Guild Wars 2

The information posted in this thread is based on the assumption that the leaked patch notes are true for necromancers.

First of all, based on the new trait placement, I’d say that hybrid power/condition builds that follow a 30/10/0/0/30 or 30/20/0/0/20 set up could be very effective. With the new burning trait in Spite making Close to Death a lesser choice for hybrid builds, axe may be slightly more useful than dagger because Axe Training would now be a 20 point trait. This could be nice for PvE where melee can be bad and with the buffs to the soul reaping tree, one could simply sit in DeathShroud firing off life blasts and a Terror boosted fear, life siphon and torment whenever Axe 2 is on CD, and alternatively using the scepter (which now has a longer poison duration time) to apply conditions and spread them in epidemic. This weaponset combination also ignores the use of the staff, so gaining greater marks is not needed anymore. Using a mix of rampager and carrion gear for the extra precision, power, condition damage and vitality could make a hybrid build very powerful but still relatively squishy.

With a Might duration runeset (fire for burn duration, strength for dps, or hoelbrak for the -20% condi duration, might stacking hybrid or direct damage builds with Reapers Might, Blood is Power, and the proposed new 50% extra crit rate in DS trait could be extremely viable for PVE.

I can also see the use of permanent boon builds with boon duration gear that allow you to have near 100% uptime on retaliation, stability, and fury from DS and Near to Death becoming a master trait (and possibly regen from focus or staff), which could make tanky DS/MM builds very powerful if built right, but getting boon duration would be difficult as to get all of the boons from DS one could not a lot of boon duration from the Death Magic tree, unless fury or retal were given up for instance.

Another change that I really liked seeing was General Well CD reductions and adding stability and stun break to well of power. It might not be as useful as a mesmers blink, but a stunbreaker that clears your conditions is a very nice addition.

Those are just my thoughts on how I would build my necro after the patch if the leaked notes are true. What do you all think about new possible builds? Becuase of all the new options I don’t think theres any real imbalance because its impossible to create one build or one set of traits that would take advantage of all the great new changes to our profession. For example if you wanted permanent stability/fury/retal, you’d have to give up burning on crit for all those boons and whatnot, so its a matter of experimenting and finding the best new ways to make all of these buffs and changes fit our own individual playstyles.

Overpowered is all relative. I do see many options being severely overpowered compared to the current state of affairs.

For me, going 30/30/10/0/0 and 0/30/10/10/20 was not a huge difference in surviability in a condition build. The 30/30 build was harder to stay alive in without spectral armor and mark of evasion/regen, but certainly not significantly different.

I will now have my normal tool kit, plus burning, plus torment, plus buffed sceptor poison, and with sigil of para, 100% fears, and an additional fear on utility…

That is very much overpowered when viewed from the lens of today.

I can’t see myself not taking burning, and not pushing 80-100% durations on all conditions. So I will have 30 points in spite. I may think some about where the rest of my points go, but I think 30/30/10/0/0 is still going to be very likely my build.

A build around DS is interesting, as you don’t need fury on entry to DS anymore if you are focusing on DS1 using 10 in spite trait, and 10 in DS tree trait for vuln/might. You only need to target 50% crit rate, for 100% crit rate on life blast. The rest of your points could go in LF generation, or damage, or survivability or whatever…

Building around DS I think will be the new thing to do. My personal opinion on it would be that 5 zerker necros coordinating from 900 range are going to be like a firing squad… 5k (guaranteed) life blast times 5 necros is a dead anything on 1-2 casts.

Its a bit too early to be theory crafting. I’m waiting for the patch to actually go live, and then I have every intention to go crazy with the crafting.