Guild Wars 2

Hey guys!

(rewrote, because I realized… this is too long to read. lol. Note: I do not build builds, and I would not consider myself a great player, just average.)

My weapons are dagger/warhorn, and staff (I change between the two frequently). My armor is a combination of zerker and knight’s with superior sigil of vampirism, and I’m currently working towards bloodlust for my weapons. I used to run a 30/20/0/20/0 build, and upon suggestion changed to 0/30/20/20/0. With the new patch, especially for focused rituals being moved to adept and the introduction of Dhuumfire, I’m interested in perhaps changing it again.

My idea is to respect to 30/10/10/20/0. (Dhuumfire, Focused Rituals, Greater Marks, Ritual Mastery).

Skills: Well of Suffering, Well of Corruption, Well of Darkness, Lich Form, Consume Conditions… Is it worth respeccing back to Spite for Dhuumfire, and in general, power? I mostly PvE with dungeons.

I welcome all criticism/critique, tips, etc. Thank you!

My experience using Dhummfire is very limited, but if u take into consideration that it can proc on 1 target only, is random, scales with Condition Dmg and i have no idea how burning applies its dmg when multiple people stack it, i think that it is not a good choise for power builds.

If i were you i would respec and try the 30/10/10/20/0 build u mention, but i d take close to death.

Dhummfire will hit the target that’s closest to the center of, for example, your marks. It looks random but priority for Dhummfire and Withering Precision is on targets in the middle of the mark first, then goes outward from the middle.

Thats true, but wouldnt it be better if all targets in the well got the extra dmg provided by close to death? (note that the OP doesnt use Epidemic)

Reapers touch or deathly swarm can proc Dhummfire on the 2nd+ bounce and i suspect the same goes for piercing attacks. I know the OP uses WH, but since he is talking about dungeons the off hand might change.

And lets not forget that Dhuumfire is completely useless against structures…

I m not saying that Dhuumfire is a bad trait, i just think that for a pure power/well build close to death is better.

I would suggest going 30/10/0/0/30 for a power build for the necromancer. Forget about the staff, you don’t need it with a power build. The damage output and life force you gain from it are both rather low in comparison to the axe when it comes to raw damage.

Take the Axe and Focus to build up vulnerability, and use focused ritual to use the wells you have for ground targeting. The 30 in Soul reaping will let you go into death shroud if you have full zerker your crit chance will be 100% so each blast will strike for 3k or more. Then take traits that will have your blast pierce, apply might and apply vulnerability and improve the damage of your axe and recharge. Use closer to death and don’t bother with dhuumfire.

But then again you don’t have to listen to me. If you really care about the recharge of your wells, go ahead and run Blood. I wouldn’t use death or the staff in a power build. Its life force gain is much lower then an axe as well as its overall damage. I would still suggest putting the remainder 10 point into soul reaping so you can get Unyielding Blast and the extra crit damage.

Wells and staff skills have relatively high CD compared to other weapons’ attacks so critical hit chance is more important in order to proc Dhuumfire soon after its CD is complete. For that reason, I think a hybrid build is optimal for Dhuumfire because you will need precision for crit chance whether you run scepter for the +33% condi duration, or not, but more hits per second will also help.

With a low precision, I would go with dagger as first choice in main and axe for second to make sure you proc fire shortly after the CD on the last one was complete. Dhuumfire’s benefit to wells is pretty low, I think. You will do better with Target the Weak, when running wells and low precision.

Thanks for the tips guys!

Lily, Anchoku: Perhaps it’s my fear of being too squishy and staying too close to the enemies at all times, however I will give the axe a try instead of a staff and see how that works.