Guild Wars 2

Got my Necro to 80 (via crafting) and now I’m looking for builds for casual PvE/Fractals. I like the look of Marks (ground targeted AOE conditions?) that would go well with my current Khilbron’s set for condition damage, but I’ve also heard Marks do kitten-all damage.

I don’t have much experience in Fractals, but in PvE, if you’re looking to solo I suggest a conditions build that utilizes wells, and then for support in groups use marks. Marks -are- pretty weak if compared to our other skills, but in the context of group work, especially in dungeons, the fear mark and transfer conditions can be very useful.

Either beserker or rampager build for pve. Wouldnt use staff unless the situation absolutely requires 1200 range. Full condition is a bad idea for pve, its ok for wvw. Although if you want to stay full condition despite how bad it is for dungeons and pve id switch to gear with the carrion stat combo instead of rabid. Power is so useful on any build.

Lee Merriman.9412:

Got my Necro to 80 (via crafting) and now I’m looking for builds for casual PvE/Fractals. I like the look of Marks (ground targeted AOE conditions?) that would go well with my current Khilbron’s set for condition damage, but I’ve also heard Marks do kitten-all damage.

30/0/10/30/0

• Make sure to have “Close to Death, BloodThirst, Vampiric Rituals, Ritual Mastery, and Dark Armor”

• Full Knight’s Armor, Berserker Trinkets -> Or 60% Knight’s, 40% Berserker’s is the appropriate ratio.

Dagger (Sigil of Air/Blood) Warhorn (Sigil of Leeching)

Axe (Sigil of Blood) Dagger (Sigil of Leeching)

6 Vampirism Runes

Omnomberry pie

Consume Conditions, Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption, Locust Signet, Lich form.

Dungeon certified, Fractal certified.

Please dont go into blood magic for pve. It doesnt help.

Stick to pvp advice Altroll, as much as people disagree with your builds in pvp atleast you have somewhat decent knowledge of pvp. But your suggestions for pve are the kind of things i ran when i first hit 80 and had no idea what to build or how to play(basically terrible builds).

Spoj, I’ll upload my dungeon run of CoF Story with 2 Necromancers and a Guardian for you.

Whether it’s good or not, it works well for anything PvE demands.

Thats the point though. You can complete any dungeon with any terrible build in this game. Blood magic doesnt provide enough sustain to be useful in pve. Survivability isnt needed in pve anyway. You get all you need in that department with dodges, blinds, aegis and reflects.

Before omnomberry pies/ghosts were nerfed and every warrior was using them for massive sustain + dmg, I tried incorperating life steal into my beserker build to suppliment the omnom pies. It wasnt worth it. The dps loss was too great and the sustain I got was barely noticable.

The sustain from Wells and the number of AI opponents dumb enough to stand in them is all you need, and that’s what my build is based around. Besides, you said yourself, builds do not matter. That build worked fine for me, even in fractals. It’s an easy build to understand, and use. The rest simply depends on your skill at avoiding damage.

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Locust Signet
Dungeon certified, Fractal certified.

locust signet?…. LOCUST SIGNET?
why?
why not run something like well of darkness?

Linguistically Inept.6583:

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Locust Signet
Dungeon certified, Fractal certified.

locust signet?…. LOCUST SIGNET?
why?
why not run something like well of darkness?

Because when you’re surrounded by numerous enemies, it can almost heal you fully, that’s why.

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Linguistically Inept.6583:

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

Locust Signet
*Dungeon certified, Fractal certified.*

locust signet?.... LOCUST SIGNET?
why?
why not run something like well of darkness?

Because when you’re surrounded by numerous enemies, it can almost heal you fully, that’s why.

i still dont understand why youd take it over other good options in any fractal/dungeon except dredge (because dodging all dredge damage is... unlikely... well... without a good guard and blind immune... actually... even then... stun break, protection and deathshroud ’healing’ seems like it would be pretty nice)

778*5= 3890 heal
300 healing power from bloodmagic... wiki states signet of the locust grants a 20% benefit from healing power... does that mean 300*0.2 = 60 extra health per target?
838*5 = 4190 heal

38*5 =190 from bloodthirsted vampiric
4190+190 = 4380... i dont see how that heals you ’almost fully’, or am i missing something?

well of darkness would heal for
(63*5)*5)+((38*5)*5) = 2525 health in the same circumstances (but over 5 seconds) whilst mitigating damage for the whole party (unless... dredge...)

just realised the well of darkness math seems a bit weird...
63 = bloodthirsted vampiric rituals
63*5 = 5 targets being hit by vampiric rituals
(63*5)*5 = 5 targets being hit by vampiric rituals over the 5 second well of darkness duration

5 is the aoe cap right? or did i make that up?

For pretty much any/all PvE content in the game there’s no need to run anything except full berzerker. Seriously, if you bring anything less than OMGWTFDAMAGE right now, you’re just slowing the team down.

I run a 30-10-0-0-30 (Axe/Focus, Dagger/Warhorn) build and it works beautifully. Axe 2 hitting for 11-12k, Life Blasts 6-7k.

Linguistically Inept.6583:

Locust is bugged, Vampiric (turns damage portion into siphon) and Bloodthirst (increases both of the scailings) pretty much doubles its heal and its on a 5 target damage ratio, it heals of everything in aoe of the targeted enemy.
Its pretty much a 40%~ heal vs a swarm, but in most cases the movement speed will save your kitten as a necro instead of the heal (especially now with no DS absorbtion).

Craptrain.7203:

For pretty much any/all PvE content in the game there’s no need to run anything except full berzerker since teams love to exploit and cheeze encounters. Seriously, if you bring anything less than OMGWTFDAMAGE right now, you’re just trying to make the game play as it is supposed to and people hate not getting free stuff.

Fixed that for you, also id love to see a pug in all zerker do MF or AR, oh wait i did and 99% of them died when the bosses werent even on half hp.

If your a fresh 80 who leveled by crafting rather than playing, ya might want to go Knights over Bezerker gear.

Staff/Axe, both give good range. And the marks you like the look of, are very good utility. Using #2 under the meele+mobs will keep Regen up on them. #3 slows mobs who run at you, and reduces heals. #4 returns conditions on you to that mob.

Until you get used to necro, and get some agony resist. Stick to Fract 10 or lower.

Andele.1306:

Locust is bugged, Vampiric (turns damage portion into siphon) and Bloodthirst (increases both of the scailings) pretty much doubles its heal and its on a 5 target damage ratio, it heals of everything in aoe of the targeted enemy.
Its pretty much a 40%~ heal vs a swarm, but in most cases the movement speed will save your kitten as a necro instead of the heal (especially now with no DS absorbtion).

vampric was included in my calculations

38*5 =190 from bloodthirsted vampiric

assuming signet of the locust hits 5 enemies it heals an additional 190 health

… though i didnt realise bloodthirst affected SotL (i suppose i have some testing to do… but ill leave it till later… tomorrow… day after… sometime)
which i suppose would make

838*5 = 4190 heal

(838*1.5)*5 = 6285 heal (i think; not sure if it calculates like that…)
but the partywide mitigation on WoD would likely still make up for the healing discrepency (as well as having a 20s shorter CD than signet of the locust with trolls build
im too lazy to the math with spectral armour (how much damage you would need to be taking to outsustain SotL through protection mitigation and ‘life force healing’)

Andele.1306:

Fixed that for you, also id love to see a pug in all zerker do MF or AR, oh wait i did and 99% of them died when the bosses werent even on half hp.

Running full beserkers in dungeons does not involve exploiting or cheesing. It involves tactics and smart use of mechanics. Honestly dont know why you keep accusing people who actually know how to do pve the most effectively as exploiters. DPS is the the meta, stop crying about it just because you dont like it. Its not going to change until Anet radically alters and expands on game mechanics.

And like a number of us said in another thread. Weve completed both AR and MF in full beserker groups. They are so much easier that way aslong as you have complete idiots in the team. The amount of pugs ive been in who wipe because the dps is so poor is embarrasing. AR possibly warrants a bit more surivability than MF but that just means you take an extra zerker guard or something with condi cleanses coming out the kitten if you want an extra bit of safety, still not needed though.

Anyway back on topic. The whole reason behind the dps meta is because every class has self heals and damage mitigation in some form (at the very least dodges). This means you can negate/avoid any damage and clear mobs/bosses before they wear the team down. Survivability in dungeons is selfish and considered leeching by any more experienced dungeon runner. You arent helping anyone by trying to tank in a game where there is no tanking. Mobs cleave so even if they do stay aggroed on 1 person they will hit others at the same time (tank pointless). Full beserkers can share damage and res each other fast when stacked, dodge/block big hits. If you dont want to be selfish in dungeons take dps. Theres nothing selfish about actually contributing to killing the mobs quickly.

As little variety as this dungeon meta has, in some ways its better if people actually realised to take dps. Theres no waiting around for ages to find a tank or healer. Everyone just takes dps and so its easier to find groups. Unfortunately people are so stuck in following Anets phrase “play how you want to”, they refuse to improve and learn about the game and so you get pug groups full of PVT scrubs. You wouldnt take 5 tanks into a dungeon in wow. Why do it in gw2? DPS is the most important role in any mmo, gw2 just happens to not need tanks or healers as the dps roles can support themselves with utility, dodges and self heals.

Andele.1306:

Fixed that for you, also id love to see a pug in all zerker do MF or AR, oh wait i did and 99% of them died when the bosses werent even on half hp.

No, you didn’t fix anything. You inserted your horribly biased opinion into a factual statement. I’m sorry that the PvE encounters are all damage tests, but that’s a fact.

Thread blows up overnight, but half the posts seem to have missed the “casual PvE/Fractal” part. Thanks to the other half who aren’t the “you’re the best or get out” elitests. Guildie said mark up the target as an opener, then mash scepter buttons until all sorts of conditions are stacked up.

Full rabid isn’t half bad in casual pve. You get more than enough toughness and good damage as long as no one else in your group is using condition.

But mind you the higher fractal/pve you go, it will become less effective because of the slow build up of condition and lower dps than berserker build. However, to start in pve, I will recommend full rabid necro.

I assume this isnt the ops first class as he crafted the necro to 80. Therefore i think its safe to assume hes capable of surviving with beserker or rampager gear. Which are much better choices.

I’ve taken my necro through all the dungeons and through fractals in the past month or so – here’s what I’ve found that works:

Because of condition caps, unshakeable, and condi cleansing, condition damage is really lackluster in dungeons. If you really just want to make use of conditions, I recommend focusing condition duration (lyssa and mad king runes) and the rest direct damage. Up time on chill and blinds can at least be useful in trash runs.

I’m on the fence about blood magic, but the only reason I’m tempted to take it is for the well cd reduction. Well of suffering will give you much needed aoe dps (we have no melee cleave). In for clearing a group of trash, WoS -> warhorn 4 -> DS life transfer will go a long way. Well of Power is also very strong, especial in TA where all that poison application suddenly turns into a heap of boons on your team. Its almost manditory for GL for the one second stability, since plauge form has such a long cd. All our other skills are fairly uninspiring or situational, except for signet of undeath – you have to save it for just the right time, but uping three downed party members is an amazing feeling.

At the very least I would recommend taking 30 points in spite for Close to Death – those giant bags of HP will spend a long time at less than 50% health. Always bring a dagger mainhand because you will melee stack at some point in every dungeon. Staff is really only useful if you need 1200 range. As much as I know axe is a direct damage weapon, I find the 600 range a bit awkward and the scepter 3 skill will do decent direct damage with the number of conditions a group of 5 will pump out without really trying. The one time I do bring axe is for the grawl fractal – axe 2 + life transfer will rip through the final boss’s shield. I’d always recommend zerker trinkets, and for the armor playing around with the balance of surviablity/damage until you find whats comfortable for you.

Lee Merriman.9412:

Thread blows up overnight, but half the posts seem to have missed the “casual PvE/Fractal” part. Thanks to the other half who aren’t the “you’re the best or get out” elitests. Guildie said mark up the target as an opener, then mash scepter buttons until all sorts of conditions are stacked up.

No, many of us didn’t miss the “casual” part. We’re simply trying to tell you that conditions are really lackluster in PvE content. You don’t have to be some kind of pro to be successful with zerk gear. You can do with that knowledge what you like, but if you want faster/smoother runs, then take the advice of people who have been doing it for awhile.