Guild Wars 2

The Deathhammer build?

Yah, for reals. The name is over the top but I figure in order for things to get any sort of attention you need an exciting name. It’s the first thing that came to mind, so I’m sorry if you thought we could use hammers. We can’t. We do use death quite a bit, so there’s that. It’s really only half a lie if you think about it.

OK, sure. What’s your philosophy here then?

Well, bunker builds are great, except when you need to kill something. Glass cannon builds are fun until you get the attention of 3+ players. Juggermancer is fun, Mr Freeze was entertaining, but both of them lacked; Mr Freeze sucks when you’re being focused, and Juggermancer gives up a little too much aggression for my liking. My aim was quite simple: create a build which hurts, plays to the strengths of the necro (high EHP, doubled by DS) and grabs the traits I think are key.

Primarily, I play WvW with this and farm Fractals. I’ve not been in an instance I couldn’t handle with this, and roflstomping thieves/elementalists/guardians is fun. I’ve used it in sPvP at low levels, but I prefer WvW and instances for the time being.

The Build

http://goo.gl/Dhzqc

(http://goo.gl/EooXH)

Pretty basic 30/15/25/0/0.

With Sharpening Stones and Orrian Steak Fritters, I top out at 26khp, 2620 power (before bloodlust stacks), 1.9k toughness and a paltry 15% crit chance.

The idea here is quite simple; maximise damage (Close to Death, Deadly Strength), give a boost to DS (Furious Demise, Reaper’s Might, Spiteful Spirit, Shrouded Removal), and survive long enough to enjoy them (250 toughness from traits and PVT gear).

I’ve got 15 points in Curses to pick up Chilling Darkness, a little crit and some fury. More on this later; suffice it to say, you’re a nightmare to kill in plague form.

I’ve found in a 1v1 situation that popping my heal (6.5s retal) and hitting DS (4s retal) will often result in the enemy killing themselves on retal. Time it right (when the guardian spins to win, or the rogue starts spamming both pistols) and you’re looking at pretty hefty damage.

Ducking into DS and blasting is fun. You’ve got a craptonne of power, plus fury and retal – and the condition removal has a very good chance of removing whatever condition your enemy has been counting on. Removing immobilise, as anyone who’s ever played PvP of any form will know, can often be the difference between life and being a streaky stain on the keep floor.

I do like Reaper’s Might; however Chill of Death is a very valid replacement if you don’t prefer it. Chill of Death is a no-no in instances though. Stick to Reaper’s Might there.

Likewise, I’ve found Reaper’s Protection to be very, very powerful indeed. 2s PBAoE fear is great; however in WvW with the conditions etc. flying around I’ve often had it trigger when it was out of range of anyone who gives a kitten . RP is wonderful but Spiteful Vigor is a winner as far as I’m concerned.

Weapon Choice, or “DUDE WHERE’S YOUR STAFF?!”

It’s in my bag. So’s my axe.

Staff is great for WvW sieges, and from time to time I use it when I’m roaming. Axe has its uses; Axe 2 does OKish damage, and Axe 3 is superb for grabbing a full 20s of retaliation or snaring and running when you get jumped. I keep both of them on my person at all times. You should too. Your weapon usage should change based on scenario.

However, I prefer dagger/focus and dagger/warhorn in most scenarios. Hydromancy is there to keep them chilled, but if you prefer battle then go for it. Your call – do try Hydromancy first though. Focus is insane for the 12 stacks of vuln and for the long ranged snare/buff purge; Warhorn’s daze and locust swarm (LS plus retal plus plague is fun) is also pretty win.

Also, and I think this is key, the dagger autoattacks don’t need a target to work. When fighting a stealthed opponent (ranger, thief or engi) this is very important. If you root with dagger 3 (4s immobilise thanks to our traits) you can watch the animation to see if you’re connecting with dagger 1. Also, rememeber that channeled abilities continue through stealth, so dagger 2 is often useful for that.

Gearing up

The gear selection options on my chosen build site are a bit crap; I’m happy to admit that I stole my gearing selection wholeheartedly from Juggermancer. PVT is king here – I have a full set of Soldier exotic gear (which he covers in his guide rather well, go read it!) with bloodlust/hydromancy in my weapons.

I have experimented with some Knight gear – feel free to slot some rings if you miss critting often. I prefer to rely on Fury and 15 points in Curses for my crit, but whatever you like is fine. I find PVT gear to be just the right balance for us corpse-fondlers.

Abilities, or “WHERE’S UR LOCUST SIGNET DUDE?!?”

I wish I could use interrobangs on this forum.

In WvW, I go with Well of Power, Well of Corruption and Spectal Walk. Cycling Spectral Walk/Locust Swarm gives 100% uptime on swiftness when you include the 25 points in Death Magic. I also generally roll with Plague Form.

Why no Locust Signet? Because:

a) 25% isn’t as fast as 33% and that matters sometimes. Following a zerg, chasing a runner, whatever.

b) The effects of SW (being able to teleport to remove all falling damage, LF generation, juking) and LS (LF generation, cripple… works exceptionally well with plague or in DS) are far more impressive than the signet’s active ability, and 60s CD is a killer. Literally. You will sometimes die as a result of that CD if you ever use the ability.

c) Signet doesn’t work while you’re transformed. Plague and Lich both benefit greatly from swiftness and retaliation.

Lich, Flesh Golem or Plague?

I used to be a devotee of the Lich, but I’ve since realised that you’ll achieve more for your team as a Plague user (Chilling Darkness), you’ll die a lot less quickly (blind spam) and you’ll escape focus trains more often. Lich is fine if you just want some ranged spam. Golem, if he ever starts responding to a combat situation outside of his manual cast ability, would be fine too.

Plague form though – good grief. 20×1.3s blind, 20×1.3s freeze and 20×1.3s poison. That adds up. It can be used to escape, to bunker up while your heal is on cooldown, or for zerg bombing. It’s not damage centric, but it’s a death sentence for the enemy team in small scale engagements.

Well of Corruption is a frickin’ gem. 6 ticks of 1% LF generation per target per tick, plus boon flipping, plus small damage. It wrecks guardians, and anyone else who’s boon obsessed. Not so useful in instances, but depending on circumstances can be amazing.

In instances, I slot Well of Darkness or Blood is Power.

How do you use this unimaginative and/or clichéd build?

1v1

Wellbomb. Root your enemy and apply both wells, Focus 4 for vulnerability, double tap F1 for Fury, and stand behind them while your wells and dagger autoattack rip them apart. If your opponent dodges this, then you’ve lost the initiative, but no big deal.

Shrouded Removal is more powerful than you think; learn when to use it. A 25% chance to remove 15 stacks of bleed assuming 4 conditions is amazing; a 100% chance to remove the immobilise the enemy necro is about to use to wellbomb you is a lifesaver. It can also be used to remove a single remaining condition, which gets you out of combat sooner and gets you healed faster.

Remember, heal ASAP. As soon as you’ve lost ~7k, hit that heal button. Sooner if you’ve got conditions which will end the match early. The wonderful thing here is you now have retaliation; this is a fight ender for opponents who attack rapidly (dagger necros, pistol thieves etc.).

Double tap DS often if you’re at max health, but once you start getting lower health amounts then save it for tanking the damage. I shouldn’t have to tell you how to use Dark Path etc, so I won’t.

Plague form is surprisingly potent in 1v1. Hit it when your heal is on CD and it looks like you’re losing. If you’ve got retaliation up and a few HP to spare, then set it to option 3 (weakness and cripple). Once retaliation is down and/or you’re looking a bit low on HP, switch to option 2 (blind + chill from Chilling Darkness). This will cause the enemy to waste cooldowns and/or suffer poor heals.

Do not underestimate the potency of weakness. That halves the frequency they can dodge, before you take into account the 25% reduction of non-crit damage (50% of the time, 50% damage). It was one of my favourite parts of Mr Freeze’s build.

Some people take a more sophisticated approach to Plague Form. Ctrl-Right click on 2 to autocast blind/chill, then press 3 from time to time to attach weakness. That gives you weakness on demand, with chill/blind on auto. Up to you.

If you’re using bloodlust+hydromancy, change weapons every 10s! Your opponent will be chilled 40% of the time if you land it every time, and it’ll often hit for 1k damage to boot. Also, change weapons in DS! Don’t interrupt a lifeblast which is 90% complete, but change weapons afterwards. If you’re using battle + bloodlust, DEFINITELY change during DS.

Dark Path is a mixed bag here – remember dropping into DS triggers fury, retal, removes a condition and allows your life blasts to generate might. You might regret DS being on cooldown so use it wisely.

Small Scale

5v5 or 4v4 or 3v3 or 5v4 or whatever.

There’s no “target of target” button, so choose targets wisely. Attempt to go for a wellbomb ONLY if you are confident your chums are also targetting them. Most of 1v1 also applies – if you’re being targetted, heal for retal and pop DS to tank it out while they hurt themselves on your semi-bunker.

Plague form is very, very powerful here – all AoE has a maximum target count of 5, and if you can get all of them bunched up you can entirely lock down 1-5 players (depending on how bright they are – if they spread out, you’re less potent) with chill and blind. This should free your side to get a few kills/stomps.

Do not forget you can plaguestomp/plaguerevive, then go screw ’em up with chill/blind.

Zerg vs Zerg

My preferred medium.

1. Wait for the zergs to engage.

2. Dark Path into said zerg.

3. Drop wells when you’re confident of getting 4+ targets and they’re not running away.

4. Hit plague form and start chill/blind, keep 5 people in your AoE at all times

5. While in plague form, look around for a nice target.

6. Drop out of plague form, root, focus 4 and start the pain train.

7. Heal (interchangeable with 6 depending on your HP and the density of the zergs) and hit DS

8. Collect the bags

I’ve found this to be extraordinarily effective.

When you start your plague, watch how people react – being blind and chilled really, really screws with people. Most of the time, they’ll backpedal while your zerg starts the hurt. You’re not doing much damage, but then 5 of them aren’t doing very much of anything at all. That is a very, very good tradeoff for your zerg, and a sucky one for theirs. Often the psychological impact is worse than the actual impact – people move backwards, change to target you (a waste of time) or try to dodge away.

We all like bags and tokens though, so do make sure you drop out in time to claim a few or make a few of your own. With 2.6k power, you shouldn’t struggle to turn the dagger autoattack into a few badges.

Instances

Here you’ll need to apply a generous helping of common sense. Chilling Darkness is useless vs Dredge, so instead pick up Weakening Shroud. Melee is more viable for you than glass cannon warriors/thieves, but it’s still not sensible for some bosses. In these cases, having an axe or staff on hand is critical, so keep them in your bags at all times.

For some bosses, conditions are absolutely not an issue, so dump Shrouded Removal for something interesting. You’ll work it out.

I find myself using DS in instances as a might builder more than an emergency shield, so I’ve picked Reaper’s Might. Your preferences may vary.

Firstly thanks for the guide!

I myself tried a variant of this build last night and find that going 0/30/25/15 suits better. The lack of power is compensated for the fact that I crit alot more (seeing I use a full-flush of soldier gears and knight accessories).

End up with 25k hp, 3k armor, 2.7k power, 39% crit chance.

Took dark armor to help with the effectiveness of dagger #2 and DS#4.

But of course if you’re about Axes, then Spite trait 30 is a no-brainer.

Thanks again!

Hmm, I’ve experimented with that – I think that mathematically the 20% boost to damage when below 50% is better than both an extra 150 precision and the 2% per condition trait, but it’s about what works for you – and weakness on your target can be a game changer, so that’s totally valid.

I’d still go 10 into spite for retaliation in DS if I was in WvW or PvP – I can’t abide Blood Magic (the 15 point heal on hit is an insult to the mathematically literate) but I will experiment a bit more with 30 in Curses before ruling it out altogether.

SupahSpankeh.8452:

Hmm, I’ve experimented with that – I think that mathematically the 20% boost to damage when below 50% is better than both an extra 150 precision and the 2% per condition trait, but it’s about what works for you – and weakness on your target can be a game changer, so that’s totally valid.

I’d still go 10 into spite for retaliation in DS if I was in WvW or PvP – I can’t abide Blood Magic (the 15 point heal on hit is an insult to the mathematically literate) but I will experiment a bit more with 30 in Curses before ruling it out altogether.

With a dagger you hit 3 times really fast and then the 1/2 sec 3rd chain, and you heal for 29 hp (38/39) each hit, so that’s approx 118 (155-160) hp per auto attack chain.
So in the long haul it actually amounts to quite a bit. Along with regen if you also have a staff equipped. It’s awesome

That’s about the same as a regen tick.

What would you give up for that regen tick? I wouldn’t give up Fury on DS (as that provides a massive DPS boost), I wouldn’t give up 20% extra damage at 50% or less health, and I certainly wouldn’t give up the 100ish power and 50 toughness from the final trait in Death Magic.

It’s cool if people like it, but I really don’t think it makes a much of a difference. Assuming a fight lasts 10-15 seconds, thats 1-1.5khp tops. Less if you were in DS. I’d much rather pick something which has a more direct impact on me killing or not killing the enemy.

Lest we forget, we’ve already got 26-27khp which means that 15 point trait is a 4% increase in our overall survivability. 15 points in Curses or Spite as a much, much better improvement in our overall ability to win fights.

That’s IMO, you can do as you will

SupahSpankeh.8452:

That’s about the same as a regen tick.

What would you give up for that regen tick? I wouldn’t give up Fury on DS (as that provides a massive DPS boost), I wouldn’t give up 20% extra damage at 50% or less health, and I certainly wouldn’t give up the 100ish power and 50 toughness from the final trait in Death Magic.

It’s cool if people like it, but I really don’t think it makes a much of a difference. Assuming a fight lasts 10-15 seconds, thats 1-1.5khp tops. Less if you were in DS. I’d much rather pick something which has a more direct impact on me killing or not killing the enemy.

Lest we forget, we’ve already got 26-27khp which means that 15 point trait is a 4% increase in our overall survivability. 15 points in Curses or Spite as a much, much better improvement in our overall ability to win fights.

That’s IMO, you can do as you will

BUT, the regen along with leech (not discounting that you do the same in dmg to your opponent) might make sure you live long enough to heal up an extra time, thereby killing the chump
My reasoning are several fights where I needed just a bit of hp to get off a heal, and my opponent was also on low hp, so that’s why I like it. But I understand completely your reasoning as well

I’m actually trying a life leech’ish build, also having sigils of leech along with leech on hit and crit. And tbh I heal quite a bit when I have my dagger out. And when I channel dagger2 phew that’s a lot HP (since I heal on every hit because of the ability, and because of trait, along with heal on every crit, and since it hits 9 times ^^you get my point)

I have to say I have had alot of fun trying out this build.
The choices didnt make a lot of sense but using plague as much as one can makes for some crazy fun wvw situations.

In open world i subbed in spectral grasp for one of the skills just so you can pull the straggler on the outside and gang beat him.

This is a great solo build for running around the world or small gank group build.
you can grab em and lock em down.

good times great info.

Hey, thanks v much for the positive feedback!

I love SG, but find it bugs out a bit too often for it to be a permanent utility. I use it in sieges a lot, but WoC and WoS have to be my number one pick – wellbombing (and WoC for guardians) is just terrific in open world.

Glad you’re having fun.

I can’t help but feel that Plague with Chilling Darkness is going to get nerfed.

Dude where’s your staff!!? BTW I just posted that all in caps and got an infraction / msg delete because it was in caps. Feels like ww2 Germany in these forums.

So, I did some more thinking.

6 Crest of the Soldier grants:

120 power
84 Toughness
84 Vitality

6 Runes of Ice grant:

165 Vit
5% damage on chilled
20% Frozen duration
5% chance to proc a Hydromancy equivalent effect (tested, doesn’t share cooldown with Hydromancy; it does 311 damage and lasts for approx 4 seconds with my build)

Given that 5% of 2550 (power before buff) is roughly equivalent to 120 power, we can see that we’re really not losing much of anything by going with Ice runes provided the target is chilled. In terms of EHP, 165 Vit with 1.7k toughness is a great idea.

Then, factor in the 5% chance to proc the AoE chill (which compliments Hydromancy and dagger use very nicely) and I think the winner is Superior Rune of Ice.

This is the first time I’ve seen someone recommend a full set of 6 Rune of Ice >.<

Have a video handy from WvW? I would really enjoy watching this build.

I’ve been messing around with a similar idea, but focusing on using chills and blinds and epidemic. I also have begun testing using Bone Minions for their blast. Properly buffed with a similar build you’re hitting for 3-5k with crits twice. That ain’t bad, and it’s burst damage which we don’t have. It’s a bit more reliable now that minions really don’t wander around these days.

The jury is still out on that style of play though.

Here’s the build with 10 points left over, which will require tweaking.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRAoY3djQat7laKb87JApHR/70QFyNSRxGD;TkABUU/YKSUkFK3PSoGXMNA

Ignore the runes and sigils. I was trying to create a build where the 1s chill from blindness via Plague can turn into a 2s chill You’d need food to do it, but with a power focused build it’s easier with the condi duration.

Hi all.

I’ve been having fun, and wanted to share an update.

In sPvP, Sigil of the Locust is fine and frees up your weapon choice a bit – I go with DD and DF.

In WvW, I think perma swiftness is still required. DW, DF and Spectral Walk.

In instances, I go DD/DF and generally 3 wells – pick appropriate to the fight.

I’ve also experimented with axe. Personally I still very much prefer dagger – it just does more damage, and the root is invaluable. Plus you can hit people without having to target them – so that rooted thief in his house field can get a pounding even if you can’t see him.

However, that doesn’t mean people should be silly. DW/AF or DD/AF is perfectly valid, if you can make it work for you.

EDITED: Clarity.

After the latest patch, it’s no longer possible to switch weapons while in death shroud. It doesn’t seem like it would to me, but does this affect the build very much? Not sure how important those lost hydromancy procs are.

Also, could you explain a bit more about weapon setup? In the original post you highlight Dagger/Focus and Dagger/Warhorn, but in your last post you recommend Dagger/Dagger (I’m assuming that’s what DD means)- what’s the benefit of an offhand dagger? (My guess is the blind which brings more chills- worth giving up the locust swarm ability though?)

Not to mention, what does SW stand for- scepter warhorn? Why is that better than dagger warhorn in WvW?

No WS in DS is frickin lame, especially as a dev (John Peters) said switching in DS is a major class perk we should learn to use. I suspect and hope it’s a bug.

Either way, it does delay the switch a bit – but only by a few seconds. I don’t think it invalidates the build, in fact generally my opponents are still chilled from Dark Path, so I don’t notice too much.

The major pain in the kitten is that the triple damage change to focus doesn’t work if you’ve taken the focus trait in spite. Combined with the fact that Reaper’s Touch from focus 4 doesn’t get the cooldown benefit and I would seriously counsel against taking that trait.

Following the axe changes I’m now sticking with AD/DF. This gives Axe (primarily a midrange weapon) some condition cleanse/blind, and allows the dagger set to have some ranged punch and also snare runners.

I’ve experimented some more with staff, and I’m still not keen. I just think being in combat and swaping for Hydromancy procs constantly is far more effective for a meleemancer.

I’ve also tried a few variants in terms of spec. I had an evening of 30/25/0/0/15, and while the damage was great, I think I prefer 30/15/25/0/0 for sPvP and WvW. In PvE the 25 points for Retal and boon duration isn’t very useful, but the 250 toughness often is.

Oh, and still 6/6 Rune of the Ice. 5% damage plus chill duration and a defensive hydromancy proc is just too good to give up.

SupahSpankeh.8452:

Oh, and still 6/6 Rune of the Ice. 5% damage plus chill duration and a defensive hydromancy proc is just too good to give up.

Lyssa (being probably the strongest rune at the time), Mad King (close to lyssa, but 4~10k damage depending on build just doesnt compare to a full buffed plague or lich form) and Exquisite Emerald Jewels (most direct stat benefit) give more.

Thanks for the suggestions, but I’ll stick with RotI.

I quite like this build actually, but one thing to note, shrouded removal (and all condition/boon removal as far as I know) remove conditions in a set order (although this order seemingly differs between skills). I know for a fact bleed is removed first by every single condition cleanse, and confusion is also very high up the list, so it really is an amazing trait, and is why the thieve condition cleanse in stealth is so OP (as it does the first cleanse as soon as you go into stealth), so it’s a pity I can’t quite justify cramming it into my own build.

Edit: It seems it is random, whoops. Not quite as good a trait as I thought, but still rather useful.

I think, but I can’t be sure, that SR removes the last debuff applied. However, it’s still worth using even if it’s a random selection!

I do rather like the prot on wells though – if I’m in a team of 5 guildies I’ll use that.