Guild Wars 2

Hi there, I am new to the necro class, and also this is my first ranged class, so I suck at kiting and positioning, I am already 80lvl, but dont know where to start in terms of build, gear etc….I personaly find myself playing most with scepter/dagger or scepter/warhorn I am looking for build that is perfect for noobs…and gives enough dmg and survivability also if you can give me some tips and tricks on necro and which elite skill is best to use
Thank you in advance!

Hi, and welcome.

The first thing to decide is if you want to play as a powermancer (kills using direct hits) or a conditionmancer (kills using conditions to DoT). There are more builds, of course (minionmancer, using minions; bunkermancer, a powermancer that does less damage but is more resilient; terrormancer, a condimancer with an specialization on fear; and even an hybrid between pow- and conditions!), but you should start using one of the basic ones, and then adapt it to your playstyle.

Powermancers use daggers and axes as main weapons, and Condimancers use scepters as main. Some say that power is better to PvE, and condis are better to PvP, but that really is a matter of preferences. And talking about that, what will you do the most? PvE? sPvP? WvW?

Since you are using mostly scepter, it seems that you should try a condition build. Google for one, or search the forums to look for the current condition meta. The “classic” build is something like 6/4/0/0/4 terror + dhuumfire, that I believe will still work well. Probably you will use a set of rabid or dire or both.

Good luck!

An alternative condition build is 0/6/2/0/6, which gives up stability for shroudstomping and extra boon corruption, but without the burning, you may have a harder time getting kills as easily.

And apparently right now, carrion amulet with nightmare runes is a tad better than rabid with undead runes, and I’m pretty sure theres no dire amulet for spvp yet I’m afraid.

I think nearlights recommendation is for PvP, but sounds like you want PvE advice. pretty much straight damage are your options for PvE if you want to stay as competitive as possible. Fortunately necros have plenty of innate survivability. So that basically means your PvE build will be some variant of 6/6/0/0/2, for max damage potential. Generally the best builds are some variant of power (or hybrid, which I think is gaining popularity as well, and in my personal opinion, is the way necros are meant to be played) because of a few reasons. Conditions have weird limitations because of the many condition immune objects you will fight, makes it very difficult to take down objects in any group setting, and condition caps in world events make conditions even more difficult to use effectively. Aside from that, there is no optimal condition offensive condition gear. Condition damage only uses one offensive stat, and the only type of gear with condition damage and other straight damage stats is Rampager’s, which has condition damage as a minor stat, not a major one. If there was gear with major condition damage and power/precision, I think it would be a little more viable in PvE since you wouldn’t be gimping your damage with defensive stats while still focusing on your strength.

Spoj’s stickied guide is a good starter place for power builds:
http://dulfy.net/2014/06/30/gw2-necromancer-pve-guide-by-spoj/
There are builds further down, I believe the dagger build is optimal DPS but death shroud offers a little more utility.

Personally? This is my pve hybrid build, kitted out with about 60% rampagers, 40% zerker’s gear. I find it really effective, and brings a lot of party utility while still heavy on the damage. I want to test some DPS tonight, actually to see if I’m actually playing horribly wrong or not. I want to play hybrid because necros have a lot of tools that favor a mixed build, IMO. (our main damage trees increase both types of damage, you double dip with might stacking bonuses as it grants both power and condition damage, and there are traits like target the weak and barbed precision which have greater effects with hybrid builds)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRAnd7Yjc00SbzNW3wfbiahC66MAu2o/gRIFoqNA

With this build, there are some traits that can be moved around, I’m not sure if I like dhuumfire more than close to death, or unyielding blast more than vital persistence, for example. I’m a little underwhelmed by both lingering curse (since I rarely scepter 1, the only benefit is from scepter 2), and withering precision (weakness is underrated IMO, but ~7 seconds of weakness every 20 is a weak grandmaster)

Well I am focusing on PVE and WVW mainly…and thank you for the good responses I will check this builds