Guild Wars 2

Hi,
I know people have dim views on vampiric builds, but to be honest I really dont care if it is at the top of its game or not. I personally think it is fine, could use a boost.

Ive been focusing on Knight’s gear, with power precision toughness, however I was wondering what you guys would think about a full Nightmare set from Twilight Arbor..

Precision Vitality Healing Power.

Im trying to get Arah story done so I can have ease of access to exp, and the gear looks sick, but the TA gear set looks pretty good too.

Thoughts on farming that for a life-stealing well-heavy build?

Hi,

Heres the corresponding explanation :http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vampiric
In short, Vampiric as well as the rituals for wells, does not! scale with healing power. Thats what everybody gets crazy about. because its somehow useless to skill healing then, except for the self heal and regen from Staff 2.

Making us healing wise pretty lame. The regen can be nice on Staff 2 with bigger marks, as you can keep it up on the front, but for a bigger selfheal or the well (50 sec cool down, bound to a place … in a game where moving defines win or lose), makes the blood magic again pretty weak. Thats why the Necro community keeps leaving, as we have little synergy in our traits. Same with MM. If you are not playing MM, its a little confusing why we have less gain from the toughness line, as other classes have, even though we would like to get the tough + actual helpfull traits for every skill.

So, I guess the Knight gear is a lot better for Melee in dungeons, as healing is giving you nothing. Haven’t tried it in PvP though.

tyvm for that.

Here is my current build:
Curses: 2, 8, 9 (hemophilia, focused rituals, banshee’s wail)
Death magic: 4 (Ritual of protection)
Blood Magic: 2, 5, 8 (Bloodthirst, Vampiric Precision, Ritual Mastery)

I run D/WH and Staff with sigil of blood on dagger.

Utilies:
Consume Conditions(I chose this over well of blood because it really keeps me upright in heavy condition fights)
Well of Power(Here is my contribution to the group via a skill. )
Well of Corruption
Well of Suffering

The wells heal me per tick, my auto attacks heal my per tick, Life Siphon heals me per tick, and crits heal me. While the healing stat doesnt scale with most of this, it seems, I still do not go down a lot.

I have 22.7k HP, 1547 toughness, 45% crit, unbuffed.

My contribution to the group is:
-Bosses that hate on high toughness and proximity might aggro to me a bit more
-I do not go down alot, if at all.
-AOE condition removal.

My damage isnt as high as say a thief, but again I go down a lot less than on my thief, therefor my group doesnt need to spend time rezzing me.

I know people dislike life stealing, but to me its the only build that has worked for me and that where I didnt get face pounded in Orr. I left the necromancer in Orr because I was getting owned via a scepter dagger condition build. Purely destroyed. Checked this out and I was taking on 4,5, sometimes 6 mobs at once in Orr without dying. And I wasn’t kiting. Not bad for a clothie.

I actually like the life siphon as well.

Its not that bad, but you run all wells, and they have big cooldowns. Doesnt bring that much to the grp when compared to the Elementalist (who dyes a lot faster true). Same damage I guess, but a lot more grp utility on staff.
Lifesteal is nice, but when you stand in CoE 2 or 3 where you can not actually stand still nor melee, the wells are useless and you won’t do any damage, whilst condition is still usefull…
Thats what I mean. We can go different trait paths, but they are circumstancial, whereas condition is just always better. That should be fixed. We don’t realy need big buffs damage wise or so.

sternenstaub.8763:

I actually like the life siphon as well.

Its not that bad, but you run all wells, and they have big cooldowns. Doesnt bring that much to the grp when compared to the Elementalist (who dyes a lot faster true). Same damage I guess, but a lot more grp utility on staff.
Lifesteal is nice, but when you stand in CoE 2 or 3 where you can not actually stand still nor melee, the wells are useless and you won’t do any damage, whilst condition is still usefull…
Thats what I mean. We can go different trait paths, but they are circumstancial, whereas condition is just always better. That should be fixed. We don’t realy need big buffs damage wise or so.

Hi, I have to disagree with the majority if your statement.

-Wells do have a large cooldown, unless you select Ritual Mastery(20% cd reduction), which I have. On a trash pull in most dungeons I can get two Wells of Suffering off normally. Thats not bad for the benefit it provides.
-You dont need to be standing in the well or standing still to receive the life siphon, if youve traited for it. Vampiric Rituals.
-I selected ground targeting so that I can cast a well on the move, or on a pack of mobs some place else other than where I am standing. I get the life siphon still.
-You dont need to stand still to use the #2 dagger ability life siphon.
-Most dungeons arent too melee friendly anyways. If everyone just went ranged because of this, then the game would be dull and I probably wouldn’t be playing anymore. You CAN be in melee on some or at least half of the fights that most people say to stay ranged. There are a few that you REALLY need to stay ranged.
-The utility I am providing to the group is an aoe condition removal, and combo fields for life steal. Not to mention, the mere fact that I am built semi-tank means that HOPEFULLY I am taking some of the aggro off the group, if even for a few seconds at a clip.

I think the life siphon builds are pretty good…

Concerning your last statement, I am realizing that condition builds are kind of…meh. Capping bleed stacks…means most of your effectiveness is capped. Increasing durations..You can increase the duration to however long you want, but if the mob dies 20 seconds before that poison duration drops, thats just wasted DPS imo.

Condition builds need to be fixed IMO.

One more thing to note: Using a staff with a life siphon build isnt exactly great. Its OK, because if you have any +healing gear, the staff #2 regen is benefited. The best weapon set for a life siphon build is dagger/wh or dagger/dagger. Im running dagger/wh.

Staff should only be used when you need to range, not any other time.
Why?

-4 hits and 4 possible crits within..2 seconds? This means heals per hit, and heals per crit.
-#2 dagger ability, which I believe IS benefited from healing gear, although you shouldn’t gear for it. Decent DPS and your best life siphon.
-#3 to immobilize a mob in a well, while you life siphon the hell out of him.
-Warhorn #4, for an interrupt…eh its ok.
-Warhorn #5, for a small aoe dps/cripple, and is great for map travel.

One trait I might want to reconsider building for is Life Transfer, the deathshroud #4 ability. Heals the group when you use it. Wonder if you could make a build and still include that for increased group utility.

Hey cesmode, I also play a vampire build, but I mostly do WvW so my build is a bit different from yours. Knight’s is the best choice for armor. Since necro’s already have the highest base health in the game we can afford to go full toughness. I ran full exotic Knight’s for about a month and it worked wonders anywhere I went (didn’t try sPvP). Lately I swapped out the jewels for Berserker’s. So don’t bother with the TA armor, like sternenstaub said the healing doesn’t help a vampire build that much.

I agree that life siphon builds are good. I also agree that using a staff on a siphon build isn’t great. In your case it works out since it seems like you play mostly dungeons and PvE.

cesmode.4257:

tyvm for that.

Here is my current build:
Curses: 2, 8, 9 (hemophilia, focused rituals, banshee’s wail)
Death magic: 4 (Ritual of protection)
Blood Magic: 2, 5, 8 (Bloodthirst, Vampiric Precision, Ritual Mastery)

I run D/WH and Staff with sigil of blood on dagger.

Utilies:
Consume Conditions(I chose this over well of blood because it really keeps me upright in heavy condition fights)
Well of Power(Here is my contribution to the group via a skill. )
Well of Corruption
Well of Suffering

The wells heal me per tick, my auto attacks heal my per tick, Life Siphon heals me per tick, and crits heal me. While the healing stat doesnt scale with most of this, it seems, I still do not go down a lot.

I’m using nearly the same build with knight armor + emerald orbs and all emerald trinkets, along with a sigil of blood and sigil of perception on my weapons.

However, I highly recommend swapping out consume conditions, focused rituals and ritual mastery for well of blood, withering precision and vampiric rituals. Given the fact that you’re fighting at melee range, you don’t need to target wells. Withering precision will help to further reduce incoming damage. And vampiric rituals is amazing. As long as there are enemies in range, it essentially gives you four healing skills instead of one. Which also give you 3 seconds of protection every time since you’ve already got ritual of protection (and as far as I know, you need to be inside the well when it is cast to receive the boon, and so is another reason to not use focused rituals).

Pop a blackberry pie (or similar, but these seem to be at the sweet spot of cost/benefit) and you’re nearly invincible in PVE. I never go down outside of dungeons with this build, and can tank pretty much anything if I play it right (intelligent use of death shroud to soak up damage while waiting for the lengthy well recharge helps here). You’re also providing a decent amount of support for a group, given the protection with wells, the massive amounts of damage you’ll usually be sucking up, the frequent combo fields, AoE condition removal, and conditions and boon removal on enemies.

I found Dagger+Focus works better as your main set in a vampire build because of the regen stacking.

As others have said healing is a wasted attribute on us at the moment. But since our drains are set healing amount that gives us the freedom to replace it with something else.

I favour Knights or Rabid gear, depending on how your setup (A dagger with sigil of earth can stack bleed pretty good).

You also wanna have a look at the food that either gives you constant health regen, or boosts your condition duration depending how you build.

I am going to have to try this build out, sounds like fun.