Guild Wars 2

I’ve been researching builds for a good few hours and still haven’t come to any conclusions. I was originally going for a power/siphon vampiremancer build until i realised that all the siphon skills seem to heal minimal damage and don’t seem worth it. Am i right in thinking this? I’m primarily doing PvE right now, i’ll start PvP at lvl80 but please suggest builds for both.

So where do i begin…

WEAPON
I’m using D/D as my only weapon set right now in PvE. It does the job well, high damage and i like that D4 is a condition removal and blind.

SKILLS
Consume Conditions (a second condi removal for me)

Well of Suffering (very powerful)
Signet of Spite ((just for the passive power boost)
Blood is Power (huuuuuge power boost)

Lich Form or Flesh Golem (i only just unlocked Lich but i’m not finding him quite as useful in PvE as i thought i would. I like the distraction Flesh Golem offers as it keeps me from harm longer.

Now i’m not 100% certain if this are the best skills for me. I’m mainly wondering if Signet of Spite is really worth it? I only use it for the passive and the power boost is noticeable, but could something better fill that space? I’ve been thinking Well of Darkness because it makes you practically invincible for 5secs, but the cooldown is large.

TRAITS
I’m honestly confused what to choose. When i wanted to be the vampmancer i was speccing into Blood Magic, but now i’m not sure. I’d have to choose either vitality or toughness but i don’t want any of the Death Magic traits so it’ll have to be vitality. Is it possible to have enough siphons to sustain you or are they all too weak? The main thing that looks appealing apart from the D/D 25% speed increase is the Blood to Power trait. Is it worth traiting into BM for that?

I’m speccing into Soul Reaping as i use DS for the extra survivability and dmg. Should i concentrate more on DS sustaining me instead of siphons?

My final line was going to be 15 points into Spite to get Death into Life, but again i don’t know if this is worth it.

HALP

Your utility choice and weapon choice is pretty good. Like you said well of darkness is a good safety well. You can also use well of power to help in condi situations.

Personally I wouldnt use blood or death magic. Necro’s base hp is already high enough and you have DS and dodges to avoid most damage. Once you get to 80 you might consider using energy sigils to help you survive. But the most important thing for survival is learning to dodge, use cc and debuff. With necro you have a number of different options. Some arent very reliable but they can still help.

First of all your offhand dagger is a blind + condi remove. This can be used pretty effectively to save a dodge on regular mobs. The blind wont work on bosses or champions (unshakeable). You also have dagger 5 which gives aoe weakness. Weakness isnt perfect but if the mob/boss hits you with weakness on him the damage is going to be nicely reduced thanks to glancing blows.

You should also consider focus and warhorn. Warhorn gives an aoe daze which is really useful for interrupting mobs and it also has a nice aoe cripple which allows you to kite mobs. Focus is more offensive, but the chill can be used to kite/slow down mobs and the vuln will allow you to kill them faster. You also have immobalize on your mainhand dagger which is incredibly useful if you need to get away to heal.

For general sustain, your active defense + heal + dagger 2 should be enough when played right. For traits i recommend going full offensive (30/25/0/0/15 or 20/25/0/0/25). But if you want some extra sustain 30/25/0/15/0 or 20/25/0/25/0 can also work. The sustain isnt great, but if you learn to avoid most of the damage it can really bring your hp back up quite quickly. I recommend berserker gear or for slightly more defense, knights armour with berserker weapons and trinkets.

What traits would you recommend in Spite and Curse? I noticed you’ve selected 25 in Curse, but would Target the Weak really be that useful if i’m not a Condi-mancer?

What’s your view on Signet of Spite, keep or swap?

Target the weak is a really strong trait for power builds because it increases your direct damage for each unique condition on a target. This includes non damaging conditions like weakness, blind and cripple. Its not very useful for condi builds because they dont have a lot of direct damage.

Signet of spite is a really nice power boost. I love to keep it on my bar. But if you have a more difficult fight coming up then its probably the first utility you should swap for well of darkness or well of power. So I would personally keep it most of the time.

For spite i usually run spiteful talisman because I use the focus. If you arent using that then you could take reapers might or spiteful spirit instead. For the second trait you should usually use chill of death. Its more of a pvp trait but it synergises with target the weak so its still quite nice in pve. Final spite trait should always be close to death because damage good!

For curses i recommend weakening shroud (aoe dmg and weakness when going into DS) and banshees wail. Banshees wail will allow you to daze and cripple much more often with warhorn which is probably our best defensive offhand in pve. Its also good for damage aswell.

If you want more details. I explain most of this stuff in my guide stickied at the top of the necro subforum(see signature for link).

Rocking the Warhorn now, it’s awesome with Banshee’s Wail!

one more question, what should i do for my Elite? I see you’ve said Plague, does that synergize with Target the Weak? I saw a lot of people say that a Power Lich is a complete monster when it comes to damage so i’m still unsure what to choose

Flesh golem is probably your best bet. I stopped using plague recently. Its more of an emergency defense skill, its damage is really bad so you dont want to use it for anything other than defense, skipping past mobs or stability.

Lich form is nice damage at range in pvp, wvw or for non power builds. But for power builds, dagger does more damage. So flesh golem is superior.