Guild Wars 2

I suddenly felt like leveling a necro (a class that bored me to death) after one year playing elementalis,t and i’m enjoying the power build. I like the raw damage and speed of dagger, but i don’t know what to do with its off hand and the second set of weapons.

I’m currently using dagger/warhorn and axe/focus, everyone told me warhorn is a must-have with dagger but i find it useless, i use blood magic and i don’t need the swiftness and the other options are even worst. As for the second set focus 4 with axe 2 is all i use, it’s good but only affects one target and it feels clunky and slow.

Should i keep warhorn for the daze? Should i change axe/focus for staff?… I want to optimize my damage without using Reaper, but dagger and greatsword seem to be the only decent power weapons /sigh

Thanks.

Well our power weapons are not in a good spot so you shouldnt expect much.

And while warhorn is certainly not a must have, it is de facto our best offhand weapon and works well with mainhand dagger. Also for pvp/wvw i would always take staff as one weapon set no matter the build.

The strenght of the warhorn is its swarm, thats giving you Lifeforce WHEN HIT. and the Daze that interrupt for example a revs shield block + … .

So use your Warhorn 5 when u enter the fight with dagger or just before u enter Shroud. With bloodmagic u also get healed a bit. and the 50% more skill duration trait is quite good aswell as the vampiric team trait.

Axe and focus is quite useless vs revenant,thief and maybe mesmer. u may swith it with gs for gs#4 blind and gs#5 interrupt or u use staff for condi cleanse/fear and range attack with auto attack to get LifeForce.

warhorn is awesome for building life force and for the daze, plus as a necro any movement increase is welcome cause we’re about as mobile as an anvil

i always use staff for my second weapon for the utility and range if i can’t get in close

but if you don’t like warhorn as offhand, maybe try just going dagger/focus?

hell even double dagger is okay, while offhand dagger doesn’t generate life force, it’s okay for the condi transfer, blind, and aoe weakness. but i wouldn’t take it for anything other than messing around with questing with a power build

I have found axe-focus a fair replacement for staff as a secondary set. They do not need to be traited if you intend to regularly close the gap and use dagger.

I still prefer staff for WvW and PvP, though.

Ok, i get a better picture now. I don’t use shroud that much, i have to get used to enter more often, that could be the reason i don’t find warhorn useful since i don’t pay attention to life force generation.

I really don’t want to use greatsword so i’ll stick to axe/focus since i’ve been testing staff and it looks like a weaker version of shroud (open world wise) i don’t use power in pvp. Thanks for the insight.

Ghataka.1604:

I really don’t want to use greatsword so i’ll stick to axe/focus since i’ve been testing staff and it looks like a weaker version of shroud (open world wise) i don’t use power in pvp. Thanks for the insight.

I would advise you to seriously re-consider Greatsword for PvE. It delivers absolutely massive hits. Most targets are dead after you hit 4, 3, 2.

But those are your options, truly. Dagger, axe, focus, Wh and GS. OH dagger is condi, scepter is condi, staff is for utility but I think it’s absolutely worthless in PvE.

If core nec: d/wh+focus
If reaper: d/wh+gs
If you actually care about dps: no power necro/reaper.

I run with a dagger/warhorn for melee and scepter/dagger for ranged. Similar to what was described above, warhorn #5 prior to entering combat so you have the swarm on you when attacking. Switch to shroud as needed/wanted. I prefer the above over GS/Staff, mainly for speed. They all work in PVE, but I guess it’s dependant on your playstyle. I ran Reaper as GS/Staff for the longest time, but found it really slow in comparison. Great for hammering down bosses during Auric Basin farming, though.

Would be nice if reaper’s touch tracked targets a bit better. :/

I always keep the warhorn to use right before go into reaper shroud, it makes the reaper shroud bar go down a little slower and allows me to stay in rs longer.

Ghataka.1604:

Ok, i get a better picture now. I don’t use shroud that much, i have to get used to enter more often, that could be the reason i don’t find warhorn useful since i don’t pay attention to life force generation.

I really don’t want to use greatsword so i’ll stick to axe/focus since i’ve been testing staff and it looks like a weaker version of shroud (open world wise) i don’t use power in pvp. Thanks for the insight.

Warhorn is nice with dagger because Necromancer is slow and dagger is melee. Once you’re in melee range, Warhorn #5 cripples your target and helps to keep them in range on top of making you faster, generating Life Force and doing a pretty significant amount of damage.

Warhorn #4 is also great for preventing all of the blocks in the game, which there are a lot of. If I’m not mistaken, it can also interrupt Mesmers Blurred Frenzy.

As for Shroud, it should be used both offensively and defensively. Think of it as a shield not a sponge.

Say a Revenant begins Unrelenting Assault on you. Right as they begin, you should enter Shroud. This will protect your health. If the proper skills are off cooldown, such as Locust Swarm, Spectral Armor, Spectral Walk, etc., you can also use these skills before you enter Shroud. This way, your Shroud will slowly regenerate even while you are being attacked.

Life Force can always be regained. It’s like a more controlled source of renewable health. It’s not there to camp and facetank everything until it reaches 0. It’s there to facetank what you can’t avoid and to rebuild as soon as you exit the Shroud.

Offensively, I’m sure you’ve figured out that it is a powerful tool. Knowing when to use it offensively and when to use it defensively is what differentiates new Necromancers from experienced ones. I can’t tell you when those times are because they will vary depending on the encounter.

Just remember that Shroud is an invaluable tool that can be used in better ways than as a sponge. Consider it’s percentage, what skills will allow you to rebuild it when it’s low and when it’s a good time to use it both defensively and offensively at the same time.

Like with anything, all it takes is practice. Going from Ele to Necro is pretty opposite ends of the spectrum. Not completely but pretty close. So it might be a bit jarring at first but I’m sure if you like it enough to keep playing you’ll love it (:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

As for Shroud, it should be used both offensively and defensively. Think of it as a shield not a sponge.

Say a Revenant begins Unrelenting Assault on you. Right as they begin, you should enter Shroud. This will protect your health. If the proper skills are off cooldown, such as Locust Swarm, Spectral Armor, Spectral Walk, etc., you can also use these skills before you enter Shroud. This way, your Shroud will slowly regenerate even while you are being attacked.

Life Force can always be regained. It’s like a more controlled source of renewable health. It’s not there to camp and facetank everything until it reaches 0. It’s there to facetank what you can’t avoid and to rebuild as soon as you exit the Shroud.

This is a good analysis. Try not to use it as a ‘reserve tank’ of health when your main health bar gets too low – because you’ll still have low health when the DS runs out (unless it buys you just enough time for the situation to settle, which can happen). Use it to prevent your main health bar from getting that low in the first place.