Guild Wars 2

Ok, so I have discussed and read the entire thread on Nem’s Terror (6x fear) build and am loving how it performs in WvW. I am full Exotics (a lot Arah) and even have Final Rest and full Nightmare runes.

Nem’s Terro build:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Fear-is-my-weapon-6x-fear-WvW-build/first

In Nem’s thread I explained, in detail, how I view WvW and my method of “making an impact”. It is very mukitteneeping with Nems’ appraoch of doing the little things (fearing off siege, AE DoT’ing front lines, Corrupting aggressive Gurdians and Eles and turning them into ‘dirty bombs’ etc).

The Terror build is perfect for that except……something has changed…….and I need help:

My guild of former DAoC players has evolved from being 4-5 man roaming grp assisting the overall effort, to being part of a 10-12 man grp of DPS/Tank configuration. So AE hammer bombing, portal bombs etc…..basically zerg busting.

We stack/churn/buff/push/wipe…..stack/water/push wipe. For those of you familiar with this…….we are having a good deal of success with it.

I am feeling a bit lacking in how my spec is playing a part in the DPS portion of this process. I feel that since we are in the middle of the fight (as a group) very often, wells / power might make more sense.

With my current spec, I am often tabbing to find the right target to CB/Epi and know this lapse in time if hurting my DPS output. In the middle of a 20 v 20 ….seconds matter. Also, 18k health versus say 24-25k is also perhaps a weak point.

I tried doing research on Nem’s builds but since he views WvW as I described above (which is applicable is every situation by my new one), I am struggling to find a spec that relates to my role.

In addition that that, most builds discuss xPvP but nobody is discussing the role I am in, unless I have overlooked it.

Any help would be appreciated.

If you are part of a highly organized group already, talk to the other condition based people, and have them call targets for you. With an Epidemic Necro, you don’t need to spread AoE conditions quite as much, you can have 1 or 2 people stack everything up on one guy and then you pop Epidemic and now 5 other people get stacked up.

That is the main thing I would suggest; get some better synergy with your condition stacker(s) so you always know who they are hitting and you always know who to epidemic.

Other than that, if you want more group synergy, you can do a power build with wells, either using a close range dagger build, or you can use a traited DS to life blast and staff from further back. You could also go for a supporting ranged-wells build, with high healing power and traited staff for regen/control, Well of Blood, the various other wells for dark fields (who could say no to AoE blind/life stealing), and then Spectral Wall, which gives Ethereal Field for some really strong group buffs/debuffs.

Thanks Bhawb!

Where are all the regulars?……..
Rennoko
Nemesis
Lettucemode
And so on…..

Brother Necro in need here!

You’ve already identified some of the core issues with condition builds in core group play:
- You usually have control t on a leader and don’t want to target specific enemies (epidemic).
- Your damage impact on the first push is very small and you’re forced into a utility/support role.
- The survivability is lower. It’s still fairly high (plague, ds, high vitality), but not comparable to full ptv.

In an organized 15+ group damage isn’t important (sounds stupid, doesn’t it?). It’s much more about coordinating the skills of every member on a single point. In order for a build to be useful in groupfights you’ll need a combination of debuffs/cc, support, survivability and damage.
If you only focus on one aspect you will lose effectiveness. Take for example a glasscannon that dies in the beginning of a fight, or a tank that is last man standing but didn’t contribute to the fight, etc. You want more specialized roles, but you should never neglect one aspect completly.

To illustrate what all this rambling has to do with a necro, I’ll use a build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmODbkRLUPTzSjfTBIz45rnU094wCiUU8wA;TsAA1Ctocy4kwJrTOnkOtAZAyGCA

Survivability: high survival stats, ds, plague, vampirism
Control: fear, chills, cripple
Support: heal on transfusion, dark combo fields
Damage: no crit, but very high power (+sharpening stone, higher pve stats, might)

Monkeymonger.9235:

You’ve already identified some of the core issues with condition builds in core group play:
- You usually have control t on a leader and don’t want to target specific enemies (epidemic).
- Your damage impact on the first push is very small and you’re forced into a utility/support role.
- The survivability is lower. It’s still fairly high (plague, ds, high vitality), but not comparable to full ptv.

In an organized 15+ group damage isn’t important (sounds stupid, doesn’t it?). It’s much more about coordinating the skills of every member on a single point. In order for a build to be useful in groupfights you’ll need a combination of debuffs/cc, support, survivability and damage.
If you only focus on one aspect you will lose effectiveness. Take for example a glasscannon that dies in the beginning of a fight, or a tank that is last man standing but didn’t contribute to the fight, etc. You want more specialized roles, but you should never neglect one aspect completly.

To illustrate what all this rambling has to do with a necro, I’ll use a build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmODbkRLUPTzSjfTBIz45rnU094wCiUU8wA;TsAA1Ctocy4kwJrTOnkOtAZAyGCA

Survivability: high survival stats, ds, plague, vampirism
Control: fear, chills, cripple
Support: heal on transfusion, dark combo fields
Damage: no crit, but very high power (+sharpening stone, higher pve stats, might)

Thanks for taking time to put that together. I really like trait choices. I would likely swap the Well of Darkness for Well of Power since my Warriors could smash a WoP and get an AoE blind out of it while still converting conditions.

A few questions:

-What would gear stats be Pwr/T/C? Remember I am in the thick of it with my group as we push, so I think T>Vit

-Since we are not going deep in the Spite tree…..will Well of Suffering really be impactful?

Keep it coming…

Necromancers get more mileage out of vitality than other classes, so vitality vs toughness is a much less obvious answer with us. In other classes, toughness wins in long fights, vitality wins in short ones (because vitality is only an initial buffer, whereas toughness makes your HP over the whole fight more effective, more HP you go through in the whole fight, the better toughness is), however on necromancers, because we have DS and LF is gained through straight %, vitality can somewhat mask the usual weakness it has.

Okay, so my opinion on this from running in what I will call the coordinated zerg buster-ball, is that you are better off not doing conditions period. In fact over the course of the last few days I have finished up my zerker set just for this reason.

So the problem you run into is this. I you have a stack of 30 people, in a fire ring, stacking up might, running through a veil, and crashing into a group of invaders trying to take a keep, they are going to die almost instantly. Having watched this happen dozens of times, I can tell you while speced for conditions, the ONLY thing I was able to do in the FPS lag, actual lag, and chaos was throw marks in random locations, and go into cloud form and run around.

Given this, I concluded the best thing to do would be to run staff and ranged wells (the two damaging ones), in berzerker gear. I will be trying it for the first time next chance I get, but given that these sort of zerg stategies 9/10 times either result in us crushing them, or us crushing into them (and then getting crushed), the zerker gear seems like the best plan.

So looking at putting out more damage per mark hit/well is going to be significantly better then conditions because people are constantly going down and popping up and going down and popping up, getting a free full condition clear each time.

Plus DS 4 is excellent for this situation, and it hits a lot harder with zerker gear.

Bottom line, hitting more people and hitting them harder is going to be way more important in this situation than toughness or vitality. Your goal is to blast as much damage as possible out, and hope you are on the initiating side of that. If you go down, you will likely rally right back up. Since you can’t see half the people on the screen, and can hardly react in a timely fashion because of the lag, may as well go down swinging I always say.

This is why all these coordinated zergs run guardians with line of warding, shout traits, and full zerker gear. They can lawnmower through everything, tag everything, rally freqently, AOE clear conditions, deal decent damage, and drop line of warding while using staff 4 before the zerg starts to move. Also all the boons and AOE stability etc.

Rennoko.5731:

Okay, so my opinion on this from running in what I will call the coordinated zerg buster-ball, is that you are better off not doing conditions period. In fact over the course of the last few days I have finished up my zerker set just for this reason.

So the problem you run into is this. I you have a stack of 30 people, in a fire ring, stacking up might, running through a veil, and crashing into a group of invaders trying to take a keep, they are going to die almost instantly. Having watched this happen dozens of times, I can tell you while speced for conditions, the ONLY thing I was able to do in the FPS lag, actual lag, and chaos was throw marks in random locations, and go into cloud form and run around.

Given this, I concluded the best thing to do would be to run staff and ranged wells (the two damaging ones), in berzerker gear. I will be trying it for the first time next chance I get, but given that these sort of zerg stategies 9/10 times either result in us crushing them, or us crushing into them (and then getting crushed), the zerker gear seems like the best plan.

So looking at putting out more damage per mark hit/well is going to be significantly better then conditions because people are constantly going down and popping up and going down and popping up, getting a free full condition clear each time.

Plus DS 4 is excellent for this situation, and it hits a lot harder with zerker gear.

Bottom line, hitting more people and hitting them harder is going to be way more important in this situation than toughness or vitality. Your goal is to blast as much damage as possible out, and hope you are on the initiating side of that. If you go down, you will likely rally right back up. Since you can’t see half the people on the screen, and can hardly react in a timely fashion because of the lag, may as well go down swinging I always say.

This is why all these coordinated zergs run guardians with line of warding, shout traits, and full zerker gear. They can lawnmower through everything, tag everything, rally freqently, AOE clear conditions, deal decent damage, and drop line of warding while using staff 4 before the zerg starts to move. Also all the boons and AOE stability etc.

Please keep me posted as you refine this……you are describing exactly what I am wanting to spec for.

One thing I will share is the thought that your 3rd well could be WoP since it removes confitions and a blast finisher is AE blind. That alsmot makes the WoD irrelevant in this scenario.

I guess if you really wanted to push the envelope you would take BIP is in that third slot to make sure you are topped off at 25 stacks… but in a decent blast group you are going to be there anyhow. Signet of the locust is still pretty useful and is a big heal if have to pop it in that scenario. Of course if you find yourself taking a lot of damage chances are you are going down no matter what in that scenario, hence the lack of importance on the toughness/vit.

My opinion from my 100 minutes of WvWvW is that the answer to all problems is bring more MINIONS!!!

Going with berserker gear and glass cannon is usually the worst item choice you can make. Believing that you’ll wipe every group you see is overly optimistic and usually only works on EB pug zergs. If your enemies constantly rally, then you should probably run with less glass cannons…
Especially against other guild groups or in situations where you are outnumbered sustainability is way more important than your damage on the first push (which anyway only works if your team pushes as one).

Bip is a truly horrible choice for group play and you’re better off using any of the wells or spectral wall.
I prefer WoS over WoP because other professions have way better, faster and more reliable aoe condition removal (eles, shout warriors/guards) that don’t require you to stand still.
WoD is a blind and chill field. It’s together with WoC the necro skill i consider essential for group play.

I switched to a power build ~30k kills ago, because (as stated above) it just helps your pushes more and the conditions you apply are basically the same.
A good condition build would in my opinion be something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjQah6Zaea87JAJFPD9kiuHP6RxBPMA;TgAgyCuoMyYkwIrROjkGB

Monkeymonger.9235:

snip

Monkey…thanks for your thoughts.

I am not looking for a glass cannon build. Just tonight we were in a 20+ minute fight over Bay (about 50 vs 40) and I would have been a liability had I not had the toughness in my current build.

I am actually trying to figure out how to do the following:

-Retain good survivability
-Get greater marks, Ground Tgt wells
-Boost dmg on: Life transfer, wells, marks

I am not needing to keep any condition damage unless it is vital to accomplishing the above. I am not opposed to swapping to a power build if that what will make the greatest impact. In fact, your sample build had nothing in Spite….which is where power lives

My biggest hurdle is that all of the conversations revolving around WvW builds are AE condition or Single tgt power. Because I am not a min / max’er I just KNOW there is something important that I am going to overlook.

A quick run through and I came up with this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBLhZaESLUPTzSjfPBIp45rnU094RPKe4lB;TwAA1ynEOJdStlSLqtMbJ2yulbL5WA

Looks quite good
Just some points/suggestions:
- Parasitic bond: It gives ~1k health/enemy. After a well/mark combo you should have tagged every enemy. In big group fights is basically another regeneration effect. I used to go with 10 points in spite for spiteful removal. Both skills work very well for the way that group fights go in my experience.
- If you go spite, then either go 5 or 30 (for close to death).

- The reason i use soldiers gear is that i’m usually raid leader, which means that i need every bit of survivability i can get. From your comments/build i get the impression that you want to stay at range for the most part. So my suggestion for you would be knight’s gear + omnomberry pie. You don’t lose that much of survivability but at the same time increase your dps. If you feel more comfortable with your build over time you can use some berserker jewels for crit damge.

-Well of blood: In your build it will heal for ~250/s. It’s nice for the stacking but in practice healing rain + thief and some empowers work a lot better. Taking it over consume conditions means that you need another way to cure the “killing conditions” – cripple and chill. The times that i usually get into trouble is when we try to reposition, i get chilled and rolled over. I personally prefer the independence that consume conditions gives me. Just try it out – if it works for you, go for it.

-Both “target the weak” and “deadly strength” (~90-100 power for soldiers) are good ways to boost your damage. I don’t really like the 30 into curses and would rather go with 25 there and put the 5 points either into spite (passive regen) or death magic (extra power). Wail of doom is a good skill, but i find the range too short and the cd too long to make it worth a major trait.

-Scepter vs. Axe comes down to personal preference. What you want from both is the aoe cripple. Grasping dead is a bit more reliable, but for my playstyle the perma-retaliation from unholy feast is too good to pass up.

-Plague: You can either use it defensivly to “dodge” a hammer train if you are out of position or offensivly. Typical example is when you are pushing on a wall or trying to block a choke point. The chill/blind is amazing in these situations. Just remember that you don’t have to use it for the whole duration.

-

-I believe that rune of the fighter is garbage. If you want an “on heal effect” – go for altruism, dwayna or centaur. In my opinion the best rune choices are:
a) Vampirism: If you go with soldiers gear the mist form will pop at ~3k health which means that conditions won’t instantly kill you (they bypass the invulnerability), so you can either get your heal off or try to go down on the sidelines. The +1k health on heal an bit of heal from nr. 2 is a nice bonus.
b) Melandru: Biggest problem a necro usually has is the lack of stability/stunbreaker. Which means that if you screw up your positioning and get caught by a earthshaker you are entering a world of pain. You can enhance the effect (either stun or condition) with food.
c) Lyssa: A pretty tricky one. Usually best for roaming in combination with flesh golem, but has it’s uses with plague. The condition removal and boons (especially protection) make you even more survivable.
d) Ogre: For more damage. Pretty simple rune concept.

-For runes it comes down to playstyle. If you have high crit chance and like to stay on the sidelines i’d go for rune of fire. If you play more like a melee and have low crit chance then go for hydromancy. Either bloodlust or perception for the offhand. Just switch to it when you are in the “clean up”-phase for stacks.

There is no perfect build and there are a lot of different options that are viable. In the end it comes down to personal preference (e.g. axe vs scepter) and experience, so just try it out. Good luck

As a WvWvW necro the only 2 “big tricks” i know thus skills that are needed are epidemic (especially when kitten enemy goes to kill the grub) and Golem (charge ram), other than that no clue since i dont actually fight people there, but wave nicely if i see them during the jumping puzzle or pull/fear them into a pit of death (or water) if they attack before swapping onto my thief to stealth around.

Monkeymonger.9235:

Looks quite good
Just some points/suggestions:
- Parasitic bond: It gives ~1k health/enemy. After a well/mark combo you should have tagged every enemy. In big group fights is basically another regeneration effect. I used to go with 10 points in spite for spiteful removal. Both skills work very well for the way that group fights go in my experience.
- If you go spite, then either go 5 or 30 (for close to death).-

This makes a ton of sense. Depending on how much longer to horn stun gets extended…..this is the way I will go. I would like to max power (I think) because of staff / wells etc so am I gimping my build to stay on ly 5 in spite?

Monkeymonger.9235:

- The reason i use soldiers gear is that i’m usually raid leader, which means that i need every bit of survivability i can get. From your comments/build i get the impression that you want to stay at range for the most part. So my suggestion for you would be knight’s gear + omnomberry pie. You don’t lose that much of survivability but at the same time increase your dps. If you feel more comfortable with your build over time you can use some berserker jewels for crit damge. -

Actually, in the group I run with, we all push through……..put up water fields etc and buff for another push. So when we engage I will be at staff range planting wells/marks and will dive in under a few circumstances (there are more but these are a few key ones):

-Plauge to finish large number of downed near front line
-DS to pressure front line or fisnish downed with DS4
-Press forward with Unholy Feast to slow aggressive front lines and get Ret

Monkeymonger.9235:

-Well of blood: In your build it will heal for ~250/s. It’s nice for the stacking but in practice healing rain + thief and some empowers work a lot better. Taking it over consume conditions means that you need another way to cure the “killing conditions” – cripple and chill. The times that i usually get into trouble is when we try to reposition, i get chilled and rolled over. I personally prefer the independence that consume conditions gives me. Just try it out – if it works for you, go for it.-

I have only ever used Consume and was considering WoB for placement potential but we have so much healing as it is…….cond removal on myself is more important, I agree.

Monkeymonger.9235:

-Both “target the weak” and “deadly strength” (~90-100 power for soldiers) are good ways to boost your damage. I don’t really like the 30 into curses and would rather go with 25 there and put the 5 points either into spite (passive regen) or death magic (extra power). Wail of doom is a good skill, but i find the range too short and the cd too long to make it worth a major trait. -

This makes sense…..a grandmaster trait on a situational OH wep is reaching a bit. I will have to give it some thought, but the passive regen in Spite will boost my Power and the regen/kill so I will likely go with that.

Monkeymonger.9235:

-Scepter vs. Axe comes down to personal preference. What you want from both is the aoe cripple. Grasping dead is a bit more reliable, but for my playstyle the perma-retaliation from unholy feast is too good to pass up. -

I had not considered the retaliation factor which makes Axe a no brainer. Also, being able to fire off an Unholy Feast (blindly) as we push through is far better than having to ground target a Scepter 2. I will be placing enough ground targets as it is

Monkeymonger.9235:

-Plague: You can either use it defensivly to “dodge” a hammer train if you are out of position or offensivly. Typical example is when you are pushing on a wall or trying to block a choke point. The chill/blind is amazing in these situations. Just remember that you don’t have to use it for the whole duration. -

Indeed, as I mentioned above I will use it to push into front lines of downed players etc…

This has been TREMENDOUSLY helpful.

One last thought is on gear……

As I mentioned above, I am in the thick of it as we push and at staff range when we engaged with similarly disciplined group. I deffinately want enough tough/vit/survivability to survivie the fight. Nobody gets big crits when dead

I also want to have meaningful damage….so is tough better than vit? Once I get set on a stat set (p/v/t or whatever) do I carry that throughout all my gear? It sounds like you were heavily leaning toward soldiers. Did my description of what I am looking to to strenthen that position?

Again, thank you for your time and input!

Monkeymonger.9235:

Going with berserker gear and glass cannon is usually the worst item choice you can make. Believing that you’ll wipe every group you see is overly optimistic and usually only works on EB pug zergs. If your enemies constantly rally, then you should probably run with less glass cannons…
Especially against other guild groups or in situations where you are outnumbered sustainability is way more important than your damage on the first push (which anyway only works if your team pushes as one).

Bip is a truly horrible choice for group play and you’re better off using any of the wells or spectral wall.

Spectral wall I will agree with as a good supportive choice, since it is not player capped, and works well with coordinate groups.

But I disagree on saying toughness/vitality are a must, and zerker is a poor choice. If you find yourself in a protracted battle, you should have either A. Won and moved on or B. Lost and moved in to defend or moved on to a new point. Fighting long battles outside defended structures or in the open field is a waste of time in wvw.

Beliving that 1800 toughness is going to keep you alive while 1100 toughness is going to get you insta-gibbed is not how it works in WvW. And having defensive stats in a coordinated group is a complete waste if your goal is to zerg and zerg bust, UNLESS your role in that zerg is to intentionally stick out and soak up damage, like a PVT DD ele.

In a world where a zerg of 30 people could attack another zerg of 30 people and everyone was visible on the screen, I could see a more balanced approach to stats being important, because they could single you out. But as it stands right now, 10-20 people are going to be downed before they even render. And if they or you are abusing veil, it will be even worse than that. I don’t care if you full PVT gear on, the extra 10k hp and 7k toughness isn’t going to save you from a zerg steamroll of indeterminate size. There is a reason why the spammable aoe classes work so well in zergs, because you don’t have to see what you are killing (and likely won’t).

Now if you are defending a point like ogrewatch, or small group roaming, or anything else, I agree.. balanced stats, toughness, all worth it. But if you roll in a coordinated tight ball of 20-30 people, stacking might and running through veils until you get right into the middle of their catapult line, no… toughness isn’t going to change anything. The idea of the tight group is to avoid being singled out entirely, that (and wall skills) is why it works.

I should also be noted that isn’t “fun” at all. But the bottom line is that it is very effective, and if the end result is, that is the easiest way to send 30 of their people back to the spawn, then people will keep doing it.

Rennoko.5731:

….snip…

Rennoko….good to see you back in here

I will give you an example of two fights I was in last night:

-First was at a supply camp we were taking…..zerg of 35-40 was rolling in (we were ~ 20 strong) and our scout on the peremiter warned us. We stacked….buffed and headed them off as they trying to come in from an alternant direction. They pushed…..we held……we pushed. They retreated to a geographical choke point that was brilliant.

We held at that point and traded a lot of hurt while both sides rez’d the rez’able. We pushed thru the choke point and then through them to a safe point to evaluate.

This went on for more than 8 minutes and I spent several of those minutes at 50% health. Not from being reckless etc but from pushing, fringe AoE trying to set up marks etc.

This is all with me wearing my Terror build gear (Prec/Tough/Cond). I have no doubt I would not have been able to contribute 50% of what I did with substantially less in a defensive stat.

-The second fight was with the same group at Askalon Hills (not Bay) and we fought inside the courtyard with pushes / counter pushes / portals etc for over 20 min. The lord room door (bridge) fight was at least that long and I rally’d twice in that time.

We finally took it with a push in response to a portal bomb that had me wading through some hurt.

I won’t belabor the point but I would much rather have some survivability. I know the fights you refer to and sometimes it is ‘Bang – Bang’ loser releases but when it is not, I wanna be in it to the end.

Updated link:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBHhZakRLUPTzSjfTBIp45rnU094wCiZU8wA;T8Ag0ynEOJdS9kyJKnMOJcy6kzJpTDLeQMhA

Ignore sigils on weps….haven’t decided anything yet.

The reason why i believe you need a minimum of “raw survival stats” (toughness, vitality), is random aoe. You don’t aim in these fights and no enemy will notice your presence – but you will get hit by a lot of random stuff that just happens to be thrown in your direction.
If you are “rolled over before you can even see them” – then please set up scouts. And read team chat. And watch the map. Even if you get caught by surprise, you still have two dodges, death shroud and plague form. Don’t just roll over and accept defeat as inevitable but try to get out of the kill zone and reorganize at your point guy (the one with a red cross or blue icon above his head).
If you go down to say 40% after the initial push, you’ll have to play a lot more defensivly, which means your team will lose effectivnes in the counter push.

The reason i like the setup i posted earlier is that i don’t get downed unless my group is wiped. If you get defeated and rally opponents you are a liability.

Concerning damage: Necros are bad primary damage dealers. They don’t do bad damage (even with soldiers), but i believe that their primary role in a template is that of a utility class. Dark combo fields, aoe boon removal, chills, blinds and cripple are the reason i want them in my team.

Monkeymonger.9235:

The reason why i believe you need a minimum of “raw survival stats” (toughness, vitality), is random aoe. You don’t aim in these fights and no enemy will notice your presence – but you will get hit by a lot of random stuff that just happens to be thrown in your direction.
If you are “rolled over before you can even see them” – then please set up scouts. And read team chat. And watch the map. Even if you get caught by surprise, you still have two dodges, death shroud and plague form. Don’t just roll over and accept defeat as inevitable but try to get out of the kill zone and reorganize at your point guy (the one with a red cross or blue icon above his head).
If you go down to say 40% after the initial push, you’ll have to play a lot more defensivly, which means your team will lose effectivnes in the counter push.

The reason i like the setup i posted earlier is that i don’t get downed unless my group is wiped. If you get defeated and rally opponents you are a liability.

Concerning damage: Necros are bad primary damage dealers. They don’t do bad damage (even with soldiers), but i believe that their primary role in a template is that of a utility class. Dark combo fields, aoe boon removal, chills, blinds and cripple are the reason i want them in my team.

I agree….setting up wells/marks, moving to improve position etc…..all come with eating some area damage.

I am good with the idea of “only living guys contribute”, I just want to make sure I have enough damage that when I do something (well/ Axe 2 etc) it hurts….not main DPS hurts…..but hurts.

I think Soldier’s will get me there with some Berserker stuff sprinkled in

It looks like Soldier’s is Badges of Honor (PvP vendor). It looks like the Karma set is scattered among several vendors?

I don’t care how it looks….gonna transmute it anyway.

MeanMug.2630:

Ok, so I have discussed and read the entire thread on Nem’s Terror (6x fear) build and am loving how it performs in WvW. I am full Exotics (a lot Arah) and even have Final Rest and full Nightmare runes.

Nem’s Terro build:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Fear-is-my-weapon-6x-fear-WvW-build/first

In Nem’s thread I explained, in detail, how I view WvW and my method of “making an impact”. It is very mukitteneeping with Nems’ appraoch of doing the little things (fearing off siege, AE DoT’ing front lines, Corrupting aggressive Gurdians and Eles and turning them into ‘dirty bombs’ etc).

The Terror build is perfect for that except……something has changed…….and I need help:

My guild of former DAoC players has evolved from being 4-5 man roaming grp assisting the overall effort, to being part of a 10-12 man grp of DPS/Tank configuration. So AE hammer bombing, portal bombs etc…..basically zerg busting.

We stack/churn/buff/push/wipe…..stack/water/push wipe. For those of you familiar with this…….we are having a good deal of success with it.

I am feeling a bit lacking in how my spec is playing a part in the DPS portion of this process. I feel that since we are in the middle of the fight (as a group) very often, wells / power might make more sense.

With my current spec, I am often tabbing to find the right target to CB/Epi and know this lapse in time if hurting my DPS output. In the middle of a 20 v 20 ….seconds matter. Also, 18k health versus say 24-25k is also perhaps a weak point.

I tried doing research on Nem’s builds but since he views WvW as I described above (which is applicable is every situation by my new one), I am struggling to find a spec that relates to my role.

In addition that that, most builds discuss xPvP but nobody is discussing the role I am in, unless I have overlooked it.

Any help would be appreciated.

I think that for that thing you would have to go a power build, which would render you a bit useless in a siege fight at/on a wall/gate… on either side… but from what i see you guys want to do hit and runs…

You might want to go all out mad as a glass cannon necromancer teamed up with 1-2 thieves… Since you have DS + well of suffering + spectral wall + spectral grasp, i can think of no better initiator for a thief. Just make sure you stay close to the thieves… have voice chat… call out targets… spectral grasp through spectral wall + immobilize + thieves = dead, take next target reaper’s touch + well of suffering + ghastly claws + thieves = dead…. repeat as necessary.

To be honest… you would do such high DPS burst with all that vulnerability + chill that the target would die in a very effective manner.

How does it sound to you ?

PS: Lich Form spam 1 when clustered… o m g

Tagging this for later when off of work. Looks like there are a lot of necros looking to do roughly the same thing at this point.

I was full condition then power dagger/horn, axe/focus. The my play style changed, I tweaked my power build for greater marks and the 10% boost to marks damage. I feel that I am straddling the fence and am not quite where I could/should be.

Nemesis.8593:

I think that for that thing you would have to go a power build, which would render you a bit useless in a siege fight at/on a wall/gate… on either side… but from what i see you guys want to do hit and runs…

You might want to go all out mad as a glass cannon necromancer teamed up with 1-2 thieves… Since you have DS + well of suffering + spectral wall + spectral grasp, i can think of no better initiator for a thief. Just make sure you stay close to the thieves… have voice chat… call out targets… spectral grasp through spectral wall + immobilize + thieves = dead, take next target reaper’s touch + well of suffering + ghastly claws + thieves = dead…. repeat as necessary.

To be honest… you would do such high DPS burst with all that vulnerability + chill that the target would die in a very effective manner.

How does it sound to you ?

PS: Lich Form spam 1 when clustered… o m g

Nem….thanks for jumping in on this!

Spect wall may work but I think anything single target would be largely wasted. We are running with 8-10 minimum and max at 12-15 (mix of hammer warriors / mesmerism / eles and me.

I have settled on power with an AE skills setup but am trying to refine what that should look like.

Soldier’s gear w/ zerker jewels?
Full zerker?

I have decided on horn offhand but having full power, should I have dagger MH in case I get caught and jumped or to help burn down portal mesmerism etc?

Finally, the build I put up earlier did not take dagger into consideration. With the ‘siphon health on hit’ plus siphon heals teammates….is there a better spec?

Actually I think Spectral grasp would be quite good in that group setting. I don’t care who gets in, you pull someone dead center in a group of 10 people and they are going to find themselves respawning very soon.

Bhawb.7408:

Actually I think Spectral grasp would be quite good in that group setting. I don’t care who gets in, you pull someone dead center in a group of 10 people and they are going to find themselves respawning very soon.

True. However, if we roll through a group, turn and push through again, where am I pulling them to?

Also, does the occasional pull outweigh an AE spell (well)in its’ place?

NOTE: I referred to dagger MH above but whatever utility it could have, it must outweigh the Axe 3 that AE cripples. That would be amazing on a push.

Also Nem, can you see a potential spec that includes Spite? I. Love the direction my most recent build above is going but feel like I am losing a lot of power with little or no spite.

Ok, quick note/.question on the Berserker’s jewels. Those are PvP only items and I am not having luck finding their WvW equivilant.

Any guidance?

EDIT:…ok found the Exquisite jewels (between Ruby or Beryl). I assume Berserker’s stats don’t exist for a jewel outside the Mists?

To my knowledge, all PvE gear (not including ascended) only has 3 stats, so Berserker (having 4) does not exist. I believe they have the same thing, but with no vitality.