Guild Wars 2

So with all the talk about powermancer going on lately I decided to try one again and it had been a very long time since I had. What I wanted wasn’t necessarily a bunker but what I ended up with kind of is. I know all these other videos of people making powermancer no one’s ever getting focused and I never really understood it. So after playing througb a couple hotjoins I eventually ended up with this.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBIhZakjmeartx4GOcTwLUSGAHQkXQHQdZkFHLA-TZBFwAWLDE5BAs4MA0a/BAHCAA

A couple people started pming me asking what the hell I was doing because I literally just wasn’t dying. So I started yoloqing with it and won a few games in a row. One of which was a dreaded 4v5.

I wanted to get some feedback if anyone’s tried anything like this build and has had success with it. It is a 3 stun break build so I bet I’m going to take heat for it…. if you don’t want to go the 3 stun break route with this build remove wop drop 2 points from the toughness line and throw it in power and pick up might on lb and change to strength runes and pick up BiP. And that’s what I use as a roaming powermancer but for the pvp fights I find this has crazy survivability and you have so much lf you can basically camp ds forever.

I don’t usually post builds and I’m very critical of other people’s but I literally felt like a monster with this yesterday. Videos to come.

Have you tried this in tpvp at all? Or are you still testing in hotjoin?

Just yoloq, went well managed to win a 4v5 game. Your almost at 100% swiftness uptime.

I’ve thought about trying something very similar to this, actually, to compensate for some of the squish that is inherent in 6/2/0/0/6. You miss out on some solid damage, but what you gain in survivability might just be worth it. Plus, you still have good access to crits via Furious Demise and Death Perception combined for a handful of seconds, even with Soldier’s.

I’ll have to play around with it. I know a few guildies who might band together to make an impromptu 5-man team to join the next ToL for fun, and right now Powermancer has been sort of “ruled out” of the comp because of its shortcomings against good players. I wonder if I can work something in to change their mind.

NeXeD.3042:

Just yoloq, went well managed to win a 4v5 game. Your almost at 100% swiftness uptime.

kitten it was right there in your post. I read it and then came back later to post. I’ll watch for your videos though.

Hrm.

I’ve played several builds which are very similar – in fact, I’m pretty confident I’ve seen at least the abilities (WoP, SA and SW) combined with x/4/x/0/6 mentioned in a fairly well respected build not os long ago. Can’t find the fecker though.

Anyway, some points to note:

7s on DS is great, but you may prefer to run out of LF each time instead. That way the cooldown is zero and it frees up the trait slot for LF gain on staff mark or piercing LB.

I tend to prefer builds which work in WvW/tPvP, and with piercing LB this actually does OK in WvW.

Lots of people knock Deathly Perception, and in ordinary circumstances I’d be inclined to agree. However. it’s made for this build. With a 75% crit rate, hitting 5 targets 9 times and Vital Persistence, it does pretty well at regenerating LF. I would still probably pick weakening shroud… unless you switch to Plague for point holding, in which case Chilling Darkness is a must.

I used to run almost this exact build in WvW roaming and yoloq. It is a monster but you have a really hard time beating certain classes. The only difference I used to run was picking up Spectral Mastery instead of Near to Death since you are running two LONG CD spectral skills.

Very fun build overall, I have yet to really play with it since the patch in April. I should give it another try.

Why the rune choice though? You are not taking anything that gives might, would Superior sigil of Str/Battle be a better choice to use some of that boon duration?

I ran this build a long time ago. Except I used staff traits in DM, and Soul marks in SR. Was a pretty solid 1v1 build. However having to leave out so many juicy traits just out of reach was too frustrating for me, so I moved on. I like to explore new horizons, which is why I am experimenting with corruption and hybrid stats currently.

I wonder, are Hoelbrak runes worth it if you dont have a real way to self might (apart from the runes ofc).

No you guys are right they really aren’t so let’s figure out what ones go best here. I was only using hoelbrek be cause originally I was using reapers might. I’d like to keep it over 2k power So I was thinking ogre or vampirism, I thought about scholar but I just don’t think this build would stay over the health threshold. The other two I was thinking of were melandru or travelers.

I was never short of life force so I don’t think soul marks would be worth. I did not take piercing lifeblast as this is not a zerg build. I really wouldn’t use this much as a roaming build the traits maybe but I use some strange armor mix for wvw.

The near to death vs spectral mastery is interesting as someone pointed out I could just let it run out completely. But there was some times in the fights where I found it was more beneficial for whatever reason to leave ds to have access to some other skill… and I usually found with wh5 swalk sarmor I was basically invulnerable in ds long enough that I could burn a heal before and by the time you got me out of ds I could either pop another spectral and laugh or my heal was back up. This also works against the whole focus the necro thing that happens in tpvp. GO ahead focus me I will sit there and take that beating long enough that your all gonna have 18 stacks of vuln and I’m not even out of ds yet meanwhile my teammates have already killed someone while you were trying to focus the necro oh kitten guess we should get off the necro and focus someone else! Great now I’m gonna pop lich and finish you.

on the subject of runes i think youd be better off with defensive runes this seems like a decap build how well does it kill? with that being said id use earth or melandru

Played it again today, it would seem travelers or melandru are the way to go. Was getting called cheese power necro in yoloq made it to top 200. Sry no video yet. It’s really entertaining not be useless in spirit watch you can actually carry the orb on this build lol. The three classes this build seems to have problems with is pure bunker d/d ele and the permanent stealth theif builds. Not that either of them can kill you just you might not be able to kill them. Also decided to ditch lich for plague but I’m not sure I’m keeping that either. Plague actually seems to make you more vulnerable. I’m taking more damage in plague than I would be just cycling through spectrals wop cc wh5 dagger auto and ds.

Oh the other class is some guardian build I ran into out fight lasted forever but I eventually won.

yea didnt realize until today in spirit watch you can go in to ds with out dropping orb

I am a big fan of Rune of the Pack. Is the loss of power when using Traveler runes noticable?

I was dabbling with this build in Hotjoin, though the game was brimming with condi pressure so I switched to D+D/Staff with Plague Signet instead of WoP and it felt extraordinarily tanky. It took a long time to bring down other tanky builds, and eventually I swapped out my 2nd spectral utility for Corrupt Boon to help deal. At the end of the day though, I really felt unkillable in a 1v1 situation with the amount of on-demand condi drop and LF gen tankiness I had.

I’m going to see if I can eek out more pressure, but it has been very fun so far.

The loss of power us noticeable vs hoelbrek or strength especially since I usually had someone to give me might when I was using those.

Yeah you can modify the build to deal a little more with condi if you need to, I just never seemed to have a problem with condi as long as I had cc, wop, staff4. And if your so loaded with condis just stay in ds for as long as you can and you’ll have cc back up most likely

I was playing against a condi engi, PU mesmer, and a condi Warrior, so it was a bit of a bad condi time. Otherwise, I don’t think I’d need to go so ham on anti-condi.

The best part of this build has to be the Soul Eater reference. Not saying its a bad build but I would highly recommend some simple changes.

Use runes of Strength, and put 2 points from Death Magic and put it into spite for Reapers might. The other 2 points in DM should be used for Chill of death(spite) or Path of Corruption(curses).

Swap Well of power for blood Blood is power.

I know it sorta ruins the theme of a perma swiftness, but why be Speed Star when you can be Shadow Star?

PS sorry for not finishing the OP before commenting, I see you talk about some of these ideas at the end of your post. But still think this is the build that should of been posted :P.

For roaming the might one works better. For tpvp mine works better. So many classes are using boon removal with the boon spam meta and might is going to one of your only boons and once it’s gone…. well the whole build is nerfed. So I took the traits I saw that would benefit me in ds and getting back into ds.

Yeah speed starr has nothing to do with soul eater. I was using the name in Ultima Online in like 1998.

For sure if it works for you.

Aww I was sure that was the reference. Hmm know that i thin of it, I think i enjoyed UO more then GW2

Nothing will ever replicate the glory days of ultima online pvp. It was a magical run.

NeXeD.3042:

Nothing will ever replicate the glory days of ultima online pvp. It was a magical run.

You make kitty sad. :c

All you have to do is win the powerball…then buyout Ultima Online…and a game with a more up to date graphics system and marry them. Easy

So I like the idea of this build quite a bit.

What kind of stats should I be aiming for gear wise?

In tpvp I use soldiers amulet. In wvw I use a weird knights, soldiers, zerker, and the weird valk/zerker mix trinkets. But I really don’t use this build for wvw much, I’m on dragon brand and roaming against sos and maguuma suckssssssz.

Just a small imput but sigill of inteligence seems to works pretty well on a staff.

Honestly I’m only using staff here for the marks and I try to change to staff before going into ds for the extra damage and I’m getting fury and deathly perception when I go into ds…. I guess I just don’t see the need for it.

I came up with a build months ago that is pretty much this except i opted for retal pressure in DS going for counter burst, and I use dg and axe MH. I think it was what superspankeh was referring to.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;0437-0-kH-J084gJ;9;79JJ-J4;049-18;213-JwW0U;1cV19cV196Zd

With the current meta staff is the best option for the condi clear and staff auto LF regen. I would switch retal on heal to remove condi when entering DS. Soul Marks is probably your best option as well but its depends on playstyle.

Here is the old video from that thread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3WRZ5t_lYM

I also made 1 focused more on sustain testing out unholy sanc when it was released.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGczxtNOU2g

I switched to cavaliers for more damage output but I think with all the condi’s going around soldiers is the way to go.

Was theory crafting a very similar build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRMQRArY3djc00abtN+2wfbifhS6XIAa3IjgLgyxoKA-T1xFwAX0P8a/BaK5Mp+zRlDAUCq1kXAAEAG6QDA-w

Haven’t put it to test in game yet, getting gear together. That and haven’t decided on Sigils yet either. Focusing more on WvW though, so Spectral Wall seems like a better choice. Can swap Spectral Walk and Spectral Grasp when needed, or for whatever else.

Glad to hear that something similar works well though!

It’s not really similiar….. like at all…. yours is a ptv while taking increased fear and scepter as your main hand. And you don’t take the best trait for spectrals. But to each their own.

Now that ive made it too the top 100 i can say without a doubt a powermancer will not cut it against very skilled players.

Is the build in your OP still the one you recommend? I tried it and had a lot of trouble with the playstyle. The vulnerability stacking wasn’t going too well it seemed.

A breakdown of the playstyle might be appreciated.

For example, I’m not really sure when is a good time to use the staff. I use it for the fear and sometimes drop marks to take care of things like clones, but other than that I’m not really sure how to go about using it well. I’m familiar with DS and dagger/warhorn, but don’t understand the flow of using the utilities, or how it all ties together. I assume most the damage comes from sitting in DS, smacking them at close range as they rack up damage and can’t keep you from regenerating LF.

its not a dueling build. if you play it as a dueling build you will lose 1v1s. However. You can survive against most classes long enough for someone to come help you. You really cannot be alone with this build. You can take home point but someone will have to come help you eventually. But you really shouldnt be on home youve got enough swiftness that you should be moving mid to home. Now i know most of the time this isnt possible since as ive learned everyone always expects the necro to be home.

You need DS for this build to work. You swap to staff when you hit ds. Once they pull you out of DS your most likely riddled with conditions or on the ground…. You know what this build is pretty self explanatory…. Im not going to tell you anything that im doing that is something special… cuz im not. I pop a spectral go into DS hit 5 3 and spam 1. Save 4 for when LF is low and your enemy has used his knockdown or stun. Space out your stunbreaks Try hitting warhorn 5 before swapping to staff and going into DS….

Keep going if you want, I’m not used to playing with staff so there were helpful tips there. I thought popping a spectral before DS is counter productive and dropped the bonus LF gen effects?

No you keep the effects in fact after popping spectral armor your basically invuln in DS for a little while. Most of the build is just spacing out your dodges and stunbreaks while trying to maintain consisten LF regen. Burn your heal early and often especially before going into DS.

NeXeD.3042:

its not a dueling build. if you play it as a dueling build you will lose 1v1s. However. You can survive against most classes long enough for someone to come help you. You really cannot be alone with this build. You can take home point but someone will have to come help you eventually. But you really shouldnt be on home youve got enough swiftness that you should be moving mid to home. Now i know most of the time this isnt possible since as ive learned everyone always expects the necro to be home.

You need DS for this build to work. You swap to staff when you hit ds. Once they pull you out of DS your most likely riddled with conditions or on the ground…. You know what this build is pretty self explanatory…. Im not going to tell you anything that im doing that is something special… cuz im not. I pop a spectral go into DS hit 5 3 and spam 1. Save 4 for when LF is low and your enemy has used his knockdown or stun. Space out your stunbreaks Try hitting warhorn 5 before swapping to staff and going into DS….

10/10 spot on, I would add take note of when you proc the 50% health spectral armor mostly when your being bursted if your not stunned during the burst try to time your heal so your health hits below 50% right when your heal goes off.

The build is really meant to support your teammates on the sidelines the problem is most damage comes from lifeblast which are dodged or is just to slow to really pressure anything. The spectrals are there to counter burst if your being pressured. If your having trouble with staff I suggest taking soul marks to make the sideline fighting more productive in terms of lf regen. Staff auto + marks is a nice LF builder. I ended up dropping well of power and going for offensive corrupt boon to further assist in taking down enemys.

The biggest problem with this build is the damage output. If your being pressured you can live but eventually are forced out, if you cant handle the pressure or teammates not supporting you. Dagger auto’s are your friend here slap a rage sigil on it and its even better, but at the same time its really hard to find moments to pressure opponents with dagger auto’s without being mauled by a warrior peeling for their team or them popping invuln’s / stealth.

The build pretty much forces you to use your spectrals perfectly as wasting them will cause your death.

As nexed mentioned earlier the build has trouble against good players that will just chain cc you untill your out of ds then continue to burst you down.

I opted out of this build as DS is as clunky as can be and as much as I want to focus my build around it both the meta and the class will not allow it, as of right now dumbfire is king.

I went through some iterations on the build and landed on this so far:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQRAnY4djc0Ubb5Ne2whbijhCqoM6A4A2WqfihIWB-TJxHwADeCAa2fYZZAAnEAA

The Boon Handling is dynamite, and the LF regen is quite good as well on weapons. You still have a weapon-based condi clear, and the Plague Signet is an incredibly versatile “oh sh—” button that you can even use for simple things against classes that don’t focus around condis, like passing a key Blind or Immob back at someone.

Also, the 18 seconds of Spectral Armor is insane survivability. Might stacks mean your LBs are hitting quite solidly, and you generally have a lot of soft control via weakness/chill/cripple.

I honestly don’t see myself finding an opportunity to test it against the “good” players, but I feel like it destroys in 1on1s and survives for a long time against focus. Even if you’re in DS, get Immob chained and have every condi on the book stacked, you can Plague Signet the second you pop out, chain 3 dodges in a row, wait for your health to hit 50%, heal if you can then pop back into DS for another SA+DS “invulnerability” period. Unless they’re stacking Backstab and Eviscerates on you exclusively, the 8.75% LF/second + protection is absolutely enormous survivability. My mobility suffers, but I don’t really mind, personally. I don’t think I should be shoehorned into emergency response as a Necro anyway.

Also, all I ever seem to hear is that Dhuumfire is garbage now, but apparently it’s still the king? I’m tickled pink.

Very interesting cog! I really like the plague signet addition and the trait changes definitely will increase damage output.

I’ve always been a fan of double melee weapons especially in power builds as I always felt staff really hurt our sustained dps and always felt out of place.

I would switch out near to death for unyielding blast so heavys dont body block your life blasts, and possibly a rage sigil on dagger, its usefull when your able to switch weapons auto attack and haste stomp someone. Solid build for keeping up pressure!

Dhuumfire being king is just my opinion but its based off alot of trial and error in trying to maximize dps and keep sustain. I have tried a similar build to this although i stuck to double spectral,, my biggest problem was survivng without locust swarm and without the condi peel from staff, but the plague signet addition pretty much covers that so thanks for the idea!

Using dhuumfire with flame legion runes and 1 smoldering sigil is pretty deadly. I’ve been using 6/4/0/0/4 standard terrormancer but with axe and put a little more emphasis on getting fire out. Dhuumfire > Fear > Ghastly Claws is extremely deadly most players cant come back from it, and is something you couldent really control before the change to dhuumfire.

Solid build overall I will definitely be using it.

Decided to try and go for a harder hitting sustain build and came up with this, haven’t tried it in tournament play yet, but as long as your able to watch for knockbacks knockdowns and hard ccs your going to win. This build is a little more 1v1 friendly than my other one but your gonna be much glassier. SA and ds is your only holy kitten button, I know the other two are stunbreaks too but they won’t save you. On sky hammer swap WoP for spectral grab.

This build requires you to be super active but your generating lf and health all the time while being very aggressive in dps. If the players your fighting aren’t stripping or converting your might it’s going to go very bad for them.

This build is also a prime example of why those who are asking for heals in DS may want to think about it a little more. Imagine if this builds vamp worked in ds. Good luck ever killing that necro without 3 hambows.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBIhZakjmeartx4GOcUcMUTuCvAURZkBwBQ5TMFA-TJxHwADOFAa2fAwTAQZZAA

@Mindx: Have you had a chance to fiddle with a build similar to the one I posted, and if so, what sort of shortcomings/benefits are you finding? The biggest issue I’ve found while casually dabbling is not really getting focused, but getting focused while a Thief with an OH Pistol is doing nothing but Headshot every ~1.5 – 2 seconds. You can’t ever heal, you can’t really use Life Transfer, and even Life Blasting is something you can’t really do. The periodic interrupting daze is monumentally irritating to deal with when you have 0 forms of duration Stability.

Just curious to hear what someone who plays at a higher level is encountering, since I don’t find myself with the opportunity.

@NeXeD: Do you have some videos if you playing with the vamp build? I’ve tried so many times to justify going into some of the vamp traits, but I simply can’t. Going 4 deep into the tree means I can’t go double-Grandmaster, which I’m extremely partial to with the Necro Grandmasters available, and the numbers just don’t seem to be enough if DS is used as an attrition tool. Most of the time when I’m out of DS I’m transferring conditions, dodging, regenning LF, applying control, stripping boons, then I’m back into DS. I never feel like there’s time to really take advantage of vamp gains since damage can add up quickly.

I could very well be wrong, but I want to watch it in action to really look out for its impact on a fight. I share your concern that restoring health from vamp while in DS could potentially be overkill for Necros, but then again, them shutting down the general basis for the functionality of a trait line while you’re using your tanking profession mechanic feels so backwards that I think they should start with allowing vamp heals through DS, then tweak vamp heals as appropriate. But that’s just me.

yeah i abandoned the vamp. too much CC for it to work, the idea was to use dagger 1 as much as i could to be building lf and gaining a little health since alot of the time when i come out of DS im getting one shotted but its not gonna work.

using this now

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBIhZakjmeartx4GOcTgLUQ+mBQkfQJQdbEHPLA-TJRGwAAeCAg2fIaZADnCAA