Guild Wars 2

Hello fellow necros,

it is a build which takes the best damage increasing traits we have an let us dish out some impressive numbers. Like 12k Ghastly Claws or 7k Life Blasts.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndGmIgekr3XrYGHzY0HWHA;TMALIGFMtA

Spite:
- More power and longer condition duration
- Spiteful Talisman: more vulnerability and some regeneration
- Reapers Might: gain might with Life/Plague blast
- Axe Training: 15% damage increase for the axe, works also for ds

Curses:
- Precision and condition damage
- Weakening Shroud: adds Weakness and Bleeds when entering in ds
- Master of Corruption: spread those conditions
- Target the Weak: Cornerstone of this build, 2% more damage for each condition. As a necro we have easy access to 6 long lasting conditions (cripple, bleed, poison, weakness, vulnerability, chill) which ups our damage for 12%. Since every other player applys some kind of condition, you up your damage for 20%+.

Soul Reaping:
- Larger ds-pool and crit-damage
- Unyielding Blast: very nice with Reapers Might

Gear:
Amor: Full Berserk with Ruby Orbs (I may change those to the Sigil of the Pack, you gain more power and precision with a chance of might, swiftness and fury, but loose some crit-damage)
Weapons: Axe with Sigil of Force and Focus with Sigil of Bloodlust. I recommend a staff on switch.
Jewlery: Full Berserk with Ruby Orbs

If you feel to squishy change some berserk armor for Knight armor.

Buff food:

Truffle Steak, Sharpening Stone and Skale Venom.

General playstyle:

You want to abuse Target the Weak to the max. That means apply every condition you have to enhance your damage. Keep this in mind when you choose your utilities. You can change the utilities depending on the situation (switch epidemic for Signet of Spite in a boss battle i.e.)

Utilities:
- Epidemic to spread all conditions to enhance our ae (Life Transfer/Well of Suffering).
- Corrupt Boon or Well of Corruption to convert boons and to give us more damage.
- Blood is Power for might.
- Well of Suffering/Corruption for ae
- Elite is your choice, i seldom switch into Lich Form since I do more damage in ds

Is this a theory build or do you have the build right now (if so please post a screenshot of your stat window)

Zerker Necromancer is mainly for roaming wvw solo, dropping 10 points Curses and putting on Soul Reaping would be a +15% damage boost +10% Life Force pool boost at the cost of 4% critical chance.

With no warhorn offhand Spectral Walk would be your only mobility, making 20 points in SR a requirement for 20% off its CD.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndWjMah7VaqbM8JAoH5ibtxHQmmR5wD;TMALRGFMJA
(Copy & Paste)

I am currently running this, doing events, dungeons and fractals with this build.

I added a screenshot, though I only use the 2nd best sharpening stone and no bloddlust going on (250 + something power missing).

The 25 points in Spite are solely for Target the Weak, this trait is a beast, like Close to Death just with almost 100% uptime.

You can wield axe/dagger+horn in the 2nd weapon set and take Banshees Wail, Runes of the Pack would actually complement this.

The 15 points more in Spite would only increase your damage for15% around half of the time (when you crit) + another 5% if your lf is over 50%.

Hey Shizo what helmet is that? looks awesome

the one you get when starting a necro, skull mask or sth. like that

shizo.5698:

The 25 points in Spite are solely for Target the Weak, this trait is a beast, like Close to Death just with almost 100% uptime.

You can wield axe/dagger+horn in the 2nd weapon set and take Banshees Wail, Runes of the Pack would actually complement this.

The 15 points more in Spite would only increase your damage for15% around half of the time (when you crit) + another 5% if your lf is over 50%.

From a group PvE point of view Target the Weak would be superior most of the time (8 or more conditions). From a PvP aspect though 10 additional points in Soul Reaping is much stronger, with Furious Demise you’ll be sitting on 70% – 80% critical chance.

The 10 additional points is also 2,249 DS-HP.

Thats true, though I had not pvp in mind when I made this build up

new personal record btw: life blast, 7.5k

Not a bad overall idea, but I would disagree with points in Curses. You can get more damage out of Soul Reaping or more survivability out of Blood.

Draehl.2681:

Not a bad overall idea, but I would disagree with points in Curses. You can get more damage out of Soul Reaping or more survivability out of Blood.

You only get damage out of Soul Reaping if you crit. Best way to make sure you crit is to have at minimum 15 points in Curses.

I run a pretty much identical build to the OP in spvp except much tankier gear. How do you figure the 10 points in SR instead of Cursee is better for pvp? It seemed to me that Target the Weak was my best option for damage.

where do you get tactical armour??

Have you considered using rampagers gear at all for the extra condition damage?

dreztina.4820:

I run a pretty much identical build to the OP in spvp except much tankier gear. How do you figure the 10 points in SR instead of Cursee is better for pvp? It seemed to me that Target the Weak was my best option for damage.

pve: mobs dont cleanse conditions
pvp: players do clean conditions, thus making target the weak not so powerful

tactial armor is from cursed shore karma vendors in each camp.

I dont care about condition damage, duration is more important to this build.

It is a glass cannon build targeted for pve. It works to some extent for w3 as I found out, though I took Focused Rituals for ae-bombing (well of corruption converts boons and well of suffering adds vulnerability thus each well makes the other one stronger + life transfer and some staff marks).

Switched out the ruby orbs in the armor for 6/6 scholar runes: more power, less critchance and damage, but 10% more damage if health is above 10%.

4,2k power with some might going on.

Nice stats, I figure you’re doing about 55% more dps than I am in mostly knights gear. Makes a person think… just so glass though.

Kilger.5490:

Nice stats, I figure you’re doing about 55% more dps than I am in mostly knights gear. Makes a person think… just so glass though.

Sometimes the best defense is offense. The faster you kill something, the less damage they will be doing to you.

Reflexmonkey.1943:

where do you get tactical armour??

Its karma gear. I think you can get it from karma vendors in Fireheart Rise.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tactician_Lyan

kidbs.8920:

Kilger.5490:

Nice stats, I figure you’re doing about 55% more dps than I am in mostly knights gear. Makes a person think… just so glass though.

Sometimes the best defense is offense. The faster you kill something, the less damage they will be doing to you.

Careful… you may get what you ask for (I’m on JQ btw!) heh

Kilger.5490:

kidbs.8920:

Kilger.5490:

Nice stats, I figure you’re doing about 55% more dps than I am in mostly knights gear. Makes a person think… just so glass though.

Sometimes the best defense is offense. The faster you kill something, the less damage they will be doing to you.

Careful… you may get what you ask for (I’m on JQ btw!) heh

No worries, you guys have all of the coverage so it doesn’t matter what our offense is like :-P

shizo.5698:

I am currently running this, doing events, dungeons and fractals with this build.

I added a screenshot, though I only use the 2nd best sharpening stone and no bloddlust going on (250 + something power missing).

The 25 points in Spite are solely for Target the Weak, this trait is a beast, like Close to Death just with almost 100% uptime.

You can wield axe/dagger+horn in the 2nd weapon set and take Banshees Wail, Runes of the Pack would actually complement this.

The 15 points more in Spite would only increase your damage for15% around half of the time (when you crit) + another 5% if your lf is over 50%.

uh…you’re running this for dungeons? the only way you’ll know 100% that this build is viable is to take it in wvw imo
i’m running axe/focus for the extra vuln and the chill. which i think is much more beneficial than dagger conds if you’re going for raw damage

Lightsbane.9012:

shizo.5698:

I am currently running this, doing events, dungeons and fractals with this build.

I added a screenshot, though I only use the 2nd best sharpening stone and no bloddlust going on (250 + something power missing).

The 25 points in Spite are solely for Target the Weak, this trait is a beast, like Close to Death just with almost 100% uptime.

You can wield axe/dagger+horn in the 2nd weapon set and take Banshees Wail, Runes of the Pack would actually complement this.

The 15 points more in Spite would only increase your damage for15% around half of the time (when you crit) + another 5% if your lf is over 50%.

uh…you’re running this for dungeons? the only way you’ll know 100% that this build is viable is to take it in wvw imo
i’m running axe/focus for the extra vuln and the chill. which i think is much more beneficial than dagger conds if you’re going for raw damage

I already said I took this into the wvwvw. With double wells, marks and lifetransfer and axe’ing afterwards. After an hour of zerg vs zerg fighting my bags were full. I died only when our zerg was overwhelmed, so it worked really well.

shizo.5698:

Lightsbane.9012:

shizo.5698:

I am currently running this, doing events, dungeons and fractals with this build.

I added a screenshot, though I only use the 2nd best sharpening stone and no bloddlust going on (250 + something power missing).

The 25 points in Spite are solely for Target the Weak, this trait is a beast, like Close to Death just with almost 100% uptime.

You can wield axe/dagger+horn in the 2nd weapon set and take Banshees Wail, Runes of the Pack would actually complement this.

The 15 points more in Spite would only increase your damage for15% around half of the time (when you crit) + another 5% if your lf is over 50%.

uh…you’re running this for dungeons? the only way you’ll know 100% that this build is viable is to take it in wvw imo
i’m running axe/focus for the extra vuln and the chill. which i think is much more beneficial than dagger conds if you’re going for raw damage

I already said I took this into the wvwvw. With double wells, marks and lifetransfer and axe’ing afterwards. After an hour of zerg vs zerg fighting my bags were full. I died only when our zerg was overwhelmed, so it worked really well.

that’s good i’m glad to be wrong. especially when my necro is so low, can you recommend a pvt/carrion gear build?

Recorded a fight against the Priest of Melandru:

enjoy.

It’s obvious that you are doing so much damage on that boss, because of all those conditions on him, though in normal combat situations you are losing dps, because the maximum you can apply are conditions for like 8 seconds and maybe 3 different conditions at once, that’s a 6% damage increase, while with 25 points in soul reaping (i put 15 points in curses) you get 15% more damage for criticals and 15% more time in DS that lets you shoot more life blasts, making your dps more costant. Also if you are doing some dungeons you want that stability in 30 SR i.e. Lupicus bubble and harpy knockdown in fractals and so it’s a better all around build.

I almost 1 shotted (I assume it was) a full zerk lvl 80 thief last night in EB on my zerk necro. I used ghastly claws on him and took the remaining 90% of his life. I wish he was full hp so I could say I truly 1 shotted him lol karmas a kitten.
I do not use the build the OP uses but its fairly similar.

Xehanort.4589:

It’s obvious that you are doing so much damage on that boss, because of all those conditions on him, though in normal combat situations you are losing dps, because the maximum you can apply are conditions for like 8 seconds and maybe 3 different conditions at once, that’s a 6% damage increase, while with 25 points in soul reaping (i put 15 points in curses) you get 15% more damage for criticals and 15% more time in DS that lets you shoot more life blasts, making your dps more costant. Also if you are doing some dungeons you want that stability in 30 SR i.e. Lupicus bubble and harpy knockdown in fractals and so it’s a better all around build.

Define a normal PVE combat situation where the fight would last long enough for it to matter? Outside veteran+ mobs, everything else in PVE dies so fast that it is a non-issue. I agree that going 30 SR is extremely useful, but that starts to pigeon-hole necros in to a build that is required for dungeons…. something that we all try to avoid. Brings us around to the argument that necros need something else with stability other than a 30 point trait or an elite, but that is for another thread…

OP’s build is very good, I believe, for people who run with static groups or similar and can guarantee a wide variety of conditions to bring your overall damage up to 10%+. Your suggestions would work for someone who is looking for something more centered around DS and non-static group play where the number of conditions being brought isn’t guaranteed.

It’s a really nice build and nice video too. I think this will be my standard for wvw.

Please OP post a link of your build, the one you have when clicked says, BAD LINK…

I find the lack of toughness and vitality on your gear disturbing :P
Seriously though, 18k hp without toughness is a suicide. Mostly cause you walk around in light armor. Zerker armor makes necros way more squishy than they should be imo. I prefer to run a 30/15/0/0/25 with knight armor, eagle runes and the all rounder ascended accesories. Im not home to post a pic for you to check the difference but you can do a comparison through the buildcraft site. Here is kinda what im running everywhere as a power necro build.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.3|7.1g.h14.8.1g.h1|6.1g.h4|1n.7h.1n.7h.1n.7h.1n.7h.1n.7h.1n.7h|211.0.211.0.311.0.1i.67.1i.67.1i.67|u68b.f4.0.0.p26|0.0|3r.3u.43.44.4e|e

@kitteno.5698 (haha, they kittened your name) – I recorded a dungeon run yesterday testing your build in a dungeon, unfortunately all the audio while I was recording including talking about changes I think should be made to it to maximize damage never got recorded. However, it does work very effectively, and with green trinkets I was able to hit 9k on Ghastly claws in HoTW P1 a few times. It does require a bit of micromanaging to make sure you hit Ghastly Claws at the most opportune times, but it was a pretty easy and a build I will reuse with my advice on possible changes.

I will post the run later today on the but of corpse channel with background music, but unfortunately no audio.

panikos.8309:

I find the lack of toughness and vitality on your gear disturbing :P
Seriously though, 18k hp without toughness is a suicide. Mostly cause you walk around in light armor. Zerker armor makes necros way more squishy than they should be imo. I prefer to run a 30/15/0/0/25 with knight armor, eagle runes and the all rounder ascended accesories. Im not home to post a pic for you to check the difference but you can do a comparison through the buildcraft site. Here is kinda what im running everywhere as a power necro build.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.3|7.1g.h14.8.1g.h1|6.1g.h4|1n.7h.1n.7h.1n.7h.1n.7h.1n.7h.1n.7h|211.0.211.0.311.0.1i.67.1i.67.1i.67|u68b.f4.0.0.p26|0.0|3r.3u.43.44.4e|e

Zerker builds are by definition squishy. With zerker builds you have to rely on situational awareness and careful use of deathshroud as your primary means of survival. Honestly, in certain boss fights it doesn’t matter how much toughness or vitality gear you have as you will be one-shot regardless.

So I played around with this build and the one I have up on GW2 Guru which is nearly identical. Here is the only thing I am really iffy on…

Target the Weak. It mostly comes down to how many conditions will consistently be up on the target. You can guarantee Vulnerability and Bleed at all times… our only blind would come from a well with a lengthy cooldown even traited so it is not consistent enough. Same goes for Chilled from Spinal Shivers or Grasp. So on our own we can guarantee a 4% increase in damage at all times. In a group, you are tossing the coin really as to what others might have up at all times besides those two. I am looking more at consistency rather than random bursts of conditions that throw your damage up higher for a few seconds.

So, while Target the Weak IS feasible and doable, I think going 25 in to Soul Reaping for Strength of Undead may be safer and more reliable. It is a damage increase that we can maintain ourselves and manage without relying on others. If you are in a dungeon and a player or two dies and you lose their extra conditions, then your damage boost plummets.

Takarazuka.3025:

So I played around with this build and the one I have up on GW2 Guru which is nearly identical. Here is the only thing I am really iffy on…

Target the Weak. It mostly comes down to how many conditions will consistently be up on the target. You can guarantee Vulnerability and Bleed at all times… our only blind would come from a well with a lengthy cooldown even traited so it is not consistent enough. Same goes for Chilled from Spinal Shivers or Grasp. So on our own we can guarantee a 4% increase in damage at all times. In a group, you are tossing the coin really as to what others might have up at all times besides those two. I am looking more at consistency rather than random bursts of conditions that throw your damage up higher for a few seconds.

So, while Target the Weak IS feasible and doable, I think going 25 in to Soul Reaping for Strength of Undead may be safer and more reliable. It is a damage increase that we can maintain ourselves and manage without relying on others. If you are in a dungeon and a player or two dies and you lose their extra conditions, then your damage boost plummets.

The only time the 25 point Soul Reaping wins is in the time between 50 and 100 with less than 3 conditions on someone. If you can keep more than 3 conditions or your Life force is below 50 percent (quite often considering most of us use it defensively). If this consistently happens in your groups that’s a problem with your teammates. I can personally keep three or more conditions up pretty reliably in dungeons.

What is the third one? This is my build:

http://tinyurl.com/bh7p4lz

Chill is only up for 5s on a 20s cooldown (traited 16s cooldown if you get that) and Cripple is 5s on a 12s cooldown traited with Axe Mastery. So there is still a delay between them… not long, but its not 100%. So you have a 6% damage increase to my 5%, but agreed my Life Force will drop sometimes, but I can bring it up quickly and continue.

I also usually run pugs from the LFG site too…. so there is that >_>

Takarazuka.3025:

What is the third one? This is my build:

http://tinyurl.com/bh7p4lz

Chill is only up for 5s on a 20s cooldown (traited 16s cooldown if you get that) and Cripple is 5s on a 12s cooldown traited with Axe Mastery. So there is still a delay between them… not long, but its not 100%. So you have a 6% damage increase to my 5%, but agreed my Life Force will drop sometimes, but I can bring it up quickly and continue.

I also usually run pugs from the LFG site too…. so there is that >_>

Vulnerability ;P and bleed on crit. That’s 3 plus utilities from the Minions or if I am running this build BiP’s bleed (I didn’t like bip and eventually dropped it for another well), and if it’s not just me someone else always has poison or bleed or burning going. So even in a full berzerker party someone is attaching another.

But it is based on the number of different conditions, not how many are stacked correct? So regardless of how the bleed is applied, they still count as 1 condition. Vulnerability counts as a second. Those are the ones with basically 100% uptime and all others fall off before being reapplied.

I am not against 25 Curses at all… I would even run it if I felt I could rely on having enough conditions to really get the potential out of Target the Weak and it be more than a 1% difference (3 conditions). The scaling potential of it is amazing, but I try to rely on consistency and self-sufficient damage boosters without burst.

Takarazuka.3025:

But it is based on the number of different conditions, not how many are stacked correct? So regardless of how the bleed is applied, they still count as 1 condition. Vulnerability counts as a second. Those are the ones with basically 100% uptime and all others fall off before being reapplied.

I am not against 25 Curses at all… I would even run it if I felt I could rely on having enough conditions to really get the potential out of Target the Weak and it be more than a 1% difference (3 conditions). The scaling potential of it is amazing, but I try to rely on consistency and self-sufficient damage boosters without burst.

Correct it’s based on individual conditions applied. Vuln and Bleed are easy permanent stacks. How often in a dungeon do you see a permanent stack of cripple, poision, and burning as well? Pretty much all the time. Chill is up and down, and blind is a nice little occasional pop. I know in the one run I did, there were over 5 conditions constantly up. I will post the video later today.

Ha, I wanted to reply to all the posts this evening, but Bas already did

Anyway, as Takarazuka and Bas already pointed out, the more conditions the better.
In Group-PvE (events and instances) and WvWvW, those will be always there. Look at the video, there are almost all the time 6 different conditions on the priest with up to 9 different conditions. That is a 12-18% damage increase for all your skills.

Solo it is of cause harder, but it isn’t really needed. I use skale venom almost always (karma buff food). I just start with focus 4, ghastly claws, ds and lifeblast away. If I want more damage, I apply spinal shivers and unholy feast. If I need still more, I start with staff marks and switch to axe/focus.

Ah, and I use well of suffering/corruption now with focused rituals now most of the time. Works better for pve and wvwvw. Signet of locusts or spite, depending on the situation, and either weakening shroud (solo, easy content) or reapers precision (whre range is important).

I actually found that running two wells with Ground Targeting is better than master of Corruption for personal damage. Granted you lose the BiP Bleed and the Might stacking, but the well damage was incredibly strong.

I do love wells… I always use Well of Suffering. Depending on which utilities I have up for the fight, Well of Corruption is also there. After playing around a bit and pondering on it, I am leaning more towards 25 Curses. Not only for Target the Weak, but also to keep my targeted wells. If you are a dagger build it isn’t so terrible to not have since you are in melee anyways, but in axe I am in and out a lot. Being able to throw out wells is really nice to have.

The third utility… I prefer to keep blood is power since 10 stacks of might is a nice chunk of power added. If you have plenty of vulnerability available through other classes then spectral wall looses its luster. Could pick up Well of Corruption or Power for some support for the group. Don’t need Grasp or anything like that… Bone Minions for their explosion isn’t a bad idea though. Their explosion hits pretty hard and, I believe correct me if wrong, you could grab Training of the Master and increase its damage by 30%.

@Bas look one post above you

@Takarazuka For bone minions you need the lower cd and they tend to stay away from the fight. But the utilities are really up to your personal preference. I like the signets for the speed/power buffs.

haha, nice, I figured it out last night when playing around, I figured ground targeting was way to awesome. As for the third one, epidemic is way too important. Unless you are facing a boss, I always use epidemic just before I throw my wells down. 5 targets with 6-8 conditions on them now my wells are hitting for 12-18 percent more damage.

Check it out kitten: http://youtu.be/5riJJHRoY-0

kitteno.5698:

Ah, and I use well of suffering/corruption now with focused rituals now most of the time. Works better for pve and wvwvw. Signet of locusts or spite, depending on the situation, and either weakening shroud (solo, easy content) or reapers precision (whre range is important).

Hey Shiizo
What did you swap out of your “Curses” line that allowed you to add “Focused Rituals”. Currently you have: IV & VII.

(edit: your name = kitten) trying your name with two letter “i”.

Offtopic a lot, but for all those non believers of the DS bug (skill lock and DS not on cooldown), you can see it happening at 3:00 in Bas’s video.

He falls to 0 Lifeforce, skill appears lock for ,25 sec, and at 3:06 or :08, he could have jumped back in DS if he had more lifeforce while normally he should only be able to at 3:10.

On topic, nice build and nice numbers