go would be to the character select screen, deleting the necromancer, and creating a mesmer so you can actually be useful and wanted at 80. If you intend to stick with necro for some unfathomable reason, then just learn very quickly that you won’t be wanted, AT ALL, for dungeons. Good luck. :X

Well… either that or you could check my necromancer tutorials that are sticky-ed on the top of the forums…
One of these two…

Insidious.3720:

Honestly? Best place to go would be to the character select screen, deleting the necromancer, and creating a mesmer so you can actually be useful and wanted at 80. If you intend to stick with necro for some unfathomable reason, then just learn very quickly that you won’t be wanted, AT ALL, for dungeons. Good luck. :X

Telling someone to delete their character isn’t constructive criticism. And what’s the point? You can accomplish the same by making a new character without deleting others.
As for Necro with dungeons you are not unwanted but rather less wanted than other classes.

The necromancer is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, profession to us. While other professions have clear rolls they are good at and can fill, the necromancer isn’t like that. A mesmer is good at control and misdirection, a guardian is good at support, a warrior is good at damage and a thief is good at spiking. You will be working much harder then other professions to do less.

If you are going to go as a condition speck I would suggest investing in Carrion gear. It gives condition damage, vitality and power. Don’t make the mistake I did by using Rabid. You don’t want higher toughness as it will draw more aggro. And despite what Arena Net said about the necromancer never dying, this is far from the truth. As a Conditionmancer you will have far less use out of death shroud then a more tanky necro builds, so not drawing attention to yourself is going to be the best option.

For your runes, I would suggest Rune of the Afflicted. This will increase your bleed duration as well as your poison duration. The death nova going down is a nice touch if you are in a tight spot. If you are strapped for cash, Rune of the Krait is a decent alternative. Rune of the krait will also provide you will a bit of extra power underwater which can be helpful seeing as how weak the necromancer is under water.

For your weapons, the best choices for you are Scepter/dagger and staff. The Scepter/dagger will give you access to the ability to remove conditions off yourself as well as some decent AoE. This will allow you to spreed a decent amount of bleeds. Your staff is defiantly going to be more of a defensive weapon in this set then a offensive one. The staff’s auto gains you life force and has higher range giving you the ability to pull back a bit and fill your DS to buy you some time if you need it. It also has some control as well as a regen to help you further. It can transfer all conditions on you unlike your dagger as well as be used to interrupt with its fear.

For the Sigils, I would suggest Sigil of Agony on either your scepter or dagger to increase the bleed duration because that is where most your damage is going to come from. For the second sigil in that set, lets say your choice. I am currently using Sigil of battle with agony on my scepter/dagger to gain might when I switch back to deal damage. Further testing may suggest another sigil might be a better choice. For the Staff, take Sigil of Energy. The necromancer has poor defensive options outside of death shroud, so gaining that extra chance to dodge will save you far more pain then a life steal or extra bleed when criting.

For your traits we want to go 0/30/20/20/0. Although a deviation from this is fine if you want to be a bit different. For your first trait we want hemophilia. This will increase your bleeds by 20%. In the second trait this can be your choice. I personally like Weakening Shroud(although some prefer terror) if I’m soloing, and Focused Rituals if I’m with a group. For your last trait in Curses, you want Lingering Curse to increase conditions applied by your scepter by 33%.

In death you want the greater Mark trait. This will give you a much larger range with your marks so you can benefit more from its bonuses. It also helps apply regen to more of you allies as well as debuffs to more of your foes. For the second trait in death Staff Mastery is a solid choice if you plan on using the staff for an extended period of time. Although Shrouded Removal can also be a good choice if you are having problems with foes fearing you too much and your stun break is on cool down. Having Ritual of Protection can be useful if you decide to switch to a well build to combo with focused rituals in order to give your party some damage reduction.

Finally, for blood. For the first trait, Dagger Mastery is a good choice to allow you to cast Enfeebling Blood and Deathly Swarm more frequently. For the second one, if you are playing solo I personally enjoy Mark of Evasion. It creates a well of blood that is effected by the greater mark trait to bleed your enemies an extra 3 as well as grants regen to you and nearby allies. Although if you are using more wells, Ritual Mastery will improve your usefulness to a group.

For your heal, Well of Blood can act as some good party support, healing you when its cast and providing 10 seconds of healing for you and your allies. If you are not using wells, Consume Conditions should be your default heal. It will cure all conditions you are suffering and heal you more for each condition removed. Blood fiend should never be used.

For you utility. If you are running a well build to help support your allies, the skills needed can change based on the situation. If foes are using lots of boons, Well of Corruption should be taken to both get extra damage off of them by converting them into conditions as well as harm their over all power. If your party is suffering from conditions, Well of Power can help convert that weakness into might. If you need to reduce damage on your or your allies, Well of Darkness blinds each second, preventing what could have been a lethal attack.

If you are not using wells, Blood is power will grant you 10 stacks of might and put 2 stacks of 30 second of bleed on your foe. Since you are using both the staff and the off hand dagger the 10 second bleed on yourself will just be transferred anyway. Epidemic is also a good choice if you are fighting large mods. You also have the bonus of taking the Master of Corruption if you wish to reduce the recharge of these two skills. Locus signet is also a decent option, providing you with a speed boost as well as a aoe life steal that can act as a second heal.

For the last utility skill, it doesn’t matter what else you want to bring, take a stun break. Since you are not using minions, and if you don’t place it properly, Flesh wurm may not be the best option. Plague Signet might bring more conditions over to you then you can chew and cause more harm then good and Spectral Armor has a whopping 90 second cool down hurting its usability. This leaves Spectral Walk as the best option.

Spectral walk can be used in several different ways. It leaves a trail so you are quick enough, you can pop it before falling off a cliff to your death to return to your previous location, you can use it to avoid projectiles, it will also give you Swiftness so if you are running it helps with that and it provides life force if you are struck.

For your elite, this one is pretty simple. Plague. Plague will give you an aoe cripple, aoe bleed, and aoe blind on top of poison. Along with giving you extra health it can be used defensively as well as offensively. If you need to destroy objects or mounds, such as in Ascolan catacombs, taking flesh golem can be used to help quick the destruction of those. This can be especially helpful seeing as a condition spec has fairly low raw damage.

Thank you for your patience, and I hope this provides you with at least some useful tips on using a Curses necromancer.

To make long version short. Either make sure your party is not stacking bleeds or go for power or power/bleed spec. Pure condition is garbage for pve and anyone that tells you otherwise is confused. And yes nemesis got a pretty good condition/power tutorial but like I said if there is anybody that puts bleed as side effect your usefulness drops like stock market on monday. That pretty much means if a thief takes out short bow for what ever reason your dps will get trashed.

Lily, the idea behind having a high toughness as Conditionmancer is because fights need to last longer than burst builds for the bleeds to kick in. The more you can bleed your opponent without them inflicting much damage on you, the more your chances of winning. Burst build usually engage their enemies trying to do the most damage in the shortest time possible, where as conditionmancer needs sometime setting up bleeds for the real damage to take it. Toughness is there to last that long.

Instead of going one way or the other, maybe he can mix and match between Carrion and Rabid in a sense to not exceed 1500 toughness.

Lxtricky, use this website to setup your character before deciding.