Guild Wars 2

I want to start trying out my Necromancer in sPvP but I don’t really know where to start; I’ve seen Scepter/Staff Condition builds, tanky MM builds, and Power stacking Dagger builds. I’ve played against these builds but I’m not sure if they’re all that effective though because usually when people talk about Necro’s in “PvP” on the forums they mean WvW and not sPvP/tPvP (Structured PvP and Team/Tournament PvP). So, what advice could yall give for building/playing a Necro in sPvP/tPvP?

Here’s a few general things I’m interested in, what are the most effective;
1. Builds
2. Utilities
3. Weapons
4. Stats
5. Play-styles

Thanks. :D

EDIT: Also, what classes do you have problems dealing with and which do you feel most effective against?

Umm… can’t claim to be an expert, but I think I do well enough to give you a few tips. The only class I consistently have problems again in 1v1s are elementalists, because with the standard bunker build they can remove a condition off themselves once every few seconds, so your deep bleed stack which is basically all your damage is toast.
I mostly play a conditionmancer. Scepter/dagger (or warhorn), staff in the other set. I’ve tried several different minor variations (changing the odd trait around, trying different sigils or armour runes, swapping the odd utility around) and I can’t definitively say that there’s one build that stands above the rest, but here’s a good starting point for you: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=V044Z-FKlHkH0p37IkJ0g3gJFC0m3BK;5T99J;113B1;02;021-K3m6-Jl6jwmAjwmA2VH
Running with something a little bit weirder currently, 20/30/10/10/0, but haven’t tested it enough to recommend it yet. There are people running power builds with dagger and doing well, though I personally haven’t really gotten the hang of them.

Main tips are: always be circle-strafing (even againstg ranged classes, helps stay out of thjeir AoEs), don’t be afraid to spam your scepter no. 1 skill (it’s where most of your damage comes from: your cooldowns are situational and you should use them opportunistically, not blow them as soon as they recharge – same goes for staff, only spam Mark of Blood and Chilblains, the last 2 are situiational), and jump into death shroud as soon as you’re getting focussed.

If you see a thief, fear them. If they go into stealth, drop some marks, they get hit by aoe even while stealthed. As soon as they pop out of stealth, cripple and weaken. They’re not as deadly as people will have you believe. Unless you’re unlucky and get jumped while all your situational skills are on cooldown you’ll be fine, even against a skilled thief: the REALLY skilled thieves aren’t really the ones that kill you every time, they’re the ones that know how to run away even when they fail. Also make sure you bind an easy-to-reach key for select closest target (I have V), it helps to get them in your sights.

Against mesmers, keep your eyes on the battlefield, you can usually tell the real one cause of how they move, dodge, etc. Clones are pretty fragile, marks and your DS4 skill help clear them up.

Against Guardians you shouldn’t have much trouble. The smart ones will wait until you’ve used Corrupt Boon before they use their Contemplation of Purity. You can counter that by CCing them right after using it (fear, or your Golem’s charge, or your warhorn’s daze, whatever you’ve got). If they still get it off, relax, yours will recharge before theirs

Against eles I can’t help, like I said I suck against them.

If you want to win matches, I guess the most important thing is run away from fights where you’re outnumbered and go cap a point elsewhere. And be prepared to die a lot even if you’re winning most matches: I mean it’s unavoidable that every once in awhile you’ll be fihgting someone and just when you were about to kill them a friend of theirs will arrive and double-team you.

If you search in this forum you’ll find pvp videos by people a lot better than me, but play a few matches first so you can tell what’s going on.