Guild Wars 2

I’m not going to start an elitist/L2P thread on how to best use your deathshroud, or mastering combo fields or how to kill people from cliffs etc

Just simple things and tricks, that when everything adds up, makes our livelihood abit better.

For now I’ll share some simple LF gaining tricks, I know in sPvP/tourneys even some initial LF before you start a fight is useful. You can, while you run to get somewhere, have your Flesh Golem out, then change the elite skill to something else. That new skill won’t have a cooldown, and can be casted immediately upon switching. Not so good for Golem users though… it will net 10% LF.

The next one is from your Wurm, teleporting to its dead body will give you 10% LF as well. Make sure you know the cooldown for this so you can change this utility to a more useful skill before you engage someone.

There was that spectral walk trick but I guess everyone knows that and now its nerfed…

Share your little tricks here that will help us in the necro community!

Staff auto attack will show you where a stealthed thief is, just keep spamming 1 and follow the claws.

instantcoffee.1785:

Staff auto attack will show you where a stealthed thief is, just keep spamming 1 and follow the claws.

LOL, nice! Good to know I learned something new today! Been playing a lot since launch and never knew this. I have a habit of stopping any attack with any weapon I use and just try to catch him with aoe, like putting marks on nearby places but those don’t work alot.

Yeah most auto attacks will automatically target the nearest enemy even if they’re out of range. I noticed with my Ele staff on earth I was casting rocks when at Keep and could tell when enemies were coming and from what direction from a long ways off.

Somewhat related to this (and I only used it in PVE, but I assume it works in other places as well): as you probably know, when a mob stealths, you can still hit it but it’s rather hard to tell if you are, as you won’t see any damage numbers and your chains will stay in phase 1. On the other hand, if you have the vampiric trait (and you’re not at 100% health),you will still see it’s green numbers pop up. So I just pull out my daggers and slash away until I see green numbers.

Simple trick

In DS form, use your burst then cast your #2 in ennemy direction. As soon as you cast it, dispel DS and run to him with dagger. The #2 projectil will continu to travel and hit, and port you to the ennemy. With dagger out, you will port and attack rigth away.

It simple, but it’s really useful in pvp when people keep moving and its hard to lend daggers attacks.

Also, if you use a lot of Well, use your fear to keep people inside the circle. You need good positionning, but fear being instant, people won’t be able to dodge, and 2 fear can prolly keep them inside the well the entire time. You can also use spectral graps, but it can be hard to land.

Simple tricks most people knows, but if you didn’t

if you are on the top level of the keep on niflhel DS #2 will not drag you to your foe useful for extra bleeds and chil.

Kardiamond.6952:

In DS form, use your burst then cast your #2 in ennemy direction. As soon as you cast it, dispel DS and run to him with dagger. The #2 projectil will continu to travel and hit, and port you to the ennemy. With dagger out, you will port and attack rigth away.

It simple, but it’s really useful in pvp when people keep moving and its hard to lend daggers attacks.

In extension to this: the port does not interrupt your casts, so if you can time it well, you can start your attacks/spells early.

Spectral Armor and Spectral walk, when used, will give you 3% life force every time you take a hit. Use one of these abilities immediately after DS ends – people usually try to save their burst for that moment – and watch your life force shoot back up to 60% by the time the cooldown is up again. With this trick you can use almost a full DS twice in one fight.

If you are using Foot in the Grave for stomps, you need 20% boon duration to just barely cover the full duration of the stomp. Switch in and out then start the stomp immediately.

Related to the above, you can actually stomp/revive while in DS, and use your fear while in the animation since it is instant cast. To do this you have to hit the interact button (stomp/revive) and your DS key at the same time. The timing is a little tricky but you can get it down with practice.

Not a combo per say but fun little thing. When you use Blood is Power, Epidemic, Corrosive Poison Cloud, and Corrupt Boon you can either consume those conditions off or you Putrid Mark and add them to an enemy.

Blood is power can be used w/o target to just get 10 stacks of might w/o putting bleed on yourself.
Sometimes if its deep water but more of a riven then lake you can charge your golem over the water. If you are both fast enough he may actually get to the other side before he “drowns”. Just make sure you never dive or your skill bar is replaced and he gets removed regardless.
Never assume necro trait/ability/skill works properly. By default take it as broken until proven otherwise.(this is the best trick for this class period.)

I feel this thread is just going to get all this tricked ‘fixed’ (nerfed).

Anyway, if you DS → Doom → DS quick enough it doesn’t cost any LF.
The Mark of Blood on roll trait is a blast finisher.

Just to add to Hisazul post.

It’s actually true. Now when I want to try a new a build I

1. Make my build on a trais builder
2. Go on GW2pedia and check if any of my traits are bugged.

Seriously, that’s the most important step in creating a new build.

Kardiamond.6952:

Just to add to Hisazul post.

It’s actually true. Now when I want to try a new a build I

1. Make my build on a trais builder
2. Go on GW2pedia and check if any of my traits are bugged.

Seriously, that’s the most important step in creating a new build.

So true, I started a new necro a couple of weeks ago and I would try to come up with different kinds of builds that sounded fun, only to find out that either a trait or utility was bugged, ruining the build.

I trust Anet is doing their best to fix as many bugs when the 15th rolls around, if necros are left behind I guess I’ll just stick with my guardian.

1. Trident 1 cannot be obstructed. Find an enemy, hide behind a wall or rock, spam away!

2. You can pop DS to absorb fall damage. However if you take enough damage to remove deathshroud, you’ll take full damage on your main hps.

3. If you trait Spectral Mastery (IV under Soul Reaping) you can keep infinite swiftness by spamming Spectral Walk and warhorn 5.

4. Super Veggie Pizza

5. Kill critters to gain life force

6. Switch to staff when in DS. You’ll do more damage.

Deathshroud #3 is usable at any time and does not matter if you are in the middle of a Deathsrhoud #4, Knocked down, Feared, facing the wrong way.

It’s something that is very useful to know.

Jump into Deathshroud, when you get low use DS #2, then jump out and before the claw hits use spectral walk. Before spectral walk ends teleport back to where you were before the claw hit them, which could get you back to full DS.

Since I have the trait that gives might on DS #1, I use that until a high enough stack, claw then spectral walk, lay down aoe’s, teleport back and start using DS #1 again.

If you place a mark partially on the side of a wall, it will fold over the top – a handy way to pester someone standing on the edge of a cliff or platform.

Also – you can sometimes get a mark to reach areas that are beyond your normal attacking line of sight – as long as only a portion of the mark falls within your line of sight. This is very helpful when you’re getting harassed from the back entrance to the keep.

• Swap weapons whilst in death shroud with Superior Sigils of Battle (Main Hand, Off Hand > Staff for most damage) gives you a massive damage boost for Life Transfer & Blast down to 50%.

• Lich Forms 30 second Stability will stay even if you cancel Lich Form early, Plague Form wont so if your looking for a long lasting stability for escaping or large scale fights use that.

• Locust Swarm (Swiftness) + Mark Dropping > Death Shroud 100% to 0% > Spectral Walk + Mark & well dropping >Health down to 50% > Consume Conditions > Death Shroud 100% to 0% > Consume Conditions + Mark dropping for escaping lot of people, Works everytime :P

Your staff has a long range. Use it to initiate fights and then switch to something more personal like the scepter or axe when your enemy closes the distance. In PvE you can kill a surprising number of enemies before they even reach you by doing this.

The reason you inflict conditions on yourself with some skills is because one of your heal skills is “Consume Conditions”. It’s self-explanatory.

The #4 dagger-off hand skill is deviously fun. Not only does it hit multiple targets like the thief’s dancing dagger, but it causes blindness and removes three conditions from you – to apply it to your targets.

Feast of Corruption is your “You die NOW” button. Then perform your evil laugh.

Death Shroud doesn’t regen your health. Saving it for when you’re near death may not always be the best thing to do.

Otheos.8354:

If you place a mark partially on the side of a wall, it will fold over the top – a handy way to pester someone standing on the edge of a cliff or platform.

Also – you can sometimes get a mark to reach areas that are beyond your normal attacking line of sight – as long as only a portion of the mark falls within your line of sight. This is very helpful when you’re getting harassed from the back entrance to the keep.

In addition it’s very easy to fear people on top of keep down to ground level with you.

Mammoth.1975:

In addition it’s very easy to fear people on top of keep down to ground level with you.

Wow, I never tried that, how do you position yourself when doing that? I normally use Spectral Grasp for this, but it’s easy to miss.

Arvid.3829:

Mammoth.1975:

In addition it’s very easy to fear people on top of keep down to ground level with you.

Wow, I never tried that, how do you position yourself when doing that? I normally use Spectral Grasp for this, but it’s easy to miss.

Walk right up to the doors of keep, in the little alcove north of the node.

Kardiamond.6952 – Upgarde to your tip with DS if Life force is between 10% and 49% (4/43% if Soul marks on, so that you dont waste possible Life blast damage)
Start with staff out, Chillblains and Putrid mark (yes its a waste of the transfer but worth it), DS Dark Path, Just as you see the projectile hit the enemy cast doom, upn hit weapon swap onto Dagger warhorn and spam 5, With hydromancy you got yourself a 15 second chill on the enemy, locus cripple and you can go a daze>immobilize for more pain, works even better if you got the Soul Marks or Locus upon getting hit in DS because of the massive life force generation.
Also a spectral graps on a immobilized melee range enemy will work as a 0.75 second knockdown.

Jaha.2840 – your hint 2 will kill people because if you… lets say take the jump from a stairway to a house roof that would take 1500 out of 25000 hp with like 15% life force, you will get defeated.

My Hidden Escape mecanism :

People rarely use it, but I started use it this week as a gimmick MM build.

Flesh Worm : The activate ability is a teleport to the worm. People tend to underestimate this ability. It’s instant, and leave people confused “A Necro teleporting/Stealthing!?”.

It has a 1200 range, but don’t worry, even if you are 2000 range away, if you use it, it will port you 1200 range in the worm direction. It’s a 30 sec 1200 port. I use it a lot in WvW since I’m not longer a staff user, I got a really short range. I charge, DS, blow my bones minions for 3k damage each and when I’m low I port back and heal.

You can also use it to…. kill people! Yeah! Somoene is chassing you, run to a cliff, summon your worm not far from it, like 1200 range 600 range. Continu to the cliff, that kitten warrior is closing the gap and is going to hit you hard. Fake a jump down the cliff, but just before jumping, port to the worm. As soon as your ported, DS and fear the warrior…. down the cliff!!

The last part is only for fun, since it doesn’t work often.

P.S : The downside of worm teleport is, it doesn’t work with terrain level. What I mean is, If you are on the ground, and you cast your worm on a wall, you won’t be able to port up there. It will port you at the same height, at the wall position.

What it mean is (I tried and died doing it :P) When you want to fake a cliff jump, you have to port before jumping. Or else it won’t work, and you will die.

P.S 2 : Flesh Worm doesn’t suffer from our Stupid Minion AI, and can do some good damage. Around 800-1k damage a hit. But he got a slow attack animation. 1200 range attack is also not bad!

Kardiamond.6952:

My Hidden Escape mecanism :

People rarely use it, but I started use it this week as a gimmick MM build.

Flesh Worm : The activate ability is a teleport to the worm. People tend to underestimate this ability. It’s instant, and leave people confused “A Necro teleporting/Stealthing!?”.

It has a 1200 range, but don’t worry, even if you are 2000 range away, if you use it, it will port you 1200 range in the worm direction. It’s a 30 sec 1200 port. I use it a lot in WvW since I’m not longer a staff user, I got a really short range. I charge, DS, blow my bones minions for 3k damage each and when I’m low I port back and heal.

You can also use it to…. kill people! Yeah! Somoene is chassing you, run to a cliff, summon your worm not far from it, like 1200 range 600 range. Continu to the cliff, that kitten warrior is closing the gap and is going to hit you hard. Fake a jump down the cliff, but just before jumping, port to the worm. As soon as your ported, DS and fear the warrior…. down the cliff!!

The last part is only for fun, since it doesn’t work often.

P.S : The downside of worm teleport is, it doesn’t work with terrain level. What I mean is, If you are on the ground, and you cast your worm on a wall, you won’t be able to port up there. It will port you at the same height, at the wall position.

What it mean is (I tried and died doing it :P) When you want to fake a cliff jump, you have to port before jumping. Or else it won’t work, and you will die.

P.S 2 : Flesh Worm doesn’t suffer from our Stupid Minion AI, and can do some good damage. Around 800-1k damage a hit. But he got a slow attack animation. 1200 range attack is also not bad!

Yes! Furthermore, combine this with spectral walk. Cast a worm near the enemy location start spectral walk, teleport to the worm and do your thing, then spectral walk back to your original location. Several seconds of 1200 range necroninja assult every minute!

You’ll do between 10 and 20% more damage with a lifeblast if you switch to your staff.

When charging, the Flesh Golem gets hung up on statics and/or large enemies that can’t be budged (ex: dragon’s foot). Thus, it hits that target 6 or 7 times instead of the normal 1 or 2 as it runs by. Great for demolishing static structures in certain events. This effect also works on regular foes if the enemy is backed up against a cliff or wall (so that the golem cannot run through them on their charge). If they’re not directly against the wall or cliff, you can use DS or staff fear to position them.

In the water (PvE), Spear 4 pulls in enemies to you. Spear2and3, DS2, and one or two trident abilities are all short range AoE centered on yourself. Coupled with Blood is Power, and you can function effectively as an underwater meat grinder.

Spectral Walk and Warhorn 5 grant near-constant swiftness. With the proper traits/builds it can be constant. Be warned though, you’ll never be satisfied with regular movement speed again.

Death Shroud lets you jump off cliffs. In WvW, this is big. Saves your time and your hide. Coupled with the trait for half falling damage, and the necro can survive falls no other class can. A great getaway.

On he last tick of DS, hit #4 for life transfer and it will do crazy good siphon healing to your normal hp bar when DS auto-drops out. (Literally regenerated 70% of my hp when executed correctly)

Sheobix.8796:

On he last tick of DS, hit #4 for life transfer and it will do crazy good siphon healing to your normal hp bar when DS auto-drops out. (Literally regenerated 70% of my hp when executed correctly)

Wow, if it’s true, it’s crazy ahahah. Will try this tonight.

I flash death shroud (double tap f1) for almost unlimited fury, to help keep up bleeds.

If you Spectral Grasp someone and they get pulled toward you, the casting time on dagger 3 (the immobilize) is the same amount of time it takes them to get back up. So if you can hit Spectral Grasp, you can always land the immobilize.