Guild Wars 2

I’ve been toying with my Necro ever since I got her to 80, and I have yet to find a build that is to my taste. I came to the conclusion that I like staff as my primary weapon and wells and/or minions as utility, where I will exchange the one for another depending on what I’m going to do (for example, switch to wells for dungeons and WvW and a mix of wells and minions for general PvE).

*Right now I’m using this build when I go with wells: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW7NmAkUc9zQKyV3oHDHcyA *

I swap the bigger marks for more minion HP and the extra damage on marks for more minion damage when I go with minions.

Currently my gear is a mess, I have 1 full set of Knights with Superior Runes of the Wurm and a full set of Rampager with 5 Superior Runes of the Thief and 1 Superior Rune of the Ratasum. I use Cavalier trinkets with Beryls.

I think what I’m actually asking is if this trait setup is ok for a build that focusses on staff/wells/minions and what gear would go best with it. I will use this build for open world PvE, dungeons and a little zerg WvW.

It doesn’t have to be any of the gear I have now, I’ll gladly get a new set of gear if it’s better for my build. What type of damage is best for staff? Condition or Power? Or both? I’ve chosen Rampager because it had both, as I personally thought that would work best in general (to prevent having issues with condition caps on bosses and players cleansing my conditions in WvW also) but I have no idea actually.

TL,DR: just read the bold parts. C:

Melanie.1240:

I think what I’m actually asking is if this trait setup is ok…

I would never take Spiteful marks. Focused Rituals only sometimes in WvW zerg fights.

Melanie.1240:

What type of damage is best for staff? Condition or Power? Or both?

Both. Maybe take a look at my staff build.

As a general pointer, if your focus is on PvE/dungeons you might not want to play a staff or minion build at all. You’ll be more efficient with something like spoj’s build (stickied to the top of the forum).

flow.6043:

Melanie.1240:

I think what I’m actually asking is if this trait setup is ok…

I would never take Spiteful marks. Focused Rituals only sometimes in WvW zerg fights.

Melanie.1240:

What type of damage is best for staff? Condition or Power? Or both?

Both. Maybe take a look at my staff build.

As a general pointer, if your focus is on PvE/dungeons you might not want to play a staff or minion build at all. You’ll be more efficient with something like spoj’s build (stickied to the top of the forum).

Thanks for replying. ^^ Yeah, the Greater Marks was more of a I-don’t-know-what-else-to-pick when not going with the Minion trait. Your build has some really nice information, I’ll swap my scepter to an axe instead (I only used scepter because I didn’t really have a preference for either axe or scepter and hated dagger) and will try out Carrion.

I have tried Spoj’s build and while it was effective it did not match with my playstyle and I didn’t enjoy playing like that. I don’t really care for hardcore speedruns anyway, I have my zerker Ele if I want to speedrun. I’d just like to switch to other classes every now and then for a change.

Well I am a huge fan of mixing wells with minions (my vid in signature) and as far as what kind of set-up you should go for It would all depend on what role you want to fill in WvW.

Like flow said, spiteful marks are not really worth it when you can grab something better like chill of death. Thought I do believe in some way, some build, could make spiteful marks interesting; for what you’re building so far im not sure it would help.

WvW is the only thing I could maybe give some pointers on. If you’re running a hybrid type of build there’s lots of options you could go. I run a hybrid build axe/focus and staff but based around crit damage and spectral skills.

There is a really good well/DS build in the forums somewhere that is mainly a solo roam build but is highly effective.

Overall I’m mostly a sPvp player :P so most my builds are not mobility/wvw comparable.

I would suggest however using something like Flesh Wurm along with your wells adds a 100% projectile finisher if positioned right. Plus the stun-break and tele is good for wvw. Relying on your zerg buffs can give you some leeway for less mobility necessity.

As far as I can tell you are going for a ranged nuker. So the build I would make would be something like this: ranged nuker

In my opinion, you can’t have the same gear set for WvW and PvE and expect to be fully effective in both fields.

WvW is a different game to PvE, in PvE power and direction damage > conditions, DoTs and CC, but quite the opposite is true in WvW. And I say this with a sad face because I adore necromancer condition gameplay… but in pve I have swapped to a dagger/AoEwell based power build that only uses minions (bone minions) for their double blast finishers for might stacking or blind spam from wells.

In spvp minions are amazing and I love them, and in small scale fights in WvW they are also valuable, however if you are talking zerg fights then they just get steam rolled by the AoE :/ they simple won’t stay alive long enough to justify their cooldowns and trait useage, so I rather focus on staff/scepter, focus and ranged wells for zerg fights (in which case, Carrion for power AND cond dmg is useful). Powerwell necromancers are pretty kitten as well… although condition damage is nice, I actually prefer raw dmg output investing more in power.

Because I’m a cheap skate and I cba to get swap out accessories (and grind for two sets of them…) I stick with zerker jewellery, and swap out the gear sets. the generic zerk/scholar (or ranger if playing with minions) for dungeons, and carrion/sunless or ranger for WvW.