Guild Wars 2

Overall I can’t wait to get home and try out some new builds. I’ve mained necro since beta and have been waiting for this. My only complaint is that Reanimator and PotH have remained unchanged. Was hoping they would be merged at least to make room for something…well…useful.

Can’t wait to play with some more DS focused builds again though!

For someone whos been playing necro since the betas.
I don’t really get anything out of this. It just complicates things and some real issues still go unaddressed, also feels more hinted towards PvP then PvE

I can’t wait to try my new condition “Fire and Blood” build…. or maybe just spec full zerk 30/10/0/0/30 and spam 100% crit lifeblast at 1200 feet and enjoy the power…..nah, i will stay a conditionmaster !

What a mother kitten great patch !

Aoe immobilize with DS # 5 is awesome, seeming you can also channel DS #4 at the same time it can do some serious damage as a power build. Throw in some well action and say bye-bye to people standing in em.

I am looking into a 30 20 10 0 10 build for a condition build, but how in the kitten am I supposed to get LF generation? Meh.

Actually, with gluttony, and the increase in scepter 3 life force, I seem to generate it without too much problems. Add a few staff skills in, and its not bad. PLus, i dont stay in there too long, as DS for a condition/terror build is about utility. Now you can jump in, tormet, fear (while tormenting), and DS2, to maintain condition damage. I never seem to have life force issues now. Of course its not like an axe power build, but I seem to notice having 20 more in SR as my life force pool now appears to be bigger (even though I have run this in the past).

Blake.2973:

I can’t wait to try my new condition “Fire and Blood” build…. or maybe just spec full zerk 30/10/0/0/30 and spam 100% crit lifeblast at 1200 feet and enjoy the power…..nah, i will stay a conditionmaster !

What a mother kitten great patch !

Just tried what I think you are going for, something like 30/20/0/0/20. Let me tell you with the right runes, sigils, and rabid gear this is gonna be pretty sick. I’m hitting 2K with DS1 in a Cond build. Combine that with bleeds, burns, and chills (I run the non standard sceptor/focus on my condition build just for the chill, don’t judge) and we have a winner. That burn procs pretty reliably and the fear hits hard as well with the extended condition duration we gain from the spite tree. Anet did us right on this one.

For those saying Necros are OP now (specially on PvP), remember, others classes have changes too and they are trying new things.
Just wait until good players learn their new builds and then come a say we are OP.

So essentially we just became some semi to hard nuking caster with still close to zero attrition. Great! I guess i can finally give up on nec.

This is so dumb lol, I am just destroying people, I mean, badly. Fear+Burning combo them into the ground lol

Bellamy.9860:

So essentially we just became some semi to hard nuking caster with still close to zero attrition. Great! I guess i can finally give up on nec.

It’s weird. We have way more burst, but are also more susceptible to burst now, if you are going for the new dumbfire.

Are there any build sites that are updated?

galandor.1059:

This is so dumb lol, I am just destroying people, I mean, badly. Fear+Burning combo them into the ground lol

Alot of necros im fighting are doing that >.> not very well lol

Dietzen.6127:

Sajuuk.4973:

TheAgedGnome.7520:

Also:

• All elite player transforms (racial and profession) now have a 1-second cooldown on leaving them. This was done to prevent unintentionally leaving through double-clicking.

So glad! Too often I would spaz-click F1 and just flash in/out of DS unintentionally.

NOooooo!! As a powermancer I constantly flashed in DS to drop enfeebling blood, gain fury and start striking with my daggers. Oh well, not complaining just have to adapt. I am drooling over WoP, now a stun breaker and a 1 sec stability! I’m liking the changes overall. Thank you Anet

You can still DS flash, it only affects elite transforms, also says so in the change

All elite player transforms (racial and profession) now have a 1-second cooldown on leaving them. This was done to prevent unintentionally leaving through double-clicking.

Excellent, I guess my excitement of all the changes has got me miss reading certain things

galandor.1059:

This is so dumb lol, I am just destroying people, I mean, badly. Fear+Burning combo them into the ground lol

Pretty much. In WvW a doom crit can deal over 9000 damage now from terror and dhuumfire. I haven’t had a chance to try things out there yet, but I’m looking forward to it in a couple hours.

Does anyone know how rapidly Spectral Wall applies the fear? I wonder if it would be an efficient Defiant stripper?

Bellamy.9860:

So essentially we just became some semi to hard nuking caster with still close to zero attrition. Great! I guess i can finally give up on nec.

They buffed Life Force gain across the board, added small Healing Power scaling to the Vampiric trait, and gave us a new Death Shroud skill that punishes foes for getting too close to us and for trying to run away. Vampiric is apparently bugged, but they typically hotfix bugs like that fairly quickly. These changes may not have gone far enough, but ANet did just buff our attrition mechanics.

Didn’t expect to see the nerf so soon.
Oh well, it was good 4 hours of power.

Halo.8976:

Didn’t expect to see the nerf so soon.
Oh well, it was good 4 hours of power.

Look again. We just got a couple of bug fixes, one of which we’ve been waiting on since beta.

Halo.8976:

Didn’t expect to see the nerf so soon.
Oh well, it was good 4 hours of power.

What nerf? the patch just added:

Necromancer:

• Path of Midnight: This trait now properly reduces the recharge of Tainted Shackles.
• Necromancer downed health is now the correct amount in all formats on all characters.

That darn terror move without making greater marks baseline or merging it with staff mastery in the 10 tier……. such an annoyance.

Don’t know if anyone else has picked up on this, but Minions are 100-times more responsive now. As in, the very second you start your AA (or any other skill) they go running to the target. Target switching is just as responsive.

Very pleased with this little nugget on top of everything else we got!

EDIT: Like, minions are legitimately fixed. It’s crazy.

Phenn.5167:

Don’t know if anyone else has picked up on this, but Minions are 100-times more responsive now. As in, the very second you start your AA (or any other skill) they go running to the target. Target switching is just as responsive.

Very pleased with this little nugget on top of everything else we got!

EDIT: Like, minions are legitimately fixed. It’s crazy.

Now you mentioned it, I run MM all the time so I didn’t pay attentions but I think you are correct. I just hope is not our imaginations or just a beneficial bug.

In other news, I did a fast test with 30/10/0/0/30 and OMFG! DS in now the true meaning of power.

DS#4 + DS#5 = AoE Doom and underwater DS#1 is beyond OP

Since other professions has been OP for a long time (I was bored last night so I tried a mesmer and after playing with the traits, I found they do a kittenload of damage just like wars/guardians), I think we deserved such power (we are very powerful now but we can’t do anything other OP professions can’t) but unfortunately, I expect a mega-nerf (necros aren’t Anet’s favorite profession and it takes 1 single mesmer complaining to screw us all).

Did they mention anything about summons being able to regenerate out of combat? Was it in the leak that didn’t make it into final patch, I forgot already.

kinda crazy. relatively still new to necro (just picked hmi up not long ago) and this huge patch! guess it’s alright cause i haven’t even come close to being familair with the pre-patch necro yet.

just a silly question – does fear change directions of peolpe being feared in each time its applied? if so, would this be possible? i place a wall in front of enemies running from me, they hit it get feared and run towards me, i DS fear them, would they turn back towards the wall? if so, would they then get feared by the wall again? or is it a one time thing? so they’d technically be running back and forth, while you could drop wells, or just DS 5 them the whoel time they’re being feared, immob at end of torment then drop wells or what have you then.

akamon.2769:

kinda crazy. relatively still new to necro (just picked hmi up not long ago) and this huge patch! guess it’s alright cause i haven’t even come close to being familair with the pre-patch necro yet.

just a silly question – does fear change directions of peolpe being feared in each time its applied? if so, would this be possible? i place a wall in front of enemies running from me, they hit it get feared and run towards me, i DS fear them, would they turn back towards the wall? if so, would they then get feared by the wall again? or is it a one time thing? so they’d technically be running back and forth, while you could drop wells, or just DS 5 them the whoel time they’re being feared, immob at end of torment then drop wells or what have you then.

Enemies under the effect of fear always run directly away from the player who was the source of the fear. In your example, if your enemies run away from you through spectral wall they will continue running, though with less control. Applying a DS fear won’t change their direction. All that would change it is you changing your position, or if someone else applied a fear so that they would run away from them, instead of you.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Halo.8976:

Didn’t expect to see the nerf so soon.
Oh well, it was good 4 hours of power.

Look again. We just got a couple of bug fixes, one of which we’ve been waiting on since beta.

Sorry. Forgot to use sarcasm sign, my bad.

lettucemode.3789:

Homonavn.6348:

I will just stick to my old well build. I really need my 20 points in death magic and blood magic… I tried running without and no way.. i love my well CD ruduction and health siphoning to much. Feel to squishy without

*secret blood magic high five *

I just can’t quit Death and Blood for my wells either. Though the goodies in the other lines are looking really nice, glad to see more options now.

@Softspoken – ah, gotcha! thanks for the elaborate and easy to understand explantion. will keep testing and learning the ropes around the Necro class. having lot of fun so far and looking forward to putting some final builds together when i get there. ; ))

just sounded like a fun way to CC someone. heh

Mammoth.1975:

over 9000

nerf pls

After playing around a bit last night I came to the conclusion that necro just got a few offensive buffs and a bit of spectral sustain in DS and got terror moved up a tier. The core problems still remain the same.

-A lot of classes can freely disengage from you anytime they want, I saw warriors do some kind of 1 kilometer long jump yesterday a lot of times and another time there was an engineer who just ran with his swiftness, spamming dodges and then did some kind of jump too.

-Slow cast times is still an issue in general and against evade spammers.

-LF generation for a condi spec did not really change that much, the huge change is spectral sustain in DS which can let your survive a huge focus in DS. Outside of spectral armor and walk nothing has really changed.

-Axe ghastly claws is still clunky and gets countered by evades/blocks/invluns/casual steps to the side.

-I do not know if I can say that CC vulnerability stayed the same since we got some stunbreaker changes, but outside SR doesn’t feel like something huge happened.

-Staff is still mandatory with those 10 points into death magic.

We definitely had some improvements in the offensive line and might feel OP in some builds now, but I still kept getting the feeling of being helpless yesterday when 2 people purposely focused and chain CCed me, or 1 thief just trained me with a chain CC as well. It might sound like typical QQ but this is the feeling I got after playing for some time yesterday. Would’ve probably been better if changes included stuff that the community mentioned lots of times and go from there.

Iceflame.5024:

We definitely had some improvements in the offensive line and might feel OP in some builds now, but I still kept getting the feeling of being helpless yesterday when 2 people purposely focused and chain CCed me, or 1 thief just trained me with a chain CC as well. It might sound like typical QQ but this is the feeling I got after playing for some time yesterday. Would’ve probably been better if changes included stuff that the community mentioned lots of times and go from there.

You forgot, that now with warrior changes we are the only profession that actually has to have a peeler to be viable (just the stomp and stance changes let charriors do whatever without babysitting).
So the Patch that necros should like is… well the least benefitial to necros… (i know cantrip eles and immoral build mesmers might cry a bit but they were actually too strong for investment they gave so i still hold to my line).

Still a CC magnet, but offensively Necro is vastly improved and can face-tank maringally better.

I think the people shouting OP are a little ahead of themselves. Necro has moved up slightly in viablility, and they are a bear to deal with since they can either do damage like a Warrior or CC the bejeezus out of you until u dead, but this is still a conquest game. Necro still has no mobility which severely limits competetive ability in a conquest game. At a glance there doesn’t appear to be a viable bunker build introduced through the patch, so even though we got nice toys I don’t think the value of the new shiny stuff outweighs the fact that Necro still lacks the tools to perform up to snuff in conquest. It is nice to be able to run around exterminating other players, but there are still weaknesses and counters.

DS is now a solid class mechanic. A couple of patches ago, they fixed the UI. Now they’ve filled out the skill bar with a new mechanic, improved the mechanics of two of the pre-existing skills, and no longer remove spectral effects on shifting. The last item suggests to me that other “not in DS” options (e.g. healing) may become options down the road.

We got access to another Fear that can be used in an offensive or defensive manner, and another two conditions. Dagger #4 is significantly faster for more reliable blind and condition removal. We got more Life Force generation, another boon removal, reduced well cooldowns and a stun break, and health regen out of combat on two minions.

If you can’t be happy — not totally satisfied, but happy — with some solid improvements, you really should play a Guardian or Warrior and be happy.

Boon Corruption was capped, but then again, when Boon Hate arrives leaving boons on the table may not be an advantage for the target. And a lot of how big the cap is depends on how they prioritize boons to corrupt.

Yes, yes, we didn’t gain mobility — and we won’t, as far as I can tell. We gained more survivability (DS changes, etc), and we gained a bit of anti-mobility, but need some more anti-mobility. It’s a tough balance though: Necros need to be able to restrict others’ mobility so that attacking a Necro becomes a serious decision, but Necros can’t become the “if you have a Necro in your group, no one can escape from you”. (I’d propose something like a 15-second-ish condition that can’t be removed that penalizes a player if they again attack the Necro in that time period. Exact mechanic TBD.)

“It is nice to be able to run around exterminating other players, but there are still weaknesses and counters.” Well yes, every class should have weaknesses and counters.

Bellamy.9860:

So essentially we just became some semi to hard nuking caster with still close to zero attrition. Great! I guess i can finally give up on nec.

Can I have your stuff?

Time for some first impressions from WvW.

After playing around with a few different builds on my condi necro, it seems like A.Net hit the bulls eye of the wrong target. We have tons of offensive potential now. The slow build-up phase required to stack bleeds is still there, but with the addition of torment it is hardly significant at all. You can step into a fight and have a much more immediate impact, without depending on bleeding as your only real source of damage. Signet of spite is a powerhouse now – especially when combined with epidemic – and is actively competing with corrupt boon for a slot on my bar. Weakness is now actually useful and lets you stay in the fight slightly longer. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the playstyle of the condi necro has absolutely nothing to do with attrition whatsoever. You get stuck in, unload a bunch of condi AoEs, and hope the enemy dies before your own life reaches zero. Your offensive arsenal is truly impressive, but you are still a sitting duck for focus damage and CC. Even with both near to death and foot in the grave, the small uptime you get on stability generally isn’t worth the investment, and it’s far too difficult to predict when CC will land to use it preemptively, not to mention you have to put DS on cooldown to do it. I also still cannot get any decent mileage out of the life stealing traits in the blood line, which I have to say I had high hopes for as a viable method of sustain. All told, it seems like the patch solidified our role as an artillery class. You’re basically a walking condition bomb now, but with very few means to sustain yourself. The most viable method of keeping yourself in the fight is to do unto others before they can do unto you.

I do support the nerfs they implemented though. Terror deserved to be a master trait and corrupt boon needed to be less extreme, although a slightly decreased cooldown should probably have accompanied the reduction in effectiveness. With regard to dhuumfire, it feels like it isn’t really worth the investment for a condi build (mostly because the rest of the spite line is trash) which I actually like since as it stands condi builds definitely do not deserve any more offensive potential. You can build for it if you like though, which I think is awesome. Increased build diversity, in fact, is one of the best things about this patch.

For me though, since I would really like to play the kind of necro A.Net originally advertised, we’re not quite there yet. Then again, it feels like my condi necro is so powerful in terms of offense now that asking for any real attrition capability on top of what we already got seems like heresy. The condition necro feels a lot more viable now, but not for the right reasons. All of this is of course early impressions. We need some time to absorb the impact of the changes before any real analysis can be performed.

Also looking forward to trying out a power based build for the first time in a long time, even if it’s not usually my thing. The patch did revitalize my passion for the necro, if nothing else.

10/30/10/0/20
Necromancer Runes
Paralyzation Sigils on each weapon set
Staff, Scepter/Horn
Consume, Signet of Undeath,S. Wall, S.Walk, Golem

No burn, but you don’t need it.
100% fear duration and all sources available
This gives you:

2s “unblockable” AoE Fear on Reaper’s Mark, 2s Fears from S. Wall, 3s DS3 Fear, 3s unblockable AoE Daze, Golem Charge.

Too much CC for stun breaks to matter. You need to count on a team mate to pull stability off, or just wait for it to expire, but Necro isn’t the best boon stripper anymore anyway. Kills. Fast. You could even toy with it giving up the sig to put in CB or WoC to get some strips.

I don’t really like playing as a CC/shut down turret that kills while the opponent can’t do anything, but it sure does work.

ManaCraft.5630:

Also looking forward to trying out a power based build for the first time in a long time, even if it’s not usually my thing. The patch did revitalize my passion for the necro, if nothing else.

It feels to me like ANet has been encouraging a hybrid build for a while now and this continues down that road. I’ve been experimenting with a 30/30/10/0/0 build that’s hybridish, with Scepter/Focus and Staff, and it feels even more solid after this patch. (Haven’t jumped into WvW yet, though.)

It would be great to know why corrupt boons was capped… I dont understand that decision..

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

10/30/10/0/20
Necromancer Runes
Paralyzation Sigils on each weapon set
Staff, Scepter/Horn
Consume, Signet of Undeath,S. Wall, S.Walk, Golem

No burn, but you don’t need it.
100% fear duration and all sources available
This gives you:

2s “unblockable” AoE Fear on Reaper’s Mark, 2s Fears from S. Wall, 3s DS3 Fear, 3s unblockable AoE Daze, Golem Charge.

Too much CC for stun breaks to matter. You need to count on a team mate to pull stability off, or just wait for it to expire, but Necro isn’t the best boon stripper anymore anyway. Kills. Fast. You could even toy with it giving up the sig to put in CB or WoC to get some strips.

I don’t really like playing as a CC/shut down turret that kills while the opponent can’t do anything, but it sure does work.

Yeah but against a guardian with all that stability….. all that CC is going to waste. I guess if you were sure you were up against, it would be good.

I find that the new fear is very nice, and the spectral wall acts like an anti-melee screen. People actually have to avoid it now. But with boon corruption no longer taking off stability every time, those LONG stability boons are very hard to deal with.

Rennoko.5731:

Myrmidian Eudoros.4671:

10/30/10/0/20
Necromancer Runes
Paralyzation Sigils on each weapon set
Staff, Scepter/Horn
Consume, Signet of Undeath,S. Wall, S.Walk, Golem

No burn, but you don’t need it.
100% fear duration and all sources available
This gives you:

2s “unblockable” AoE Fear on Reaper’s Mark, 2s Fears from S. Wall, 3s DS3 Fear, 3s unblockable AoE Daze, Golem Charge.

Too much CC for stun breaks to matter. You need to count on a team mate to pull stability off, or just wait for it to expire, but Necro isn’t the best boon stripper anymore anyway. Kills. Fast. You could even toy with it giving up the sig to put in CB or WoC to get some strips.

I don’t really like playing as a CC/shut down turret that kills while the opponent can’t do anything, but it sure does work.

Yeah but against a guardian with all that stability….. all that CC is going to waste. I guess if you were sure you were up against, it would be good.

I find that the new fear is very nice, and the spectral wall acts like an anti-melee screen. People actually have to avoid it now. But with boon corruption no longer taking off stability every time, those LONG stability boons are very hard to deal with.

Guardian is actually not that hard to deal with unless they are running every stability source they can get (which obviously limits them in condition removal), and even then WoC is a pretty tough counter to it if you slot that in lieu of Siggy. Guards are still easily kited since you can snare and have swiftness both, and if you have a Mesmer or Thief (or even another Necro) to rip the stability, then they are toast. Frankly, I think that WoC now holds more value than CB due to the shorter CD and the proliferation of shout guards (and now possibly some shout Rangers) with AoE boon application.

The other thing is that no one has the kind of stability access that Guardian has, and waiting out one application of stability isn’t that tough. Everything does have it’s counter, and lots of stability counters this particular necro, but getting that much stability takes a lot of investment that takes away from other capabilities.

I will agree now that WOC beats out corruption boon in almost every case.

I just want to say to everyone who is still QQ about this patch, what is the problem? This stuff is amazing. Granted there are still problems but come on now. Quit being selfish. There is more to this game than the class you play. I read these forums to keep up on the Necro community, read post about what people think of builds and abilities and still find people kittening because it is not the way they wanted it. This is as many have said a step in the right direction.

I used to have trouble, a lot of trouble, with any 1vX scenarios on a cond. built Necro. My first 1v2 in WvW post patch was against two thieves, one D/D and one D/P. It was a bit of a fight, all three of us where down at one point, but I won and stood over their corpses laughing. Literally. They were not up-lvls and were alright players in my opinion. To me that is a job well done. Pre patch I wouldn’t think as a cond. build it would have been possible.

So just take a step back and enjoy what we got. If you are that miserable then quit the game or go roll a Guardian. It’s never gonna be perfect. IMHO I think this is something that will help this class considerably in the months to come. Cheers.

Thank you ANet, you have one more happy necromancer giving you a trumb up (most possibly severed from one of the dead enemies).

Rennoko.5731:

Cont.

_Blood Magic _
•Dagger Mastery: This trait now grants a 20% recharge reduction.
•Vampiric: This trait now scales up 6 additional points with power for its damage and healing for its healing per attack.

Curses
•Withering Precision: This trait now applies 5 seconds of weakness on critical hits. This effect can only occur once every 20 seconds.
•Terror: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
•Focused Rituals: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.

Death Magic
•Death Shiver: Vulnerability applied every 3 seconds while in Death Shroud has been increased to 3 stacks for 10 seconds (up from 1 stack).
•Death Nova: Minions now deal damage when Death Nova is triggered.

Soul Reaping
•Speed of Shadows: This trait now increases movement speed by 25% while in Death Shroud.
•Decaying Swarm: This trait has been removed.
•Near to Death: This trait has been moved to the Master tier. This trait now reduces the cooldown by 30% instead of 50%.
•New Grandmaster trait—Deathly Perception: Players have a 50% greater critical chance while in Death Shroud.

Spite
•Signet Power: This trait has been merged with Signet Mastery.
•Signet Mastery: This trait now recharges signets 20% faster and grants 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds on signet use.
•Axe Training: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
•New Grandmaster trait—Dhuumfire: Players can inflict burning to opponents for 4 seconds on critical hit. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds.

why did you create a post with all the patch notes its not like they are hard to find…

Greenfish.1270:

Rennoko.5731:

Cont.

_Blood Magic _
•Dagger Mastery: This trait now grants a 20% recharge reduction.
•Vampiric: This trait now scales up 6 additional points with power for its damage and healing for its healing per attack.

Curses
•Withering Precision: This trait now applies 5 seconds of weakness on critical hits. This effect can only occur once every 20 seconds.
•Terror: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
•Focused Rituals: This trait has been moved to the Adept tier.

Death Magic
•Death Shiver: Vulnerability applied every 3 seconds while in Death Shroud has been increased to 3 stacks for 10 seconds (up from 1 stack).
•Death Nova: Minions now deal damage when Death Nova is triggered.

Soul Reaping
•Speed of Shadows: This trait now increases movement speed by 25% while in Death Shroud.
•Decaying Swarm: This trait has been removed.
•Near to Death: This trait has been moved to the Master tier. This trait now reduces the cooldown by 30% instead of 50%.
•New Grandmaster trait—Deathly Perception: Players have a 50% greater critical chance while in Death Shroud.

Spite
•Signet Power: This trait has been merged with Signet Mastery.
•Signet Mastery: This trait now recharges signets 20% faster and grants 3 stacks of might for 10 seconds on signet use.
•Axe Training: This trait has been moved to the Master tier.
•New Grandmaster trait—Dhuumfire: Players can inflict burning to opponents for 4 seconds on critical hit. This effect can only occur once every 10 seconds.

why did you create a post with all the patch notes its not like they are hard to find…

For discussion and reference.

It’s for convenience. That’s what the internet is for.

ArchonWing.9480:

It’s for convenience. That’s what the internet is for.

And cats. Don’t forget the cats! ^^,

I guess I should take the time to log on again :S

ManaCraft.5630:

The bad news is that the playstyle of the condi necro has absolutely nothing to do with attrition whatsoever. You get stuck in, unload a bunch of condi AoEs, and hope the enemy dies before your own life reaches zero. Your offensive arsenal is truly impressive, but you are still a sitting duck for focus damage and CC. Even with both near to death and foot in the grave, the small uptime you get on stability generally isn’t worth the investment.

I think the avenue for the big attrition based condi build is really avoiding power, and with points into Death Magic and Blood Magic, due to the toughness, boon duration, health and healing those trees give. Probably not going all the way into SR because DS is now an offensive mechanic as much as defensive and will never help you sustain too long due to the self degeneration. Unfortunately, Vampiric is just not quite up to snuff yet even with the new limited scaling it has, it needs to drain about 45-65 per hit / crit, I think to really be strong sustain.

If one is going all the way into Soul Reaping for condi, say 0/30/10/0/30, then I think the attrition build for that is full spectral, attunement and mastery, to constantly refill that Life Force bar as you jump in and out,

No matter which way you build though, and these latter methods will definitely make you more survivable, ultimately Necro’s attrition will remain capped due to lacking deception and immediate mobility escapes or invulnerabilities for when the crap really hits the fan. And this is precisely why so many are probably being tempted to just go the opposite way and to try and burn the enemy down first. This works solo, but in team fights you cannot burn down 5 or more people before they burn you down, if they focus on the necro, which smart teams usually do.