Guild Wars 2

I am enjoying learning the Terrormancer.

Are there some experienced sPvP terrormancers here who can share the basic attack and defense rotations?

When you are attacked, what is your first, best rotation?

Is offense the best defense? Lay on some bleeds fast and fear them to let it “cook”?

Offense and positioning are the best defenses. It’s not really a rotation build at all. Just remember you are going to be starving for lifeforce allllllllllll the time especially if your team doesn’t win group fights so landing scepter 3 at the right times is important as is keeping track of what weapon set you have on even when you are in ds. Typically you want to try and hit scepter 3 after a corrupt boon, a PoC, dagger 4 and staff 4. If you watch some terror necros a big problem I have noticed is some people tend to spam marks on the ground… don’t do this with anything other than 2 and occasionally 3. Never use staff4 all willy nilly like, you don’t want to have that on cooldown at a bad time. Same with dagger 4. YOU MUST LAND YOUR TRANSFERS.

Fears are damage but don’t just spam them can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched someone spam 2 of their fears then their opponent sb’s and wrecKS the necro. Watch your opponents see if you can tell who has used stunbreaKS and stab skills when you know someone has burned them then fear them. But remember fear is a condi so it’s not just stunbreaks that remove fear. Also fear does more damage when the opponent has conditions on them.

As a terrormancer your main job is just to +1 people on points so don’t rotate like an idiot find their engis and eles and go corrupt the kitten out of them.

NeXeD,

Thanks for the tips!

Always start in staff.
Keep your 1200 distance and stand near/a pillar.
Throw a staff#3, it mostly makes them waste a dodge and it starts poison on healsig. Then 1-3 a few autos to get lifeforce, ull hit them cz theyre slowed hopefull.
Spamm staff#2 in between.
After that go hide behind line of sight.

This is basically a “poking phase” where you stand in safe distance , while preparing for the upcoming burst. Its same how a mesmer starts just GS1+air+fire sigil for 3k dmg, then hides a bit and repeats – so that when enemy comes to you , you have as much hp left while they already wasted CDs and are a few khp behind.

I am currently sleepy but i plan to write and finish this so well continue with the lecture tomorrow.

Flumek,

Great. I look forward to it.

Ok so you do the safe poking when you engage some dangerous, a bigger teamfight where you can get ganked or if youre low and waiting for a heal to come up.
Now this usualy doesnt last longer than 5s (aka mark3, mark2, auto 1-2x, mark2 at max)… what will happen next is either
-enemy will jump/teleport to you (A)
-or you will go in and burst the focus target (B)

A – defense

A thief just jumped you. Clear the blind with staff#4. You can dodge+weapon swap and get dodge back. cripple+autoatack for kiting. if he gets close again, weakness will make him deal a lot less dmg. Try to fast transfer blind back with dagger#4 and immediately ds#3 fear him to break his stealth attack patern. follow up with ds5 and ds2 , then back to scepter autos and ds3+2 bursts every 15s.
Stay in scepter unless hes super low and you can burst him down with fear mark, or if you really need a dodge, mark4 for transfer, or mark3 chill for kiting.
SUPER IMPORTANT:
Learn to rotate camera and hit aoes behind you, while running forward. If enemy is closer you just easily put marks under/behind your feet while running forward. Fast turn around, autos, dodge + ds fear him into opposite direction while you walk to other side of point for range. Rinse and repeat.
Also, you just switched to staff and a thief is chasing you. Use mark#5 FIRST, then mark#3. So enemy gets feared first and walks away more distance, than if you chilled him first.

dinner soon so excuse me on the interruption again and a merry christmass.

A – defense utilty

Corrupt boon – dont forget that if you have big troubles in a 1v1, might is the next most important boon to corrupt. Changing a +10-25% extra dmg into -25% is bassically better than protection. Saves you against mes/thief/dps guard…
Wurm – immidiately summom and teleport destroy it at start to get 10% lf. It will probably come off CD when you will need it in first fight as its only 40s.
S.Walk – even with no cliff or balcon to jump and juke enemy, just running to one side of point and then teleporting back can create a gap between you and the hambot training you.
S.Armor – with weakness + protection , no direct damage should harm you. use this 8s period to go ham, almost like endure pain… you take 5k from my autos, i take only 3k from u, i have 25k hp, u have only 15k hp…. thats exactly the kind of trading blows you want as a necro.

B – offense

Ok back to: you poked the enemy to waste a dodge, youre teammates are celestial monkeys who can stand on node and theyre even applying the burning you dont have and they just set up an immobilize on the focus target. Nows the time you need to call out: “Fearing 3, 2, 1 – GO”

Usually its ds#3+ds#2 , exit ds , when you hit enemy weapon switch for geo proc if you have and finish it with a scepter#2 or dagger#5 as theyll be CCed long enough for the #5 to hit.
You just ported into the middle of enemies and should be heading back to safety somewhere off point. From there you mostly scepter autoatack enemy to death. It will take another or more DS fear bursts , but remember to call them out , do the ds#5+3+2 fast and get out so you dont waste LF and have DS ready for next burst in 10-15s.
If someone goes down, you should immediately switch to staff and put mark#3 under him so anyone trying to rezz will put insta poison on downed. Mark #4 and #5 for cleave pressure and interupting.
otherwise do scepter autos till 3rd poison hits then u can do #2 and #5 for aoe. Poison , aoe on downed and fear/corrupt on the rezzer is your job as a necro. You should mostly not stomp and in good comp cleave till death will be better than trying to stomp.
Plague stomp automatically does poison so tell others to just help with cleave, also press #1 do to bleeds for more cleave as you dont need the blind stomp with stabilty (unless a stabilty ripper is nearby then blind may be safer )

If nothing else, staff#1 now actualy hits poeple and is a great way to build LF for your next ds+weapon switch burst.

Sigil options:

• 2x energy + 2x geomancy
  Best dmg agaisnt classes with little cleansing (mesmer). You can swap to staff offensively for switch+ #2 +#5 combo. But it really lacks the cover condi against stuff with lots of cleansing (ele, guard) especially in 1v1.
• 2x energy + 2x frality
  Zombifiys recommendation. You cant go wrong with this and easily staying in scepter you can bring down the eles/guards by just staying in scepter. Best for 1v1 imo.
• 2x energy + 1x frality on staff + 1x geomancy on scepter
  Noscoc uses this. You always start in staff and with 50% trigger chance a mark or ny other hit will put the cover condi on. Here i would suggest first hitting enemy with mark#2, so the bleed is put on first – and therefore cleansed last by the way the game works.
  Also beter to stay in scpeter untill you really need the utilty of the staff or you want to finish someone with the fear on the staff. Is best in 2v2 , where engie/ele firend will put the extra vuln.

Extras:
- you want to fight in favorable 1v1s
- you want to fight in almost all 2v2s
- you dont want to fight in “teamfights with support bunkers” aka 3v3+ … DS melts faster the more poeple are there to hit you and more poeple easier keep a chain CC on you – so necros should avoid it with no teleport or invulns…
- a 1-2-2 with 2 pushing far starting split is best if you have the comp who can hold and play on 3 nodes (look at abjured)
- you are better at attacking a node and probably deccaping it pretty fast with fears than you are at defending a node.
- learn the spots you can place wurm – theyre basically same as shadowstep spots
- if youre forsaker, walk into a chaos storm urself to hit him with reapers
- call thieves teef, warriors hambot, ele/engie celestial monkey, ranger pet boi, mesmer kage bunshin, guards charrdian
- it is always the teams fault for not supporting, peeling, rezzing you or just insta dying before your dots kick in

The few helpful things I could share:

1. Press your advantages. Necros do very well against engineers and can pressure elementalists quite a bit. So make sure to focus the classes who you can really hurt.

2. Most of your offensive tools are tools, not weapons. If you spam your skills they won’t do anything for you compared to timing it right. Save fears for heals or big attacks. Don’t spam corrupt boon when you see a bunch of yellow squares, make them into a big spike that can’t easily be removed. Same really goes for your defensive skills. A superb spectral walk will do so much for you compared to hitting it just for the life force gain.

3. Do everything you can to get life force. Someone dies off point? Hit them with staff 1 until they go down. Engineer turret sitting around on a point you’re decqpping? Staff 1 more. Don’t forgrt scepter 3 when someone has tons of condis.

There, hope you liked it and got an idea for a good combo.

Its dedicated to helping my only necro companion in our guild and new ones to come.

Merry Christmass.

Roe.3679:

3. Do everything you can to get life force. Someone dies off point? Hit them with staff 1 until they go down. Engineer turret sitting around on a point you’re decqpping? Staff 1 more. Don’t forgrt scepter 3 when someone has tons of condis.

Yup this ones gold.

Know your opponents’ builds. That alone will make your life as a Necro easier and you’ll figure out best tactics by yourself.

Pay attention to your Proc fears. If you know you have that RProt up, there’s no point in breaking a stun from skullcracker with no stab/zerk as he will get feared on CC.

Focus on boonspammers, always keep your Wurm up, ready to port – don’t save your SA and port only for CC – if you know that there’s burst coming, just use the cooldown.

And play in a patient way. Don’t blow all your cds or fears at once. In 1v1s balance between your LF and HP and take your time.

Just be a Necro.

If you’re packing Spectral Wall (it’s great in deathmatch), it’s very helpful to place it to help you res an ally. It buys a lot of time, as even in the worst case scenario, they walked around it or blew their Stability (corrupt it). In the Deathmatch mode, plonk it down in the middle of the fight where people mill around. Your allies appreciate the protection and your enemies have to play carefully or eat fears.

Or you could just get a warhorn, so LF isn’t much of a problem more
But anywho, if anyone is interested in another PvP Terrormancer montage click below!

Thanks Flumek and others! Helpful stuff!