Guild Wars 2

Hey there Necromancer community!

I have had an idea for a mechanic for a while now (maybe im dumb and this is widely used idk)

Anyhow i have been playing with Pain Inverter mixed with Spiteful Spirit and Foot in the Grave

I think a major problem with Necromancer is our survivability (high HP and DS aside) we don’t have Block, Vigor or Distortion or any other mechanics to soak up burst damage. So here is the plan Punish the burst

Ill wait for someone to start there burst combo then i will pop Pain Inverter and follow it up with DS if it is a particularly nasty burst ill go for Pain Inverter + Spectral Armor then DS

This combo works well with my Power build it also synergises well with my condition build minus Foot in the Grave

I feel like i am missing some utility so my question is, what build do you think this combo fits best in

And do you have any other creative ways of mitigating damage or stopping burst. please share here

Or change axe 3 into pain inverter add more retal and instant cast without a big animation..

Pain inverter can’t be used in PvP, so that theory is out the door.

The only Mitigation we have to an enemies burst is either:
1. use spectral armor with DS active
2.drop a well of shadows (if they’re in melee range)
3. fear them (entering death shroud and doom are both instant cast)

striker.3704:

Pain inverter can’t be used in PvP, so that theory is out the door.

I assume he’s talking about WvW, where you can use racial skills.

striker.3704:

The only Mitigation we have to an enemies burst is either:
1. use spectral armor with DS active
2.drop a well of shadows (if they’re in melee range)
3. fear them (entering death shroud and doom are both instant cast)

Also Weakness and Boon stripping (if you strip Might/Fury).

The thing about burst is that most classes have single attacks that do heavy damage. Backstab for instance is one. Trading 1 tick of retal for a 4-10k backstab is not a good mix lol.

The main problem being that retaliation damage is half of what it used to be, and even back then it wasn’t anything more than an annoyance to most people. Thieves hit for 2-7k per swing on most attacks, and sending back a piddly 200-350 damage hardly matters. In condition builds the damage is even more lack-luster, as it scales with power.

Retalaition is a good counter against AOE pressure, it really isn’t designed to counter single targets (except those that have lots of little hits). A single ele casting an aoe skill that ticks 3-4 times on 5 people all with retaliation is going to take 1000’s of damage (good counter). A necro using life transfer against 5 people with retaliation is going to take even more (good counter). A thief that hits you 5 times and kills you takes ~1000 damage (bad counter).

Our retaliation isn’t aoe it is self, so as you can imagine it doesn’t help a whole lot in those AOE situations, when a guardian can apply retaliation to everyone around him.

That being said, I use spiteful spirit all the time, as it is the best option at the 10 point level in a condi build (even all things considered). I think the real question is, what do you give up for pain inverter? Epidemic, spectral wall, and maybe pain inverter in the third slot… but I still prefer BIP.

tattoohead.3217:

And do you have any other creative ways of mitigating damage or stopping burst. please share here

Don’t know if it qualifies as “creative”…but…Protection (-33% dmg) from wells via the Ritual of Protection trait.

See my Protector build, and the link in there to Nemesis’ Abomination build, on which my build is based:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Post-Your-Build-Thread/2623011

This is more for WvW and PvE in sPvP and tPvP I run a different build.

What I have found is PI works well as a deterrent. I mean OFC its better to simply not take damage but in the situations where you don’t really have an option the combination of Retaliation + Confusion seems to make people think twice.

Confusion usually shifts the focus from burn to cleanse and melee classes like THF back off a little bit. Just my experience and a lot of people in WvW are just bad so this would not work in sPvP

Oh and i usually run with Signet of Locust for speed i was thinking of removing that.