Retaliation Build
Retaliation used to be really strong, in fact many builds were created around this… an example would be the inmortal mesmer,
Nowdays is good, but has been nerfed by 50% on WvW and Spvp so it cannot be anymore your main source of damage, is more like a support to your regular dsps,
The necro is able to keep retaliation 100% of the time,
Anyway you can try it as many times as you want on Spvp for free, just stay away from tournaments while you do this hehe,
Don’t talk to me about toughness and vitality, damage avoidance is all in this game
I have tried so hard to make a retal build work, but other builds out shine it. going full soidlers( tank build, 2400 power since rental scales of power) 30/0/20/20/0 well build with all the retal traits. Well of blood with bone minions/putrid mark give retal also. Build is fun but not to viable imo
retal is nice extra dmg. i don’t think you can rely on it too much though. also don’t take well heal, it’s difficult to use effectively.
Guardian 80 Necromancer 80 Ranger 80 Mesmer 80 Elementalist 80 Warrior 80
I tried it with a condition build using Carrion amulet and it worked good as a passive 213 damage per hit on top of bleeds ticking for about 103. It just didn’t feel like condi build I was used too because it didn’t have any real burst (not that condi builds have tons of burst but still).
I’d call it viable and can be fun to see all the numbers in hotjoin when someone is spamming you. Just wouldn’t use it in tournie since we’re more support damage than anything right now.
So here’s the thing. There isn’t really such a thing as a “retaliation build” for Necromancers, because we can get 100% retaliation uptime with a single ability (Axe 3) in good conditions. If you want to use Retaliation, I’d suggest you make a tanky power build that uses either Axe or Near to Death + Spiteful Spirit, and that is really all you need.