Guild Wars 2

I’ve made necros before, but this is the first one I plan to keep and level to 80. I find the mechanic of switching in and out of Death Shroud to be very fun and interesting. I was just wondering what popular DS builds are right now and any advice on leveling with a DS focused Necro.

For the most part, DS is power based. Meaning you will of course want 30 in SR and some points in spite and another tree of your choice.
For weapons you’ll want the fastest LF generator which will be dagger / focus (Warhorn is better on larger groups of mobs). Use Axe or staff as your offhand.
Using spectral abilities also will also ensure your LF bar stays topped up 24/7 (spectral grasp / armor / walk).

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|8.1p.h1h.d.1g.he|6.1m.h4|1g.7o.1c.7o.1c.7o.1g.7o.1c.7t.1g.7t|1g.61.1k.64.1k.64.1k.61.1k.61.1c.64|u56c.0.a2.0.u24c|3l.1|3t.49.47.4b.4e|e

This is pretty much a DS oriented build. Only thing about it, is it takes a little time to get the high damage rolling because you need to build up those might stacks. Also well of darkness can be swapped out for well of power or blood is power, but BiP would be a little wasted at this point because you can use reaper’s might to build up might and further utilize your death shroud. Also, if you want to run more retaliation, just swap staff for axe/focus, then you could run dual dagger for the mainhand (and an extra condition cleanse on offhand dagger as well as some weakness). Once you get the enemy to about 25% hp the damage really flies, so like I said it’s a slow build up but once you got that train rolling you just plow them down. This isn’t really a “popular” DS build, in fact most DS centric builds aren’t popular right now for the most part, so do what you will with it. I just know I’ve played this build and had a ton of fun with it. Snatching things through spectral wall with the grasp never gets old.

Nittles.1582:

I’ve made necros before, but this is the first one I plan to keep and level to 80. I find the mechanic of switching in and out of Death Shroud to be very fun and interesting. I was just wondering what popular DS builds are right now and any advice on leveling with a DS focused Necro.

what do you plan on using it for? pvp/wvw/pve?

definitely use a staff and dagger main + offhand of choice

take unyielding blast and soul marks instead of what he has and use the 2 damage wells for leveling

Yeah guess I should have asked what playstyle they wanted to do

I’ll be using this for PvE, at least initially, though at 80 I may transition to WvW. Not sure yet.

This is what I’ve been playing with in PVE the last few days. It’s not a full DS-centric build, with only 20pts in SR, but still hits pretty well, by leveraging Close to Death + Infiltration Runes for 30% damage increase for enemies under 50% health. Ogre runes would be another possible choice.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|6.1g.h2|b.1k.h2.8.1g.h1|1k.71k.1k.71k.1k.71k.1k.71k.1k.71k.1k.a4|1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1n.67.1n.67.1c.67|u37c.0.k25.0.k2a|2e.1|3r.3u.3x.44.0|e

TheAgedGnome.7520:

This is what I’ve been playing with in PVE the last few days. It’s not a full DS-centric build, with only 20pts in SR, but still hits pretty well, by leveraging Close to Death + Infiltration Runes for 30% damage increase for enemies under 50% health. Ogre runes would be another possible choice.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|6.1g.h2|b.1k.h2.8.1g.h1|1k.71k.1k.71k.1k.71k.1k.71k.1k.71k.1k.a4|1n.61.1n.61.1n.61.1n.67.1n.67.1c.67|u37c.0.k25.0.k2a|2e.1|3r.3u.3x.44.0|e

this isn’t even remotely a DS build other than he can still use DS and power and crit are reasonable.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.3|8.1n.h2.g.1g.hd|7.1g.h1l.d.1p.h15|1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7.1n.a7|2s.0.2t.0.3t.0.2s.0.1n.61.2u.0|a5.u48c.0.0.u46b|2e.1|3r.3u.47.48.4e|e This may work for an alternate DS oriented build. Its not as much power oriented and probably not as strong as say 20% from spite, but it is based on trying to crit almost all the time. it offers some mixed damage via BiP + bleed procs and dark path usage. You can switch out axe and focus I guess for staff, but if you take out 10 from curses or soul reaping for greater marks in Death magic you lose lots of damage potential and at that point it is better going 30/0/10/0/20. I pretty much use something similar to this, but my runes are some most would not like so I didn’t include them.

edit: If you want to be constantly dancing in and out Death shroud for buffs, switch Foot in the grave for Close to Death.

double edit: sorry, feel bad for not saying this but I have to say thanks to pickledinsect.

Remember that Axe training increases the damage of Life Blast if you have axe equipped when you go into Death Shroud. meaning Life Blast will hit for 20% more.

Nonnatus.8072:

Remember that Axe training increases the damage of Life Blast if you have axe equipped when you go into Death Shroud. meaning Life Blast will hit for 20% more.

I think it’s 15%, but that’s actually a really intriguing combo, considering how the axe’s weakest point is its auto-attack.

Nonnatus.8072:

Remember that Axe training increases the damage of Life Blast if you have axe equipped when you go into Death Shroud. meaning Life Blast will hit for 20% more.

I just havent found this viable since they removed wep swap in DS and on top of that axes LF generation, while not bad, doesn’t compare to dagger or staff.

What would a wvw solo roam ds build look like? With good dmg that is.

Dietzen.6127:

What would a wvw solo roam ds build look like? With good dmg that is.

You won’t find one for this reason: You can’t rely on DS in WvW like you can in PvE. Not only is your life force regen going to be crap (for a roamer build, even with daggers, not talking about zerg/defense support where you always have ample LF) but the enemies you face roaming are also built for roaming (most of the time, baddies aside). Their builds are built to burst you down, and DS is just not a good counter for sustained burst like most roaming classes can do (thief<only for the inital backstab, can’t counter much beyond that> , MESMER, warrior<occasionally>, or just plain ol ranger because they can run tank and still have a burst pet) . Does that mean it plain won’t work? No. But it is terribly inefficient. You will be struggling just to stay alive, much less actually kill anyone. Now if you managed to play ninja and just fight NPC’s like for camp capping, then a DS build would work. I already posted my version and there were several other good ones too, so choose one or combine them, w/e works for you. Best of luck to you out there. And honestly I hope you prove me wrong.

my DS build is 20/20/0/0/30. its great fun to play. the only mandatory traits are spectral skill recharge and spectral attunement. but I take stability on DS for shroudstomping cos I love it.

I use dagger/warhorn and axe/focus.

spectral armor, grasp and walk for utilities. elite can be any, I like liche.

My Build Thread

Feel free to check it out, and/or comment on it! The only thing I sometimes switch out is my off hand with a warhorn, whenever I feel like I need a fast Life Force refill.

I see you are trying to make an offensive DS build. Offensive DS builds can be effective in PvE, but in PvP they just tend to melt because of the fact that necros get focused.

If I would use a DS build, I would do a tanky/support build with DS, focusing on PVT/cleric/apothecary gear and using one of these setups, the weapons would be staff + dagger or axe, if there is no need for mobility, I would take an offhand dagger, note that SoL will work quite well with these builds:

TWP = take what you prefer

Condition Master, 0/0/20/20/3
DM – II/V + VI
BM – I/III/IV/VI + IX
SR – III/IV + III/IV/VII/X + XII
Consume Cond, Plague Signet, SoU/TWP, TWP, plague/FG

the idea is to gather conditions from allies and send them back and remove them while you are healing your allies and trying to CC the enemy by dancing in and out of DS, epidemic is always a valid choise, though it is a situational skill, if you go for full PVT you can also use lich, but note that if you take the revive traits it is better to go with plague as you can plague res. Notice also that the VI in BM will not scale with healing power so I would consider it only with PVT gear.

The Debuffer – 0/10/20/10/30
C – IV
DM – II/V + IX
BM – III/IV/VI
SR – II + VI + III/VII/X/(XI)

Consume cond, epidemic, TWP, TWP, plague/FG

I would take II + VI + X in SR and II in DM for the staff, the idea here is to gather LF and then dance around the enimies applying vulnerability, weakness and chill to them in and out of DS, take an axe or scepter mainhand istead of a dagger with this build, I would take some condition duration runes and maybe a rune of hydromancy to apply more chill, note also that the VI trait in BM does not scale with healing power so I would consider that only with PVT gear

DS flicker build

This is the build I use around 50% of the time in PvE. The only thing I use Death Shroud for is a quick in-and-out for a condition removal, fury, retaliation, and AoE weakness. You get a lot of DS regen from daggers, but it’s not incredibly necessary.
Warhorn is really strong when you take the Banshee’s Wail Trait. I switch around utilities all the time, this is just a suggestion for general PvE. The well does a lot of damage in PvE, and I like blowing up minions.

I use this build not because it is particularly powerful, but mostly for fun. It’s not a weak build, mind you, but as far as PvE builds go I wouldn’t put it in the top tier. Going in and out of DS for all those tiny effects makes it greater than the sum of its parts, and feels really powerful.

Have Fun!