Guild Wars 2

This build is one of the most expensive and demanding builds, in terms of gear, that i have ever done… therefor i added quick and cheap alternatives to some of the items required to make it happen. Without further ado…. here it is

Guild Wars 2 – The Abomination [necromancer tank-build tutorial – Sheobix inspired]

Like the title of the video suggests, this build has been inspired by Sheobix’s juggermancer build. More then a month ago i’ve received word that… someone… was highlighting some of my builds on his blog, so… since i am a curious individual i went to check that someone out. Turns out it was a player named Sheobix, which i have also seen on the forums, and on my topics quite a few times…
To make a long story short, one of his builds caught my interest, so i’ve made a variation of my own of that build.

I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge Sheobix’s contribution to the necromancer community…. cheers

This video goes through everything… from the mindset required for tanking right down to each items, weapons, utilities, traits… all of these explained in detail with the reasoning behind each decision.

Last but not least… we take this build on a field test against something… frosty…

FINAL STATS:

Over 3514 Attack (over if best in slot items are provided)
“???” Condition damage – irrelevant
15% Condition duration
0% Critical Strike Chance
0% Critical Strike Damage
Over 2770 Armor (over if best in slot items are provided)
Over ~ 30,992 Health (over if best in slot items are provided)
—
+ the ability to heal ~ 30000 HP over 25 seconds of combat
+ the ability to repeat this great HP recovery every 25 seconds of combat
+ the ability to support in fights
+ the ability to stay in a plague form which heals every second, has stability… high toughness and 50000 HP

If i missed anything or if you have any questions feel free to comment here, on in the comment section on youtube.

Absolutely awesome!

Nemesis, as always you are ahead of the curve. Check your pm’s mate! I have never heard of Sheobix, but I will have to check him out.

Lunatic.9314:

Absolutely awesome!

Yeah… for a tank it really is…

Bas.7406:

Nemesis, as always you are ahead of the curve. Check your pm’s mate! I have never heard of Sheobix, but I will have to check him out.

Well he has this one build which got very very very popular. Didn’t even notice that… until i got onto his blog. The idea of his build i liked, and i wanted to give him props for that… but i’ve made my own version of a tanky necromancer.

I believe you can get some nice (Exotic) jewelry from Orr Karma vendors now with PVT stats on them. I could be wrong but I think the vendor becomes available when you complete the Grenth quest chain.

Nemesis talking to the champion: “I accept your surrender” made my day xD Awesome video once again thanks for taking the time. You really are the best!

Nemesis.8593:

This build is one of the most expensive and demanding builds, in terms of gear, that i have ever done… therefor i added quick and cheap alternatives to some of the items required to make it happen. Without further ado…. here it is

Guild Wars 2 – The Abomination [necromancer tank-build tutorial – Sheobix inspired]

Like the title of the video suggests, this build has been inspired by Sheobix’s juggermancer build. More then a month ago i’ve received word that… someone… was highlighting some of my builds on his blog, so… since i am a curious individual i went to check that someone out. Turns out it was a player named Sheobix, which i have also seen on the forums, and on my topics quite a few times…
To make a long story short, one of his builds caught my interest, so i’ve made a variation of my own of that build.

I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge Sheobix’s contribution to the necromancer community…. cheers

This video goes through everything… from the mindset required for tanking right down to each items, weapons, utilities, traits… all of these explained in detail with the reasoning behind each decision.

Last but not least… we take this build on a field test against something… frosty…

FINAL STATS:

Over 3514 Attack (over if best in slot items are provided)
“???” Condition damage – irrelevant
15% Condition duration
0% Critical Strike Chance
0% Critical Strike Damage
Over 2770 Armor (over if best in slot items are provided)
Over ~ 30,992 Health (over if best in slot items are provided)
—
+ the ability to heal ~ 30000 HP over 25 seconds of combat
+ the ability to repeat this great HP recovery every 25 seconds of combat
+ the ability to support in fights
+ the ability to stay in a plague form which heals every second, has stability… high toughness and 50000 HP

If i missed anything or if you have any questions feel free to comment here, on in the comment section on youtube.

I’m wondering what rings can I use until I get the fractal rings?

Lunatic.9314:

I’m wondering what rings can I use until I get the fractal rings?

Cleric’s rings would probably do fine. They’re pretty easy to come by and give power and toughness. The Healing Power will work with Parasitic Bond, Consume Conditions, Life Siphon, and all that regeneration you will be getting.

Just remember that they are a placeholder.

So how does this compare to Sheobix’s juggermancer build? Like whats better and whats weaker? Also have you tried it in WvW by any chance?

Curios, why not using well of blood as healing? since you’re heavy on other wells.

Minor point: Spiteful Talisman is currently bugged (in PvE/WvW, Reaper’s Touch CD is not reduced and range is not extended) so there might be a better Spite trait option until that is fixed.

See: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-Bug-Compilation-Mk-II/1216760

wizzard.1295:

Curios, why not using well of blood as healing? since you’re heavy on other wells.

Probably because Consume Conditions is up more often and his build otherwise lacks condition cleanse (Putrid Mark alone I don’t feel is enough). He could probably use Well of Blood just fine, though. 7 seconds longer cooldown, but it heals for a lot more and works with his siphoning traits.

Ok so if I can’t yet get the karma rings or the fractal rings then clerics would be next best thing?

I just want to thank you for the guidance on a power build. The new gear set up seems to work pretty well. I did not have the currency (badges, laurels) to get everything, but am pretty close.

For grins I went to Orr and aggroed the Dwayna prietess and later a champ in Cursed Shore. With other folks plinking for DPS, I could pretty much hold my position within wells. Health regenned very quickly. Heals from wells is impressive.

Flipped constantly between D/F and staff so always had new attacks to spam.

I am going to do some dragon runs this weekend to test it out. Lots of damage. Should be interesting.

Thanks again.

I used this for a couple hours earlier today in sPvP hot joins. Really liked it. 70 at the moment with conditionmancer build, but I’ll be swapping over to this at 80. Well, at least a weaker version until I get the gold for the right gear set up.

can’t wait to check this out. just started leveling my Necro and no doubt will be going the power route. since there seem to be more than a few Necro-vets in there, any guidance as to how i should level up? or just play the necro as is and then worrya bout gearing up when i hit hit 80+? currently still unlocking all skills and trying to use them.

in terms of stats, going for power as main stat, and then toughness and vit when i can.

Very nice build! It may not be the playstyle I like with Necro (atm), but its still a great build. If I ever get tired of the Hybrid Build I play, I would definitely try this one.

Nemesis.8593:

If i missed anything or if you have any questions feel free to comment here, on in the comment section on youtube.

I really liked your presentation and detail, but I’m not sold on it personally as kiting agro can be just as effective as face-blocking and as a necro… we get and keep agro! I can drop 2 bleeds from BIP on a camp supervisor and he’ll try to kill only me all day while I run around and around in circles dropping marks while super-dps power build classes unload and beat the tar out of it!

As a true comparison, if this class was worth ‘selling’ in a sense people should trade in their ‘almost functional condition gear and spec’ for PVT and dagger- it would be good to park an equivalent Warrior (or Guard) + gear and tanky-weapons (mace, shield, sword shield etc) next to the same type of mob and running some comparative vs DPS/Damage taken.
Otherwise, you’d be better off taking the more conservative approach and spend the spare gold/karma/magic beans or whatever on making a ‘tank’ out of one of the aforementioned careers.

Thresher.3049:

Nemesis.8593:

If i missed anything or if you have any questions feel free to comment here, on in the comment section on youtube.

[…] I’m not sold on it personally as kiting agro can be just as effective as face-blocking and as a necro… we get and keep agro!

As a true comparison, if this class was worth ‘selling’ in a sense people should trade in their ‘almost functional condition gear and spec’ for PVT and dagger- it would be good to park an equivalent Warrior (or Guard) + gear and tanky-weapons (mace, shield, sword shield etc) next to the same type of mob and running some comparative vs DPS/Damage taken.

In all fairness Nemesis isn’t trying to sell you the class, rather he demonstrates the usability of this class. In his video he doesn’t dodge when he should so he can show you the strength of the build (surviving even when playing like a scrub).

In any regard I agree that kite-tanking is possible – but it’s also really annoying for other professions that have close-range immobile channel abilities (100B I’m looking at you) and in some cases can draw aggro from nearby mobs.

This video made me realize they fixed the bugs and the catastrophy that was life-leech and I just might be inspired from this video to grap my melee gear and have another go as power-mancer. That is if I can toss away my addiction to high dps numbers from my condition build that is done at safe distance and makes me look like a pro as last man standing

hi. I have done AC dungeon for a while. have full power/toughness/vitality gear + staff with the same stats.

I am working on dagger/focus.
Which rings etc do you use + rune?

Silver Brown Redmoon.4368:

hi. I have done AC dungeon for a while. have full power/toughness/vitality gear + staff with the same stats.

I am working on dagger/focus.
Which rings etc do you use + rune?

It’s all in the video he posted, try watching it.

Azlidax.9753:

I believe you can get some nice (Exotic) jewelry from Orr Karma vendors now with PVT stats on them. I could be wrong but I think the vendor becomes available when you complete the Grenth quest chain.

Temple of Grenth has exotic level P/T/V back/amulet/rings/accessories with no gems inside them.

Temple of Melandru has P/T/V armour but no helmet.

Not Karma vendor in Orr has an exotic P/T/V helmet.

OP:

When I watched the link in your post, I eagerly waited on you to show the traits you use for the build. I had long ago gone for what I called a “selfish wells build”, trying to be good support but also difficult to kill. Now, I’ve found out that our traits setup is almost identical! (Granted, my necromancer has yet to reach 80, but it’s getting there on its own time)

I can say that this kind of a build is great for face-tanking a lot of enemies, and can save groups with the amount of Blinds we have if the team tries to bite more than it can chew. I personally don’t run with the Focus, so I’ll try that out sometime in the future.

I am however curious why you chose the Focus over the Warhorn. Is it because the PBAoE is on a CD about twice as long as the regen from the Focus?

Thanks for showing the community a great necromancer build, and I hope you have fun in game!

Keyce.8137:

Not Karma vendor in Orr has an exotic P/T/V helmet.

The vendor in front of Arah has a mask that’s P/T/V actually. I have it.

For reference: http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/

brogarn.8723:

Keyce.8137:

Not Karma vendor in Orr has an exotic P/T/V helmet.

The vendor in front of Arah has a mask that’s P/T/V actually. I have it.

For reference: http://dulfy.net/2012/09/08/gw2-templegod-karma-armor-sets/

Huh. Didn’t know that existed. Thanks!

I gave it a scan. I only found that the Light armour set had it. Bad news for medium and heavies! Oh well.

Any new updates to this build being that I saw some buffs to the necro?

I have updated the video’s description to include the new best in slot items that have been recently released, and i also included a cheap alternative until you can acquire those items…

ps: better links this time, some of the old ones weren’t working anymore…

Here is the tl:dr version. Please add anything I missed.
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|8.1c.h1m.d.1c.hz|6.1c.h1m|1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f.1c.7f|3u.d1e.2u.d1e.3u.d1e.2u.d1e.3u.d1e.2u.d1e|f2.0.p42.u28c.0|0.0|0.0.0.0.0|e

It’s weird, people read your builds and commend them before trying them and realizing they don’t work as well as you claim.

Celwina.2598:

It’s weird, people read your builds and commend them before trying them and realizing they don’t work as well as you claim.

Well what did i claim that doesn’t work ? Did i fake the fight with the champion ?

It appears that in the past 10 minutes i’ve received 2 hate mails, 2 comments on some of my videos that point out how my builds are very bad, and i “should go learn from” someone named Slarg apparently… and now you…

Can this be a coincidence ?
If you don’t like the build, don’t use it… have you tried it to know it doesn’t work as good as… as what ?… it tanks, does it well…

Some people forget that in the beginning i was pretty much alone around here, in the first 3 weeks when everyone was kicking necromancers out of teams.

The forums had 3 tutorials and about 1000 cry/rage/complaint topics. It’s easy to add and make something better after there is one fool that shows you the way.

My original build, 5… almost 6 months ago, is still viable today, with a few improvements. But then again… feel free to make it better, feel free to make it worse, what ever you like.

I’ve done my part, i’ve answered almost all the people that have written to me… i’ve spend dozens of hours helping countless people in game when they approached me with a question.

Next time you want to be offensive towards me you should think again.

@nemesis
dont even give ppl like that the time of day my friend. I have tried two of your builds in PVE and they have always done exactly as you claim and were a blast to play. You have invested much time into this game and more importantly into the necro community. The unfortunate fact is, as you become more known and put yourself out there, even to be helpful, you become more prone to being attacked by degenerate negative people.
Keep up the good work,
Cheers!

Nemesis’ stuff is very good… he does a better job at explaining various builds and why he chooses them than most people. If there is something about his builds/way of playing that doesn’t work for you or someone else… specify it instead of just using a blanket “this sucks” statement without giving details. People who are trying to help out need feedback that is constructive if they are going to continue.

I have a few guides up on GW2 Guru…. one of them as close to 100,000 views and pages of discussion. It is constructive discussion and has helped me refine that particular build for people and helped a lot out. Those of us who put these guides and tutorials together do it on our own time and trying to be helpful… why not do us a favor and try to help us back if you see something you don’t like?

@Nemesis – i find it funny that you get hate mail, and I rarely do. You are much nicer and more informational than I ever have. Your builds work really well for what they are designed to do. I don’t know who slarg is, but my guess is he is probably an angry jealous man of the respect you get from the Necro community.

BTW, I routinely send you hate mail (it’s title Minions rule, and you drool), and haven’t seen one response Haha!

Celwina.2598:

It’s weird, people read your builds and commend them before trying them and realizing they don’t work as well as you claim.

The level of jealousy in this one is over 9000.

Seriously, I don’t think you even watch the videos. Nemesis has contributed a lot to these forums and I totally subscribe to the fact that he is one of the best necromancers in the community. I have never even heard from you before.

Nice build, I enjoyed the video very much.

my main problem as a tank is stability source,
as guardian and warrior i have more or less ‘reliable’ stability source.
in your vid, we see how that this champ tossing you several times (in some places being tossed by boss is a death sentence).
is there any available stability source for Necros outside the plaque form?

my second question, have you tried cleric gear? (I know that the dagger siphon is not really affected by healing power but the wells and the regeneration do)

do you mind testing necro in cleric gear? (I know its an expensive request, you can hold to it as a long term challenge ^^)

This is similar to a build I’ve been playing around with for WvW small group tank/support play. I however I replace a Well with Plague Signet instead for more group support. Another thing that i am really loving about this build is the amount of control i have in a 1v1 with all the chills and dagger 2 you can keep your target from going anywhere. My Necro is only lvl 60 but I’ve solo’ed multiple lvl 80’s with him so far. They were not fast fight by any means, but a slow and methodical victory.

I rather liked this build and kept the gear I had for it in case I ever want to go back to it (switched to conditionmancer for various reasons). I did, however, run into the same issue that Lalangamena.3694 ran into, and that was a lack of stability. Beyond that, however, the build worked as advertised. Extremely durable self healing tank build.

Great build and thnx for vid +1

This build is also quite viable with knight’s gear instead of PVT.

For a long time I was running dagger/warhorn and staff with 0/30/10/30/0 and all wells/vampiric traits. I switched recently to 30/0/10/30/0 with axe/focus and staff so as to stack vulnerability on camp guild claimers in WvW. Unfortunately this doesn’t work any more, so I haven’t been feeling quite so hot on that combination any more. But after seeing this thread, I decided to try out 15/0/25/30/0 with dagger/focus and staff and.. I think I really like it.

With full knight’s gear, a sigil of perception, and food/oil, you’ll have about 66% crit chance combined with about 3050 attack and 3000 armor. HP is only about 21.5k, but with vampiric precision, most of your hits (including ticks from wells) will be healing for 51 extra per target hit on top of the 38 from vampiric. This also means that sigil of blood and lifesteal foods will be highly effective (though the cooldown that was just added is a bit of a bummer). I use runes of the pack on my armor for the extra precision/power and the fury on a 10s timer.

The only real downside is that you have to sacrifice decreased well cooldown to use vampiric precision (ugh, I really wish they would just shorten the cooldowns period and remove that trait). But the constant sea of green healing is great.

hey nemesis,loved the build for the necro by the way,gave me new hope for playing that class again.SO SO MUCH FUN. but i was just wondering what under water weapons are used….do you use pvt weapons aswel

anyway thanx again and keep up the good work

You only have two choices for underwater weapons, so there isn’t much choice there. Most likely his underwater weapon weps will mirror his non water wep’s stat wise.

I am wondering why you went with the life-steal-route. Protection basically makes your heals 33% better, with 4 runes of earth and 2 runes of water you have up to 25 seconds of protection.

Thank you Nemesis for this build! I just switched to it last night, and even without the right kind of gear (Im all condition gear) I still have ridiculous survivability. Ran COF last night and I never went down once, a first for me!

THANK YOU! (Anet, Nemesis, and everyone responsible for my pure joy in this perfect game for me)

nice build. made me look into vampire builds again

just something about traits and numbers (i tested this in the heart of mists AND in the open world (cursed shore and frostgorge, maybe it works different in other areas or dungeons)):
1.you pick focus for the #4 ability and the related trait in spite. but the trait still neither increases its range nor lowers its recharge, so it is kinda wasted
2.Vampiric rituals made my wells leech 10(15 with bloodthirst), not 40 (as you state in the video) or 42 (as the wiki says). The strange thing is: in Bloodtide coast it already leeches 10/15 too…
3.Wells dont pulse 5 times. Well of suffering pulses 7 times. Well of darkness, well of corruption and well of power pulse 6 times.
4.the 2nd bonus of rune of vampirism doesnt have a 5% chance to activate when you hit something, it has a 5%chance to activate when you GET hit by something.

-> NEVER trust Anets skill descriptions. A lot of them are kittened up or as incomplete as their patchnotes

Dear Nemesis:

As the Focus trait in Spite actually makes your Focus perform worse, any suggestion as to what to pick in that slot instead?

kitteno.5698:

I am wondering why you went with the life-steal-route. Protection basically makes your heals 33% better, with 4 runes of earth and 2 runes of water you have up to 25 seconds of protection.

I did this build. The exceptions I made are your rune set up above. I also added another 1% boon duration with a piece of “givers” gear and I have one piece of Cleric’s armor. Otherwise its all strictly PVT.

The one change I made in the trait setup is I could not give up the lesser cooldowns on the staff so I gave up the 5 points in power and “Death Into Life” for the 5 points in Death Mastery so I could have staff mastery. Then I did Spiteful Removal for my selection in the power line giving me more condition removal and allowing me to run with “Well of Blood” instead of consume conditions for more protection triggering.

I also went with the Sigil of Superior Restoration on the staff for more healing.

Have to say I’ve been very pleased with it. Took my first WvWvW spin last night and my survivability was very good while at the same time I was able to tag and help kill many foes. I also am I able to tank and take down an entire supply camp by myself.

Hey thanks a lot for the idea to this build. I switched over to try it out last week and have been testing it extensively (dungeons, fractals and some WvWvW) over the easter weekend I must say I very much like how this worked out.

I also tinkered around with it and made some minor changes to the build I found useful. It’s still 15 / 0 / 25 / 30 / 0 but with V / IV, VII / II, VIII, XII instead. So basically I switched out Spiteful Talisman (which doesn’t work, sadly) and Greater Marks (I think switching to staff while being in the face of things will get you the regeneration buff from Mark of blood anyways) for two sources of Retaliation.

I also decided to use Superior Rune of Dwayna in my armor which really makes that Regeneration count, plus you buff it to everybody when you use your healing skill. In that place I never even bothered to use Consume Conditions in this build which is why I rolled with Well of Blood (WoB + Regen + Retaliation + Protection + Vampiric Rituals = Win). Conditions which I rarely find worthwhile to remove in PvE with this build (WvW/PvP might be a different story condition-wise, even tho I didn’t have much trouble running WoB, when I played WvW a little) I prefer to transform to boons with Well of Power for more OPness…

As far as gear goes I went with full exo Soldier with Crest of the Soldier on my Accessories. I only capped at ~3260 Attack, as I didn’t get the extra Power from Vampirism Runes but I honestly didn’t miss it. 30k+ HP are a nice cushion to rest on, with close to infinite HP in Plagueform.

Tips for gearing would be to either get gear from, HotW, Ascalon or SE, which are the only Dungeons to feature Soldier stats or get Invader’s items inside WvW as another option.

What I did was simply go to Orr and spent a kittenload of Karma at the temple of Grenth for all the Accessoiries + Head, Chest, Feet and Helm, Shoulder, Pants (just for the looks as Pants don’t come with Soldier stats) from Dwayna’s temple. Then got Weapons from HotW + Pants stats from HotW. So if you have 504k Karma to spent on trying out a build this might be worth it (it was for me)

Sadly I didn’t dare to try Fractals 2X because I only could afford to make an ascended backpiece (Koss on Koss with regard to this build) and thus lack agony resistance :P But anything below 20 worked just fine for me with only 5 AR as of now.

Another thing I tried today was to switch the Soldier Armor for Cleric’s and put some Exquisite Sapphire Jewels into the Soldier’s Accessoires to get my Healing Power to 1k+. HP went down to ~26k doing so but I believe the extra healing is more than worth it (Hello, Well of Blood). OK if something hits you for 27k you’re done for, but I guess that’s why we have dodging in this game ^^

But I think that extra Healing Power does not scale with any siphoning abilities but your Regeneration and Well of Blood use it well

I also use Superior Sigils of Leeching on both weapon sets but I didn’t quite like the on-kill-ability on the Superior Sigil of Restoration so i switched that one for the extra 5% Damage from a Superior Sigil of Force.

Anyways, that’s my input and thanks again Nemesis

This build still works…

I solo’d the spider champion earlier today.
It never got ,e to half health…

I have decided to try with armor of Dwayne,
But, will have to wait till kids/wife go out