Having got my necro to 80 and playing it in WvW a little bit, I have decided that I really want to gear it out but to make sure it has a powerful and well-rounded build.
I realize that Necros aren’t the best roamers around, but I want to be able to do that a little bit as well as hold my own in 1v1 or 1v2 scenarios. As well as be somewhat effective in large groups.
Based on what I want to do, I have came up with using the staff and and the axe/focus. The staff providing alot of AoE and conditions and the axe providing decent DPS, lifeforce generation and retaliation and the focus providing a nice little touch in terms of chill and boon removal. I guess my question is whether the axe/focus is an optimal set up for those 1v1/1v2 scenarios, or is the dagger better? and what other offhands might be better suited for roaming?
In terms of utility skills, I am really not sure which ones are the best. I got spectral walk as I feel i might need some speed and another additional way to gain lifeforce. Then I got 2 wells, one of which is converting conditions to boons and another that is for straight up DPS. I realize that this may backfire against ranged classes. My question is what utility skills would be great for roaming and for 1v1? Lich form I would ideally keep.
In terms of my objective for my build, I really want to be well rounded. My first objective was to maximize the amount of ways I can deal damage. I went more of a power focused build to take advantage of the damage that the axe/death shroud/lich form does. I also wanted to take advantage of retaliation by using the axe and using the trait Spiteful Vigor. I did not want to completely ignore conditions so I put about 500 into my build as well as using the pizza for condition duration and using the trait hemophilia and the earth sigil. I want to keep my opponents chilled and poisoned as well as allow my opponents to bleed out over time. I want to be able to go up against a variety of classes and builds and still be effective.
My second objective was to have some survivability which is why I pumped both toughness and vitality almost equally. I also realize a big key to a necro’s survivability is life force, the ability to generate it quickly but the ability not to lose it so quickly is what I was aiming for. Which is why I pumped a lot of points into soul reaping and made sure I have adequate life force generating abilities.
I want to be the type of necro that doesn’t necessarily burst people down, but more like wear people down with a combination of burst damage, conditions and retaliation over time and be able to take a lot of punishment at the same time. A true attrition build.
In terms of my traits, I went 0/25/20/0/25. I went 25 in cursed mostly to take advantage of the bleeds as well as the additional damage per condition. I went 20 in death magic in order to have larger marks as well as more uptime on retaliation. The boon duration also doesn’t hurt although we do not generate many boons. I went 25 in soul reaping mostly because I wanted a larger life force pool, better generation as well as gaining a lot of DPS.
I realize I could have gone a lot of other ways, but I wasn’t so sure about some of the traits.
I definitely want 25 in cursed, 10 in death magic and 15 in soul reaping, so that leaves about 20 points where I could spend else where.
I was thinking, perhaps I could put 15 in blood magic and 5 in soul reaping to take advantage of siphoning. But I am really not sure how effective siphoning is and whether it is worth it.
I was also thinking maybe put the 20 into spite. It gives me an awesome power boost. Awesome condition duration. And it has some nice traits such as Spiteful Spirit, Spiteful Talisman, Chill of Death and Spiteful Marks. But then again a lose a lot of survivability.
I thought about having 30 into death magic for either reaper’s protection, and the staff cooldown, and extra power boost but then again I was unsure.
If anybody has additional advice on how I could allocate my traits, or just general advice on build, sigils, weapons, skills and what not, it would be appreciated, ty.
(edited by killahmayne.9518)