Guild Wars 2

I am a pve player who normally runs a lot of dungeons and fractals, because of this I would like to be playing with the best possible tools I have available (In terms of statistics and fun. ) I have two questions I would like to know the necromancer community’s thoughts and advice on so that I have a better view on certain class mechanics.

1. Offhand dagger vs Focus
2. Curses vs Soul Reaping.

Off hand Focus and Warhorn, warhorn 5 is sweet.

Curses vs Soul Reaping is as I understand it DS build vs Dagger build. Dagger has more damage, but DS build is quite nice as well.

Personally, I prefer soul reaping solely for foot in the grave and that one trait that reduces shroud cooldown down by 30%. That means I get a 7 second cooldown stunbreak with 1 stack of 3 second stability. That also means I technically won’t have to pack any other stunbreak skills. I’m certain other necros will disagree with me but I like my fast stunbreaks that have stability with it.

I’ve always liked offhand focus for regeneration and vulnerability.

As for soul reaping vs curses, I’ve always perferred soul reaping because I like DS builds. The ability to have a lot of LF, slow degeneration in DS and an extra 50% crit chance (which allows me to build less precision and more vitality) does really well for decent damage/survivability. However, I will admit that I haven’t done much in the new curse line and can’t compare them well.

I would say Soul reaping can be really good, especially for maximizing your DS utilization, but if you don’t plan on using DS curses will likely be better.

Just remember to do what feels the most fun. Most builds can be tweaked to be effective but you won’t be effective at it if you don’t enjoy it. You’re already a necromancer in PvE, which means we get a lot of crap so we’re not aiming to impress anyone else anyway :p

yeh DS builds for the win! love that soul reaping…

I was using Soul Reaping for a bit and I don’t think it’s worth it for PvE. You do more damage with your dagger even if you have Death Perception.

Foot in the Grave is only one stack of stab, barely matters. Handles light annoyances like the harpies in asura fractal but doesn’t really matter against the really dangerous things that have repeated CC.

And the other trait I used to really like was the one that reduces shroud degen. But I usually use shroud to soak burst so the degen doesn’t really matter.

Meanwhile Curses is a decent supplement to Spite for additional damage so I’d probably take it over Soul Reaping but I am currently Spite/Blood/Death. I don’t have much to say about Curses, nothing too amazing in it.

Khristophoros.7194:

I was using Soul Reaping for a bit and I don’t think it’s worth it for PvE. You do more damage with your dagger even if you have Death Perception.

Foot in the Grave is only one stack of stab, barely matters. Handles light annoyances like the harpies in asura fractal but doesn’t really matter against the really dangerous things that have repeated CC.

And the other trait I used to really like was the one that reduces shroud degen. But I usually use shroud to soak burst so the degen doesn’t really matter.

Meanwhile Curses is a decent supplement to Spite for additional damage so I’d probably take it over Soul Reaping but I am currently Spite/Blood/Death. I don’t have much to say about Curses, nothing too amazing in it.

I’ve never been sure as to whether dagger or DS1 really does more damage. When there’s only two mobs or you’re not acute with aim, then it’s no contest dagger wins. DS 1 has two major advantages that I’ve been trying to compare:
1 – For max DPS, you can be up to 600 range away which gives you a bit more mobility.
2 – If you line your shot and have the right trait, you can hit up to 5 targets with one Life Blast, which increases overall damage significantly.

That said, dagger still does some of the highest damage for necro and I agree that it’s totally viable to simply use DS to soak damage and for some ranged (if necessary). In this case, SR may not be worth it over the other lines.