Guild Wars 2

I’d like to try a condi necro, out of curiosity. As Grenth is my witness, I’ll only use it where it shouldn’t offend people — solo for dailies, living world instances, that kind of thing.

I’ve read good DPS necro PvE guides, and seen necro PvP condi guides, but there doesn’t seem to be anything for PvE condi. Could anybody give me some pointers to get started, on general principles or specific builds?

This is a video guide I’ve used that I thought was pretty well done. It’s an hour long, but you can get to the different sections of the video via the table of contents. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QwiTyE5vqw

This condimancer build, which has been endorsed on two separate threads on /r/GuildWars2Builds (here and here), works well.

I’ve been running this build for some time now, though I use Lingering Curse in place of Staff Mastery and Krait runes over Undead runes. Its single target DPS loses out to a Berserker’s Dagger 1 and Life Blast (obviously), but if you can get a well-timed Epidemic off on multiple foes I feel this is the Necro’s best build for AoE damage.

Why would a condi necro “offend people”?

Well, you might for example fight the Risen High Wizard at the gates of Arah along with 75 other people. He hits 25 stacks of bleeding (which is the cap) in about a second, and any more bleeding your condition necro adds are lost in moments. So you’re scaling the event by being there, but not killing the boss. That offends some people, they feel that that you should bring a DPS build instead and “pull your weight”.

Thanks for the replies so far guys, I’m chewing through the references.

Morte.5916:

Well, you might for example fight the Risen High Wizard at the gates of Arah along with 75 other people. He hits 25 stacks of bleeding (which is the cap) in about a second, and any more bleeding your condition necro adds are lost in moments. So you’re scaling the event by being there, but not killing the boss. That offends some people, they feel that that you should bring a DPS build instead and “pull your weight”.

Hello, please identify the offending useless scum condimancers in this screen of a Risen High Wizard fight :P

Seriously, any build that can plow through mobs in solo play and can get a gold medal in meta events is a good PvE build.

Well I guess it works if you’re completing maps or something or story instances, and it does work for soloing arah, but I’d say that 6/6/0/0/2 would be ideal trait wise from what others have told me, so you get max duration and dhuumfire, which is a significant DPS boost.

Also you should consider stuffing your face with koi cake.

I think people get offended more when you bring a condi necro to dungeons, one major reason being that the condition cap is low and everyone has conditions that they put on passively (e.g. a minor trait that gives bleeding on critical hits) which overwrite yours. There’s other reasons and been tons of discussion on it in these subforums, so I won’t go into the nitty gritty details.

No one is really going to mind what you run in open world PvE and, regardless of whether they did, they have no control over it anyway. People would get far more offended if you use fears on mobs that people are trying to AoE/cleave/melee, because that prevents others from being effective.

In open world PvE, conditionmancer can actually be pretty nice. One example is fighting champions that have tons of adds. Since the champ is going to have every condition ever, every Epidemic will make short work of 5 of those adds, in addition to the AoEs you’re already dishing out. Even though you might not be doing tons of personal damage to the Risen High Wizard, you’re making it easier for others to do damage — not to mention the loot you’re getting! Once you learn how to use the tools at your disposal effectively, you start to learn what to use to your advantage in a given situation.

CSZTerence.1095:

Morte.5916:

Well, you might for example fight the Risen High Wizard at the gates of Arah along with 75 other people. He hits 25 stacks of bleeding (which is the cap) in about a second, and any more bleeding your condition necro adds are lost in moments. So you’re scaling the event by being there, but not killing the boss. That offends some people, they feel that that you should bring a DPS build instead and “pull your weight”.

Hello, please identify the offending useless scum condimancers in this screen of a Risen High Wizard fight :P

Seriously, any build that can plow through mobs in solo play and can get a gold medal in meta events is a good PvE build.

Because getting gold medal is hard. You can get gold by hitting a mob once just before it dies. So no not every build that gets gold is good.

spoj.9672:

Because getting gold medal is hard. You can get gold by hitting a mob once just before it dies. So no not every build that gets gold is good.

Hi but not every PvE build that can get gold can actually ‘plow through mobs’, i.e let you freely roam around and rhythmically mow down everything in your path (except maybe champions), without any waiting for skills to get off cooldown. The only builds I’ve known that can do that are the Death Shroud, Wells and Condimancer builds.

My condi-farm build

Fine in general open world PvE, great solo farming, tough as nails. To avoid the downside of condition ramp-up time, I basically always aim to fight as many enemies at a time as possible. Pull as much as possible, epidemic, collect loot. I farm a lot underwater with trident (Kraitkin!). Hence, Spite VI because of the liberal use of plague blast to transfer BiP self-bleeds and inflict dumbfire.

I don’t claim it to be terribly original. I run the vampiric stuff for flavor mostly (I also hate staff, so I don’t use the usual staff condimancer traits). Siphon adds a touch of extra damage and sustain when facing packs and also keeps your health topped up so you can run directly into the next fight without waiting to be out-of-combat to heal up. The vamp numbers and heal can be pretty funny with trident #5 though.

CSZTerence.1095:

spoj.9672:

Because getting gold medal is hard. You can get gold by hitting a mob once just before it dies. So no not every build that gets gold is good.

Hi but not every PvE build that can get gold can actually ‘plow through mobs’, i.e let you freely roam around and rhythmically mow down everything in your path (except maybe champions), without any waiting for skills to get off cooldown. The only builds I’ve known that can do that are the Death Shroud, Wells and Condimancer builds.

Except condi builds only work well if noone else is applying conditions. Which was the original arguement. Condi builds just scale up boss events and contribute next to nothing. They are fine solo or small groups though.

spoj.9672:

CSZTerence.1095:

spoj.9672:

Because getting gold medal is hard. You can get gold by hitting a mob once just before it dies. So no not every build that gets gold is good.

Hi but not every PvE build that can get gold can actually ‘plow through mobs’, i.e let you freely roam around and rhythmically mow down everything in your path (except maybe champions), without any waiting for skills to get off cooldown. The only builds I’ve known that can do that are the Death Shroud, Wells and Condimancer builds.

Except condi builds only work well if noone else is applying conditions. Which was the original arguement. Condi builds just scale up boss events and contribute next to nothing. They are fine solo or small groups though.

This is so true.. Last night I was doing tequatl on power necro and I was doing North boat defense. Our group was good but as teq started a necro came over to use, which spawned champions that wouldn’t have normally spawned. When I whispered him and told him nicely to gtfo and zerg, he said that he was a condtion necro, so he’d be useless against teq or the fingers..

And I just facepalmed and told him this wasn’t the triple wurm, and that theres no point to bringing conditions for teq in any way shape or form. He just responded by saying that I should thank anet so that he can play how he wants, and I just told him that in no way is that an excuse for making our lives harder, and he should stop being a dipkitten and put on power gear for this kind of stuff…

Then he went back to the zerg and attempted to bleed, posion, and torment tequila the sunburnt white gurl to death.

nearlight.3064:

spoj.9672:

CSZTerence.1095:

spoj.9672:

Because getting gold medal is hard. You can get gold by hitting a mob once just before it dies. So no not every build that gets gold is good.

Hi but not every PvE build that can get gold can actually ‘plow through mobs’, i.e let you freely roam around and rhythmically mow down everything in your path (except maybe champions), without any waiting for skills to get off cooldown. The only builds I’ve known that can do that are the Death Shroud, Wells and Condimancer builds.

Except condi builds only work well if noone else is applying conditions. Which was the original arguement. Condi builds just scale up boss events and contribute next to nothing. They are fine solo or small groups though.

This is so true.. Last night I was doing tequatl on power necro and I was doing North boat defense. Our group was good but as teq started a necro came over to use, which spawned champions that wouldn’t have normally spawned. When I whispered him and told him nicely to gtfo and zerg, he said that he was a condtion necro, so he’d be useless against teq or the fingers..

And I just facepalmed and told him this wasn’t the triple wurm, and that theres no point to bringing conditions for teq in any way shape or form. He just responded by saying that I should thank anet so that he can play how he wants, and I just told him that in no way is that an excuse for making our lives harder, and he should stop being a dipkitten and put on power gear for this kind of stuff…

Then he went back to the zerg and attempted to bleed, posion, and torment tequila the sunburnt white gurl to death.

So a player came to play with you, some tougher mobs spawned and you raged and told him to leave ? nice attitude…
If every boss hp was scaled with having in mind that each player is lv80 asc zerk, they would never die…

These replies seriously make me want to take a condition build to world events, to kitten people off

Why? Because the truth hurts? Grow up lol.

Pelopidas.2140:

nearlight.3064:

spoj.9672:

CSZTerence.1095:

spoj.9672:

Because getting gold medal is hard. You can get gold by hitting a mob once just before it dies. So no not every build that gets gold is good.

Hi but not every PvE build that can get gold can actually ‘plow through mobs’, i.e let you freely roam around and rhythmically mow down everything in your path (except maybe champions), without any waiting for skills to get off cooldown. The only builds I’ve known that can do that are the Death Shroud, Wells and Condimancer builds.

Except condi builds only work well if noone else is applying conditions. Which was the original arguement. Condi builds just scale up boss events and contribute next to nothing. They are fine solo or small groups though.

This is so true.. Last night I was doing tequatl on power necro and I was doing North boat defense. Our group was good but as teq started a necro came over to use, which spawned champions that wouldn’t have normally spawned. When I whispered him and told him nicely to gtfo and zerg, he said that he was a condtion necro, so he’d be useless against teq or the fingers..

And I just facepalmed and told him this wasn’t the triple wurm, and that theres no point to bringing conditions for teq in any way shape or form. He just responded by saying that I should thank anet so that he can play how he wants, and I just told him that in no way is that an excuse for making our lives harder, and he should stop being a dipkitten and put on power gear for this kind of stuff…

Then he went back to the zerg and attempted to bleed, posion, and torment tequila the sunburnt white gurl to death.

So a player came to play with you, some tougher mobs spawned and you raged and told him to leave ? nice attitude…
If every boss hp was scaled with having in mind that each player is lv80 asc zerk, they would never die…

I actually didn’t use any of those exact words. I was pretty nice, even if he was standoffish about it. The main issue was that he didn’t join our group during SET UP. He just comes over here and champs get spawned. The gear debate is the second issue. With something like teq, his contributions will matter little as long he doesn’t scale kitten up. In no way did I tell him zerk or kick (PVT is theoretically ideal for most of teq, but zerk/valk is fine if you can avoid the waves and whatnot) I just told him that his gear wasn’t an excuse to ruin our organization and make our jobs harder, and that if he thinks gear is an excuse, then he should change that gear/spec and not be an problem, or just get here a half hour earlier so he actually can get the job he wants.

Honestly, people calm your kittens, and don’t be a kitten towards player made organization. You can play how you want when you’re with people that are okay with that, and in this case that didn’t work out because we didn’t want champs to spawn… which they did. I would have said the same thing to a zerker warrior who wanted to help us, its just in this case he was using his spec as an excuse, which is NOT at all an excuse for any rational person. I honestly wouldn’t have cared if we was a condi necro as long as he joined the group when we still had spots open.

spoj.9672:

Why? Because the truth hurts? Grow up lol.

Because it’s fun?

Axelwarrior.9084:

spoj.9672:

Why? Because the truth hurts? Grow up lol.

Because it’s fun?

Theres a difference between having harmless fun and hurting other people around you.

I doubt you think about ethics much.

I doubt you’d appreciate it if you came along to a group, and got whispered to leave….
Dont be racist people

nearlight.3064:

Axelwarrior.9084:

spoj.9672:

Why? Because the truth hurts? Grow up lol.

Because it’s fun?

Theres a difference between having harmless fun and hurting other people around you.

I doubt you think about ethics much.

Oh no, you questioned my ethics? I must be a terrible person for playing a game the way I want.
Tell you what; If I actually do it, I’ll announce that I’m using a condition build in the map chat and I bet that more than one person harasses me for it, making the “elitist” side unethical.

Pelopidas.2140:

I doubt you’d appreciate it if you came along to a group, and got whispered to leave….
Dont be racist people

What are you? Some carebear unicorn whisper? It’s a tequaltl for god sake, an event that requires organization. If everyone did their own thing the event would fail. I have tough enough skin to know that being told to leave is nothing at all personal. It’s the way the event works for God’s sake. If champs spawn and our group can’t handle them then the turrets are in danger of wiping.

Axelwarrior.9084:

nearlight.3064:

Axelwarrior.9084:

spoj.9672:

Why? Because the truth hurts? Grow up lol.

Because it’s fun?

Theres a difference between having harmless fun and hurting other people around you.

I doubt you think about ethics much.

Oh no, you questioned my ethics? I must be a terrible person for playing a game the way I want.
Tell you what; If I actually do it, I’ll announce that I’m using a condition build in the map chat and I bet that more than one person harasses me for it, making the “elitist” side unethical.

I don’t care if you use a condition spec on tequaltl. I just care that you’d go out of your way to scale up the event is the issue. In my anecdote that person used his build as an excuse to join our defense team. But that is no excuse, if you want to be on defense regardless of what build you play, you come early enough to get a spot like everyone else.

So I’m questioning your ethics because you purposely wanted to scale up an event to troll other people, not because you like builds inefficient for the situation at hand..

Edit: oh wait you said nothing about wanting to scale events up on purpose. My bad! Feel free to play what you want for world bosses, just conform to the organization of the event and don’t use your build as an excuse to not do the job you were assigned.

If you want bags from trash mobs in a large PvE event, I recommend a berserker staff dagger build. It has gotten much harder to win bags with so many other professions also running spike damage builds. Farming has gotten much more difficult since the superserver.

Anchoku.8142:

If you want bags from trash mobs in a large PvE event, I recommend a berserker staff dagger build. It has gotten much harder to win bags with so many other professions also running spike damage builds. Farming has gotten much more difficult since the superserver.

If I happen on a big group event on my necro that’s what I use — Spoj’s death shroud build in the staff variant. But I use a staff + S/F setup on my Guardian when I actually set out to do that sort of thing.

True, running Necro is suboptimal but my alts are stuffed and I stubbornly refuse to get with the times and farm with some thing better. ><

Well, I gave it a go.

I used a build similar in principle to the one linked by Okalevi – Rabid AoE bleed stacking with passive heal. I bought masterwork gear with superior Krait runes and used exotic consumables; I think it cost about half a gold. Traits/runes have changed since that video was made, but I think I came close enough to see what it’s like to play.

It’s a bit slow killing a risen villager on the cursed shore. But if you pull three and AoE it’s quite reasonable. A dagger with cleave (wishful thinking) would be better…

As suggested, casting Epidemic on the champ risen giant kills grubs. And on the champ risen broodmother (an event that does sometimes fail) it kills hatchlings, which people wrongly ignore. Of course you can use Epidemic in berserker gear too, but that just gets them to around half health which means they’re still dangerous.

I kind of remembered reading that the wraiths in Grenth cap part 1 are not immune to conditions like they are to weapons, so I thought I’d give that a go. But no such luck, I got big walls of “immune”. In the interests of science I stayed for the Grenth loot phase. Attacking trash got me no XP or loot; I just didn’t put enough damage on to tag. So I switched veterans, and didn’t do too well. According to my stacking sigil, I got 8 kills in the event.

I did find one fight where the build worked like a dream. In Malchor’s Leap, with an ele and a guardian, I cleared a camp of risen. There were 2 elites, 5-7 veterans, and maybe 20 others. The AoE worked a treat, the double powered Epidemic was awesome, and the trickle heal was as useful as having another player or two to take pressure off me.

It depends heavily on food, 40% condition duration is 40% damage when this build is doing what it’s meant for. I’m poor, I like magic find food.

My overall impression: This AoE condi thing works if you need the AoE and you can avoid the stacking cap. But that doesn’t happen so often. So it’s usually a solution looking for a problem. But it has its moments, and one can usually see them coming. If Anet got around to letting us save named builds (including gear) and switch in a click or two, it could become quite handy.