Guild Wars 2

I’ve been looking at ways to get around Signet of Locust for WvW mobility. I first tried dual daggers and Quickening Thirst. I’ve also wanted to make use Spectral Wall. That’s where Spectral Walk comes into play.

When I first looked at this skill it looks nearly useless. Oh boy… some life force and swiftness and a huge 60s CD. However, Falcon mentioned this skill on this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-Frustrating-Part/first#post3316939
so I lookd at the skill once more. If I take Spectral Attunement and Spectral Mastery I should get 45 seconds of swiftness every 48 seconds. If I have any boon duration or swiftness duration multipliers then I should easily have 100% swiftness uptime (correct me if I’m wrong please).

Doing this does require some trait requirements of 0/20/0/0/10 which should work okay. Perhaps I can adjust to a 0/20/0/20/30 or 20/20/0/0/30, but I can’t reach Deadly Strength anymore which is too bad. Going Spectral might also allow me to push more into a Fear build as well which I think would be useful in WvW zerging.

At this point I’ll only have one Well on my bar, which is Well of Corruption. Is it worth keeping Focused Rituals for just one Well? Is it even worth keeping Well of Corruption? I realize Well of Corruption and Null Field are vital to winning ZvZ, but ….

…. this is where I get confused.

But do you need 100% uptime?

SWalk’s appeal over signet, to me it’s the stun breaker, plus the life force.

Swiftness is good but not that important compare to above. When ooc running you can switch skill anytime so you can still bring signet. When trying to get out of combat, you either successfully run out within 30s or get caught already. So guess it really comes down to whether you melee or range and do you need swiftness to catch people in combat.

Helios.3598:

I’ve been looking at ways to get around Signet of Locust for WvW mobility. I first tried dual daggers and Quickening Thirst. I’ve also wanted to make use Spectral Wall. That’s where Spectral Walk comes into play.

When I first looked at this skill it looks nearly useless. Oh boy… some life force and swiftness and a huge 60s CD. However, Falcon mentioned this skill on this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-Frustrating-Part/first#post3316939
so I lookd at the skill once more. If I take Spectral Attunement and Spectral Mastery I should get 45 seconds of swiftness every 48 seconds. If I have any boon duration or swiftness duration multipliers then I should easily have 100% swiftness uptime (correct me if I’m wrong please).

Doing this does require some trait requirements of 0/20/0/0/10 which should work okay. Perhaps I can adjust to a 0/20/0/20/30 or 20/20/0/0/30, but I can’t reach Deadly Strength anymore which is too bad. Going Spectral might also allow me to push more into a Fear build as well which I think would be useful in WvW zerging.

At this point I’ll only have one Well on my bar, which is Well of Corruption. Is it worth keeping Focused Rituals for just one Well? Is it even worth keeping Well of Corruption? I realize Well of Corruption and Null Field are vital to winning ZvZ, but ….

…. this is where I get confused.

Hi

I love my spectral walk. My road to use it as default is similar to yours. I love to play WvW large scale and mid scale battles and I don’t like roaming due to the cat and mouse aspect of it. Too much chasing around, too much dueling, not enough fighting for me.

As you I initially started with a signet of locust for mobility, tried the daggers, etc. Tried various DPS builds posted on these forums, both condi and power based and eventually settled for what is comfortable for me and my team.

My current build is a hybrid of tankiness, group support and power / condi based DPS and I am very comfortable with it during team play. It does not excel at anything in particular, but I can change it to be offensive / defensive by simple gear swaps and utility skill changes. It isn’t for everyone but you may want to give it a shot and see if you like it for your playstyle.

This is what I run when I am frontline and bunker focused:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmODbkRrTPTTcjfTRI9AbX7ZTK624gK4+oCDD-jUDBofQYgwIhAEEwk0Ak3QZPMasJQAlRFRjVJLyaZAqbYaYJVGgi1A-w

Between the boon duration bonus, warhorn and spectral walk I get a lot of swiftness uptime. Also, the swiftness granted by spectral walk gets refreshed very nicely by the guardian symbols and warriors warhorn. So it stacks, unlike many otehr swiftness sources. Added bonus to spectral walk is of course the stun breaker and life force when fighting. It is a very powerful ability despite its long cooldown, I can see how this would become seriously OP if they left it as is and shortened that CD.

I know the sigil of torment on the PTV axe looks out of place, but it isnt as I tend to put down my wells then go warhorn 5 and hit plague immediately, and I do that a lot, again in frontline, so the more survivability and condi / immob removal you have, the better.

The life transfer heal is actually really nice, and even with my low healing power it heals comparible or slightly surpassing my guardians empower heal (and yes hes traited for it) it ticks around 2100-2400 per ally healed per its duration as I move in DS along the frontline. It adds up and is very noticable in combat. Also, it procs quite a lot despite low base crit chance.

This here is essentially same build but what I switch to when I want to do more DPS, be it in small engagements or even in PvE:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmODbkRrTvSTcjfTRI9AbX7ZTK624gK4+oCDD-jkDBYfQYgwIhAEEwk0AUBQ5PDZNDCMFCqaqIasaZAqbYKYRWDLpyA4vGA-w

Sometimes of course I switch out my wells or skills as needed per fight or per boss, but these are my defaults.

You are correct on the 45 sec swiftness / 48 cd .. Which is a lot wow
So I guess you are a wvw player,
• Spectral wall = mass zerg fearing
• Spectral walk = life force gain + swiftness + stunbreaker
• Well of corruption = boon into condition..
Well , I think personally, you should use spectral walk if you roam with a zerg that doesn’t give aoe switftness.. But they do, save it as a lifesaver, a stunbreaker, 45 swiftness is a lot and you will be able to run, run, run , run , combined with LF gain to give you that little bit of extra health.. Else you could switch spectral walk for spectral armor as a stunbreaker OR Well of power → remove conditions from own zerg

Focused rituals kind-off is a must, unless you can enter a zerg , pop it and can get out without being stunlocked :o

Travelor Runes, even for Conditionmancer, have proved to be worth every penny.

Helios.3598:

so I lookd at the skill once more. If I take Spectral Attunement and Spectral Mastery I should get 45 seconds of swiftness every 48 seconds. If I have any boon duration or swiftness duration multipliers then I should easily have 100% swiftness uptime (correct me if I’m wrong please).

Spectral Attunement does not increase swiftness duration by 50%. It only increases the “skills”, which in this case would be the duration of the “walk”, from 8 sec to 12 sec.

alanis.6094:

Travelor Runes, even for Conditionmancer, have proved to be worth every penny.

I run a Traveller’s set armor on my mes and my guard and love it on both. Thing is, on the necro, I still want swiftness because 33% >>>> 25% and with spectral walk there is simply no need for traveller’s runes so you can concentrate on other aspects.

Tongku.5326:

alanis.6094:

Travelor Runes, even for Conditionmancer, have proved to be worth every penny.

I run a Traveller’s set armor on my mes and my guard and love it on both. Thing is, on the necro, I still want swiftness because 33% >>>> 25% and with spectral walk there is simply no need for traveller’s runes so you can concentrate on other aspects.

But then you essentially are pretty much wasting a utility slot. The best part about SW is the actual walk/recall.

Dreadlord.5419:

Helios.3598:

so I lookd at the skill once more. If I take Spectral Attunement and Spectral Mastery I should get 45 seconds of swiftness every 48 seconds. If I have any boon duration or swiftness duration multipliers then I should easily have 100% swiftness uptime (correct me if I’m wrong please).

Spectral Attunement does not increase swiftness duration by 50%. It only increases the “skills”, which in this case would be the duration of the “walk”, from 8 sec to 12 sec.

Really? If that’s the case then it may not be as worthwhile for me.

I prefer a very flexible wvw playstyle and my build needs to work with that. On my mesmer I use Centaur Runes and Mirror heal to have at least 95% swiftness uptime. I will dive in and out of the zerg because I prefer the ability to switch my role on the fly dependent on what I think we need.

@Tongku: I tried a very similar mark/wells centric build when I first started wvw’n with my necro. It didn’t mesh well with my aggressive zerg playstyle. My server also has some very aggressive commanders so, first and foremost, I need to be able to survive. DS seems to best enable me to mitigate the crazy amounts of incoming damage ZvZ dishes out once Plague is on CD.

@Falcon: Yep, as I previously mentioned, I come from my mesmer main and mesmer null field has no such prerequisite trait to enable ground targetting. It’s… painful to have to dump 10 points just to be able to do the same with necro.

However, just recently, JQ’s been dumping more walls on us which include Spectral Wall. It’s amazing how effective they are when timed well or synced with boon rips.

I can confirm, Spectral Attunement does NOT increase the duration of the swiftness given by Spectral Walk. You would (with 0% Boon Duration) recieve 30s/48s uptime.

Spectral Walk hasn’t left my bar in forever, though it’s not just the swiftness that makes me use it. If you meet up with a zerg that covers some of your swiftness needs, it’s also good for actually fighting too.

9 words for you:

“Should have bought traveler’s runes when they were cheap.”

=) then you can have both and still only use 1 utility.

alanis.6094:

best part about SW is the actual walk/recall

^this, plus the stunbreak.
Spectral Walk has saved my kitten quite some times. I want at least one stunbreak to help myself.
The recall teleport has duped a chasing zerg more then once, reappearing behind the zerg and running the other way.
I can start Spectral Walk (on top of structure), quickly get to a nearby spot, bomb it and recall to be out of harms way.
I can still jump of any height with it.
I find Spectral Walk invaluable when fighting most thiefs and is useful in any 1v1.
Basically, my Spectral Walk doesn’t come off my skillbar, even when not traiting for spectral skills.

@Helios
SWall + boon strip fields is very effective and a favorite combo of mine. I once hit an entire zerg ball with it (plus WoS and WoD with chill) as it tried to leave NW camp through the narrow north exit. Hilarious. XD SWall is also great because it pulls double duty: fear/disruption on the enemy, 6 sec of protection for everyone on your side that runs through it. It’s nice to be able to buff everyone in the zerg.

I also understand what you say about having a preference for survivability. My humble server (SBI) is small potatoes next to the nightmare that is Blackgate but my guild commanders are quite aggressive so I have some idea about the demands made on builds by this type of driving style.

Signet > SW..
It makes you run as fast as other people.. yey.. just rememebr to swap it out when you see enemies..

I also tried to crank up my speed, i tried literally everything to the point where i could catch up with my spectral grasp (see 50% speedbuff patch)
But locust signet is still the best.. DD?.. meh.. runes.?. meh..Sw..? meh…. boons?…meh
Only reason i can think of where to use SW is in skyhammer/spvp.

Swalk > Signet
Saves you from being cc chained.

I love spectral walk and it has a permanent skill slot in my build. I have also used locust but find S. walk to be so much more useful

Background: Berserker necro running axe/focus and dagger/wh

Benefits to Spectral walk in my build:
1. With traited decreased cooldown on S. walk and my offhand warhorn, I have close to 100% swiftness uptime. 33% > 25%
2. I get a stun break which is huge for our class
3. It can be used to great effect for position in a fight. I dont know how many times I have fought people who thought I was running away when I had planned on S.walk then teleporting and bursting them the whole time
4. It allows you to overextend and have a way out
5. You can jump from any height and survive
6. LF generation

There are a lot of other things I am not thinking of off the top of my head. If Sig of Locust had a stun break, I might consider it over S. walk but for now, especially running OH warhorn and traiting for decreased spectral cooldowns, S. walk wins

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Signet > SW..
It makes you run as fast as other people.. yey.. just rememebr to swap it out when you see enemies..

I also tried to crank up my speed, i tried literally everything to the point where i could catch up with my spectral grasp (see 50% speedbuff patch)
But locust signet is still the best.. DD?.. meh.. runes.?. meh..Sw..? meh…. boons?…meh
Only reason i can think of where to use SW is in skyhammer/spvp.

Who needs the LF generation, misdirection capabilities, escape jump or stunbreak, right?

That reminds me, I once popped SWalk, ran and jumped off a cliff. The enemy walked to the edge of the cliff to see if I had fallen onto a ledge. I recalled behind him and feared him over the edge. The only bad part was, I bet he still doesn’t know why he died.

I tried build crafting based on some of these ideas yesterday, but then ended up going back to my original 5/10/25/0/30 build since my time was cut short. Thanks for verifying that Spectral Attunement does not affect swiftness. I did the same verification last night and dissapointment ensued…

However, even with that setback and, as several of you have mentioned, I could take Spectral Walk, Warhorn, and some boon or swiftness duration increase and have nearly 100% uptime. With +25% boon duration that turns into ((30*1.25) + (10*1.25)) or roughly 50s of swiftness every 48s if I take Spectral Mastery. I could then dump Signet of Locust and Well of Suffering for Spectral Walk and Spectral Wall. I’m not a huge fan of using Locust Swarm for swiftness though due to being put into combat by the locusts hitting something.

Another option for me would be to go 0/10/30/0/30 and take Rune of the Pack. That would give me kitten of swiftness.

I also found out that Axe 3 is a aoe boon rip… That’s amazing. Pity the rest of that weapon sucks.

I used to roam with signet of the locust, but often would get caught in fights with it on where it has pretty much 0 use. I started running spectral walk, decent amount of swiftness, great for stun breaker coupled with the LF generation and the teleport you get is invaluable in fights if you learn to use it properly.

Nagato no Kami.4980:

Merlin Dyfed Avalon.5046:

Signet > SW..
It makes you run as fast as other people.. yey.. just rememebr to swap it out when you see enemies..

I also tried to crank up my speed, i tried literally everything to the point where i could catch up with my spectral grasp (see 50% speedbuff patch)
But locust signet is still the best.. DD?.. meh.. runes.?. meh..Sw..? meh…. boons?…meh
Only reason i can think of where to use SW is in skyhammer/spvp.

Who needs the LF generation, misdirection capabilities, escape jump or stunbreak, right?

That reminds me, I once popped SWalk, ran and jumped off a cliff. The enemy walked to the edge of the cliff to see if I had fallen onto a ledge. I recalled behind him and feared him over the edge. The only bad part was, I bet he still doesn’t know why he died.

i guess i should have added i only use it in wvw roaming..

traveler runes if you are rich → spectral walk if you want stun break → locust 100% uptime

jalmari.3906:

traveler runes if you are rich -> spectral walk if you want stun break -> locust 100% uptime

This. If you’re trying to work speed buffs into a build that can’t afford to have the utility or runes taken up, then don’t. Instead when ooc switch your least needed utility for SoL then switch back before going back into combat. If speed boosts work into your build the extra stun break and gimmick teleportation from Spectral Walk is nice. If you’re already using another stun break SoL “may” be the better option.

I try to always switch out speed buffs while in combat unless it’s 1v1 and I know the person im fighting is going to try and run away at some point.

For Condi Necros, Runes of Speed provide the same movement and swiftness boosts as Traveler’s, but without “wasting” points on crit damage. And they’re much cheaper too.

Keep in mind Signet of Locust can be quickly swapped in-and-out for its passive speed boost w/o triggering a cool down. Using it over SW effectively gives you an extra utility skill.