New Necromancer In need of Advise
Condi damage and power damage don’t mix very well, and Plague and offhand dagger are condi damage while MH dagger and Shroud are power damage.
But here’s some ideas that might help:
Chilling darkness (blinds apply chill) works very well with plague, because it’s a mobile blind dispenser. Your other sources of blind are offhand dagger and Well of Darkness.
Sounds like a Mr. Freeze – style build might be just your speed.
I happen to like Sheobix.8796 build since it is very close to my final build i am using. It has a few tweaks from his i just like myself but his is a nice solid build. One day minions will work and ill be happy since that is what i wanted to use but right now they are just horrible.
bah Plague form just turns you into a punching bag. all it’s good for is buying you time till help can arrive. Lich form can do some amazing dmg but you’ve basically built yourself into a billboard that says “kill me now, or else”. Flesh Golem, while being a minion (ew… minons) at least has a short CD making it more available and less of a one off adding some extra CC to your arsenal which can be helpful towards locking down a target or even a simple interrupt.
Staff+Dagger+DS benefits most from power based builds. The off hand dagger doesn’t measure up to focus (more dmg) or war horn (more utility) though in a power build though. You can go two routes with a straight Power build, either building for max dmg with crit and crit dmg (zerker) or a more sturdy build with power/tough/vitality (soldiers). Might and vulnerability stacking can pump up your dmg output considerably.
Traits and utilities will vary based on what you’re doing i.e. PvE, PvP, WvWvW
Hackkz/Riggamaroll
I’ve stayed at this party entirely too long
I’ve stayed at this party entirely too long
bah Plague form just turns you into a punching bag. all it’s good for is buying you time till help can arrive.
It’s one of the best support abilities out there. PvP, WvW, PvE, if you have a teammate you have a friend.
bah Plague form just turns you into a punching bag. all it’s good for is buying you time till help can arrive.
It’s one of the best support abilities out there. PvP, WvW, PvE, if you have a teammate you have a friend.
who is it supporting? because every time I see a necro go into a plague form I know it means I’ve won the fight. How do I know, that’s just how it always ends. Rip the stability off of them and they’re kittened unless their friends can bail them out. Plague form is a desperate transformation that will only buy you time and nothing more. It hits for nothing, blind is an underwhelming condition, and enough stacks of vuln will make even plague form into a squishy.
not trying to be a dick or anything, but I really feel like plague form needs some serious overhauling.
Hackkz/Riggamaroll
I’ve stayed at this party entirely too long
I’ve stayed at this party entirely too long
who is it supporting? because every time I see a necro go into a plague form I know it means I’ve won the fight. How do I know, that’s just how it always ends. Rip the stability off of them and they’re kittened unless their friends can bail them out. Plague form is a desperate transformation that will only buy you time and nothing more. It hits for nothing, blind is an underwhelming condition, and enough stacks of vuln will make even plague form into a squishy.
not trying to be a dick or anything, but I really feel like plague form needs some serious overhauling.
I have to agree with most of this. The exception is blind against Heartseeker spam thieves, which is amazing.
Honestly, all of the necro elites feel lack luster in PVP. Lich Form just gets you focused or CCed. Sometimes it feels like there is some invisible Mesmer that follows me around just so he can Moa morph me as soon as I pop Lich Form. Plague is only useful as a means to escape into keeps if you get pulled off a wall. All it does is prolong the inevitable as most people have learned to back away from you and switch to ranged weaponry to kill you. The damage you do in Plague can best be described as trying to kill someone with a feather. Flesh Golem is a minion. We all know how broken minions are. There is nothing else that can be said that hasn’t already been said about minions.
About Plague, if I want to cripple someone, I am better off using warhorn 5 or staff 3, not Plague. The bleed on Plague is a joke. The blind on Plague is the only ability thats worth using, and it can be completely circumvented by dodging away and shooting the necromancer.
Stuff goes here.
Lackluster? Compared to what, Time Warp? Perhaps you’d like Mortar or Tornado instead?
Plague Form can be used offensively to spearhead assaults into larger groups in WvW and its devastating when used this way. In PvP plague can tip the balance of a mid point very suddenly. Plague is one if the better elite skills. It’s no Time Warp, but its not Elixir X either.
Just so people understand what I’m talking about when I say Blind is underwhelming.
Copy/Pasta’d from wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blind)
“Blindness is cured on the next outgoing attack, regardless of whether that attack would’ve hit anything if not for the blindness or how long the blindness had been stacked up for.”
The only saving grace for Blind in our case is having the trait for applying chill on blind, though as our bug list informs us that doesn’t work in Plague form. Even in the case of Well of Darkness, while it works decent at allowing us to avoid relatively basic melee attacks, as soon as Haste is applied the attack speed quickly begins to outpace the reapplication of the blind on the 1 sec pulses as so many thieves, warriors, and mesmers have been kind enough to demonstrate for me.
Hackkz/Riggamaroll
I’ve stayed at this party entirely too long
I’ve stayed at this party entirely too long
Lackluster? Compared to what, Time Warp? Perhaps you’d like Mortar or Tornado instead?
Plague Form can be used offensively to spearhead assaults into larger groups in WvW and its devastating when used this way. In PvP plague can tip the balance of a mid point very suddenly. Plague is one if the better elite skills. It’s no Time Warp, but its not Elixir X either.
I would definitely take Tornado over plague form. Both are stupid but at least Tornado gives you a CC which can actually be useful.
Hackkz/Riggamaroll
I’ve stayed at this party entirely too long
I’ve stayed at this party entirely too long
Hey guys,
I appreciate all the feedback so far..
Just to reiterate my initial post, I’m not really trying to create a hardcore, top tier necromancer build. I just would like some advice on how to make the aspects of a necromancer that I really enjoy. I love plague. I’m not really concerned if it is the best pick, statistically. I love going into plague form and chasing around large groups of mobs in PvE. I think its really awsome, thematically.
I’m just looking for traits/stats that compliment that play style, be it viable or underwhelming.
I also enjoy death shroud. I think it looks super cool. Way better then lich form.
I really like staff for its scythe effect and the fact that it is so much more different then other weapons I’ve previously used.
Just trying to come up with the best synergy to try and tie in all these aspects into something somewhat coherent.
Thanks again!
knights gear with carrion jewlry , dagger / focus main hand and staff for ranged weapon… The stats would be split and you wouldn’t excel at anything but it would fit your play style for the most part… Honestly the best you could do is try out multiple kinds of builds till you find one you like… I ran condition necro for the longest time then tried dagger and ended up settling on the last thing I expected which was a axe power/crit build that seconds death shroud… I end up using bip and signets to augment myself…. Honestly most people who see my build complain about it even though I do well with it…
Anyways just my 2 cents.
Lackluster? Compared to what, Time Warp? Perhaps you’d like Mortar or Tornado instead?
Plague Form can be used offensively to spearhead assaults into larger groups in WvW and its devastating when used this way. In PvP plague can tip the balance of a mid point very suddenly. Plague is one if the better elite skills. It’s no Time Warp, but its not Elixir X either.
Yes, I would love to have Time Warp instead of Plague. You can do so much with that ability. Or maybe Signet of Rage. It would be amazing to have near permanent fury, might, and swiftness. Or Fiery Greatsword, because then I could actually be useful in killing siege equipment. How about the Guardian book? I would love to be able to fully heal an entire group. Dagger Storm would be pretty flippin’ nice. Stability on myself plus cripple AND bleeds for everyone else… all at the same time!
Stuff goes here.
To get back on subject, take a look at this build
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;04-_;2IkI0G4gJkJ0;9;49EJ-O5;03;014;259-Lol6-N;0DsV2DsV25RY
Dagger/warhorn + staff
You can swap warhorn for something else, I just chose it because it fits my playstyle with Well Bombing. Increased radius and decreased cooldown on staff, with 3% Lf on staff Marks, you’re going to be in DS a lot.
Since you are going to be using DS a lot, it pierces for better effect and gives might. This is a fairly high crit and power build so Life Blast is going to hit for a ton when you’re above 50% LF, and you also get fury on entering DS. An effective way to use it with fury I find is to pop in for 3 or 4 Life Blasts then exit and build up more LF. Then switch in again and pop Life Transfer.
Your daggers are going to be hitting for a lot with auto attack, and using the daggers immobilize, warhorn’s constant cripple you can keep enemies inside your wells for a while. I’d suggest using Flesh Golem just for its knockdown but if you like Plague then go for it. It is good for holding points or just trying to survive/run away, and can also really help out some teammates under heavy fire with your constant blinds.
If you want, you can change out the warhorn for anything else, dagger OH works well. If you use dagger you should swap out the Curses 10 point for blind causes chill. If you find yourself needing DS stability, or faster DS cooldown then I’d suggest taking 5 points from the Death Magic tree and sacrificing one of your staff traits, which ever you find the least useful.
Hope this helps, its sort of a combination of my build, and another build I’ve seen around here lately
To get back on subject, take a look at this build
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;04-_;2IkI0G4gJkJ0;9;49EJ-O5;03;014;259-Lol6-N;0DsV2DsV25RY
Dagger/warhorn + staff
You can swap warhorn for something else, I just chose it because it fits my playstyle with Well Bombing. Increased radius and decreased cooldown on staff, with 3% Lf on staff Marks, you’re going to be in DS a lot.
Since you are going to be using DS a lot, it pierces for better effect and gives might. This is a fairly high crit and power build so Life Blast is going to hit for a ton when you’re above 50% LF, and you also get fury on entering DS. An effective way to use it with fury I find is to pop in for 3 or 4 Life Blasts then exit and build up more LF. Then switch in again and pop Life Transfer.
Your daggers are going to be hitting for a lot with auto attack, and using the daggers immobilize, warhorn’s constant cripple you can keep enemies inside your wells for a while. I’d suggest using Flesh Golem just for its knockdown but if you like Plague then go for it. It is good for holding points or just trying to survive/run away, and can also really help out some teammates under heavy fire with your constant blinds.
If you want, you can change out the warhorn for anything else, dagger OH works well. If you use dagger you should swap out the Curses 10 point for blind causes chill. If you find yourself needing DS stability, or faster DS cooldown then I’d suggest taking 5 points from the Death Magic tree and sacrificing one of your staff traits, which ever you find the least useful.
Hope this helps, its sort of a combination of my build, and another build I’ve seen around here lately
I’m curious, do you WvW with this build? If you do, what armor/jewelry stats do you use?
Stuff goes here.
To get back on subject, take a look at this build
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;04-_;2IkI0G4gJkJ0;9;49EJ-O5;03;014;259-Lol6-N;0DsV2DsV25RY
Dagger/warhorn + staff
You can swap warhorn for something else, I just chose it because it fits my playstyle with Well Bombing. Increased radius and decreased cooldown on staff, with 3% Lf on staff Marks, you’re going to be in DS a lot.
Since you are going to be using DS a lot, it pierces for better effect and gives might. This is a fairly high crit and power build so Life Blast is going to hit for a ton when you’re above 50% LF, and you also get fury on entering DS. An effective way to use it with fury I find is to pop in for 3 or 4 Life Blasts then exit and build up more LF. Then switch in again and pop Life Transfer.
Your daggers are going to be hitting for a lot with auto attack, and using the daggers immobilize, warhorn’s constant cripple you can keep enemies inside your wells for a while. I’d suggest using Flesh Golem just for its knockdown but if you like Plague then go for it. It is good for holding points or just trying to survive/run away, and can also really help out some teammates under heavy fire with your constant blinds.
If you want, you can change out the warhorn for anything else, dagger OH works well. If you use dagger you should swap out the Curses 10 point for blind causes chill. If you find yourself needing DS stability, or faster DS cooldown then I’d suggest taking 5 points from the Death Magic tree and sacrificing one of your staff traits, which ever you find the least useful.
Hope this helps, its sort of a combination of my build, and another build I’ve seen around here lately
I’m curious, do you WvW with this build? If you do, what armor/jewelry stats do you use?
Not exactly that setup, but pretty close – the traits are pretty much the same at least. I’d probably go with axe+dagger / staff, mostly because it’s hard to do anything against groups with a dagger. You could probably use a sceptre, I hear that it somehow out damages the axe even in a power build.
I’m definitely not a WvW expert, I haven’t even been playing GW2 much lately. I never bothered too much with jewelery and specific armor, mostly because I’m poor as hell and can’t afford to buy different armor sets for everything. But for a staff/power/crit/DS build in WvW I would try to stack as much power and precision as possible, and work in either some vitality or toughness so you aren’t completely glass.
If you check out Sheobix’s thread it is very similar to the build I use, just take the points he put in Blood Magic into Soul Reaping. I personally find DS to be very powerful WvW
Can someone give me some ideas on what traits/utility skills/stats I should go with? I want to center the build around the things I have the most fun with. The build does not need to be top tier, it just needs to enhance the following aspects of necromancer play..
The things I love most about necromancers, in order of what I’d like to enhance/build upon first..
1) Plague.
2) Death shroud
3) Staff
4) Dual daggersThanks in advance for any tips you can offer!
I happen to like Sheobix.8796 build since it is very close to my final build i am using. It has a few tweaks from his i just like myself but his is a nice solid build. One day minions will work and ill be happy since that is what i wanted to use but right now they are just horrible.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Update-28k-HP-3k-Armor-3-4k-Attack-Necro/first
in context of the above player’s reply to your OP, for what you asked for (d/d blah blah blah) I will redirect you to zintair’s critmancer thread.
its going to be exactly what you’re looking for.