Guild Wars 2

So my necromancer is on her merry way to 80.. Made her for a change of wallpapers and to do some PvP.. most likely WvW..or sPvP..

Noooow… problem is…

I can’t decide on what build I should go for.

I am generally a rather big fan of tanky builds, so I was considering a death shroud heavy thing that simply outright refuses to die. But without the matching damage.. might be counter productive.

The the reason I actually went for necromancer was that I have a generally large liking for condition builds. Something my mesmer sadly isn’t very proficient in but that is a different matter entirely.
Now I can imagine condition and epidemic aren’t going to be THAT much of a joy to use in larger pvp environments, considering how hard purge and cleanse effects are flying around everywhere.

And then there are the new traits coming next week, so I have even LESS of a clue of what to do anymore.

So the most sensible idea would be “Read around the forums, you’ll find something for you.” … Well, I tried. And now I’m more confused then ever before. So many different opinions and outright contradictory things left and right said about builds and their actual use… nope, I don’t see anymore what is legit information and what it out of date.

Sooo.. long story a little shorter.. what kind of build would YOU run starting next week when your prime desire for PvP is survivability? I’m not much for outright nuking people to the ground, as long as I am just standing by the time they drop.

In WvW, dire Necros (tanky condition build), is still very good. Yes people talk about mass cleansing. You know why everyone needs to run mass cleansing? Because if they don’t, Necros happen. Essentially you still end up needing some condition builds running around spamming out conditions because without them you end up just hoping no one starts cheating. Just like in sports, you always try to keep someone “honest” by making sure your offense is always just enough mixed that people can’t always cheat on defense by only worrying about one thing.

Also, with the new trait setup, the new Spite healing could potentially make condi Necros very scary in WvW, because 5% of your condi damage heals you. Plague form becomes even more of a massive tank tool, Epidemic potentially becomes a large spike heal, terror also heals for quite a lot, and with runes of Lyssa’s 6 effect being nerfed to only 5 conditions flipped, it means a Necro’s signet of spite cannot be fully removed, and corrupt boon fully counters lyssa again. So if you are paying attention, you can hit a target, wait for them to cleanse, burst SoS/fear/other condis if they don’t have Lyssa, or if they do wait, CB, then burst and epidemic. Your conditions will “stick” much harder.

Condi Necro will also still be fine in sPvP. And while it will take testing, the new 30 in death magic along with the new minors might make you fairly tanky just by building lots of LF and using spectrals to keep yourself alive forever, while potentially dealing still highish damage through 30 SR with 50% added crit chance.

I run Ascii’s wellomancer build (at least very close to it) for WvW and I find it has great survivability and allows for dishing out conditions. I use food to increase conditions duration and tuning crystal. I have a total blast playing the build and I’m often the last one standing. I know the build is here on the forum, usually not more than a few pages back.

Bhawb.7408:

In WvW, dire Necros (tanky condition build), is still very good. Yes people talk about mass cleansing. You know why everyone needs to run mass cleansing? Because if they don’t, Necros happen. Essentially you still end up needing some condition builds running around spamming out conditions because without them you end up just hoping no one starts cheating. Just like in sports, you always try to keep someone “honest” by making sure your offense is always just enough mixed that people can’t always cheat on defense by only worrying about one thing.

snip

Soo.. Something along these lines?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vQEQNAW7Yjc00Yb3Nm3wfbiQSx1eGkC3rroHELYAA-zUBBoOCyk0BimGOTqIasVTFRjFA-w

With the free trait slot left free for the new trait coming up.

AkkiChan.7164:

With the free trait slot left free for the new trait coming up.

I think he meant the trait in spite not curses

I’m not actually sure what dire condi necros are in WvW right now. I know in sPvP the new meta will likely be 20/30/0/0/20 (unless Dhuumfire turns out not to be that bad), but in WvW its probably 30/20/X/X/X, because Dark Pathing into a zerg might not be helpful.

But I’m not sure if they go 20 into SR because they might not need the fear duration due to food. Dunno if the new DM traits will make it better though, same with new runes potentially changing stuff.

Bhawb.7408:

I’m not actually sure what dire condi necros are in WvW right now. I know in sPvP the new meta will likely be 20/30/0/0/20 (unless Dhuumfire turns out not to be that bad), but in WvW its probably 30/20/X/X/X, because Dark Pathing into a zerg might not be helpful.

A zergling probably wouldn’t have dire gear in the first place. On the other hand, should the occasion arise and you somehow despite supreme necro-mobility end up in the meatgrinder then you might as well Dark Path for some aoe chill.

For small scale roamers I could actually see a lot of necros taking both gm traits at the cost of Last Gasp.

This is my favorite build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vQAQRBIbdG2IDNN12VjbNs3mAkeEN1TP9gbwDnqg7A-T0AA1EOpcy5kxJpTWnGQsgYHyJkZIvQA
Its easy to learn and easy to become decent with.
When mastered you can kill anything.
I retired pvp i reached my personal goal champion phantom.

Don’t dish out gold on armor just yet though.. buy the armor with badges and go for looks when the patch has settled in.

*pushes this back to the top *

Now, patch is here, changes went through, sigils and runes all over the place.. and, hardly surprising but unfortunate, I am more confused then ever before.

So, any new opinions floating around for you folks?

Conditions and interrupts. (oh wait they didn’t go for perplex in spvp :P)

Answer: Conditions, Conditions, Conditions. for spvp that is, nothing much changed but you can get some extra’s trough traits when using conditions now.

have not had time or the will to start building yet, may do that tonight.

Pretty sure Nightmare is the way to go in PvP right now

In PvP I tested out my new build that I put together.
0/20/20/30/0 – Focus on Wells, give protection to allies, heal them, surviving myself through health siphon through wells
Staff – Axe/Wh
Curses: III-VI
DM: IV-VIII
BM: IV-VIII-XII
Using Cleric amulet to boost healing power, toughness and power (not totally useless @ dps)