Guild Wars 2

Hello peeps,
I’m running fractals 49 with my necro, got around 55 AR,
I’ve been making some bolts of damask to start making my ascended armor, but was always unsure which stats to pick.
In fractals I use rampager’s stats hybrid (nemesis’ hybrid build) and recently I gave Spoj’s berserker build a try and it seemed to do much more damage per second.
I kind of got used to being hybrid and having a little more range from my enemy, so I die much less than with the berserker build.

What do you guys think? Which stats should I go for if I’m aiming for fracs 50 next?
Please no comments about how necros suck at PVE and fractals, thanks.

Imo, it depends on what you do most. For organised runs where you want to optimize your speed, zerker is a no brainer. But if you mostly pug, then it’s more up in the air.

Tbh, I personally pug lvl 49 and 50 regularly on a full dire condi necro: if you trust the forums and stuff, I should be shot on sight. In reality, I literally never have anyone complaining/kittening about it in game. I know I can easily do 3.5-4.5k dps single target (depending on buffs) which is about 3 times lower than a fully buffed zerker, actually higher than a non-buffed zerker and usually not worse than your teammates (cause even at that lvl, full zerkers aren’t at all as common as you’d think)… Meanwhile, runs are a lot smoother (outside of the parts where that’s pretty much the point, looking at you dredge, no one in the party regularly downs and defeats are exceedingly rare) but slower. Within that pug context, I know my build simply outperforms a zerker one, while not feeling like you’re a bad warrior….

But don’t rush the crafting just to do lvl 50: it’s nothing special and not worth the regrets you’ll have if you end up making a set that doesn’t suit you. Also, if you enjoy the zerker style but want a bit more range/survivability, you can adapt the dagger build to be more DS-oriented (piercing+vulnerability+might on life blast, Deathly Perception, etc.). This gives you a safer option (cause you’re mostly in DS, with the option of doing max damage up to 600 range) with more aoe, at the cost of a few percentages of damage. There are a few guides to be found about that build as well.

Zerker and Rabid are the 2 most solid options imo for Necro.
Do you prefer condis or power?

Also zerker is very Cross-class friendly.

i was using the same hybrid build for a long time, nowadays ive switched to 30/25/x/x/15
zerk gear, traited axe+focus/ staff, some trinkets are zerk/valk (cause im nub) so i go for sigil of perception and crit chance food, and usually do the focus 4 axe 2 burst, then stack some might and vuln with life blast..
sometimes i switch the axe for dagger and switch the axe trait
utilities are blood is power, well of blood and signet of spite. With some good party might stacks axe 2 hits 10-18k and lb 6,5-9k (depends on condis on enemy). Had a wonderful run with a phalanx warrior and a staff guard :P
Runes are tricky, you can take scholar if you go full zerk, or runes of eagle or even better the strength ones, i personally hate the lack of fury on my nec so i went for runes of rage.

Rotation: Focus 4, axe 2 (maybe axe 3), ds5/2 and 3-4 life blasts, axe 2, focus 4 when cd ready and again. (or switch staff)

Downsides are that if you take the might on trait you lose cooldown reduction on focus, so after the second axe 2 burst you spend time on axe auto att -.-
You can always switch to staff and place some conditions on the enemies, and ive seen putrid mark crit 6-7k:P

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRUQNAW3djc0UdbLNO2webiaBB6EBmFbpR01G-TRSBwAF3fgxRAwsSwrKDi8AAup+DWle41NA4iAIAIB-e

PS: I’ts not the most optimal dps build. It’s a build I personally use on fractals, i like its damage/survivability and i just enjoy it more than dagger auto or condis.

^
Sounds really cool mate. I love axe but disappointed it’s not as good as dagger dps, and I feel it’s wrong for me to ditch it for dagger, especially as I only need tooth of frostfang to finish the legendary.

I actually really liked nemesis’ hybrid build… I’ve been using it for a long time but now after the april 15 changes it seems to do much less damage.

I’m guessing I should go with zerk gear… and your build sounds pretty nice.
Why did you pick a staff though? Doesn’t it feel a bit wasted? I mean when you switch to staff you have like 10 seconds of pretty bad damage?
Wouldn’t there be a better replacement like off hand warhorn maybe?

Just would like to hear your thoughts.
Thanks everyone for commenting.

PS: I actually got a bit lucky recently (from all the fractals I’ve been running), and have 3 ascended armor boxes waiting for me in bank to be opened. Shoulders and gloves stat of choice, and Zojja stats piece of choice (which I will pick chest piece for of course). That puts me in only needing Boots, helm and pants which I have mats for.
It’s like the game telling me to go with berserker gear.

hahahah oh lucker

ehm sometimes in fractals you need aoe…and with staff in 2-3 sec you can apply bleed/poison/freeze/weakness and fire cause of sigil
target the weak=2% increase for each condi, its better to get those up rather than doing axe auto..so your life blasts hit higher..also i can maybe blast a water/fire field
And right after ive used staff 2/3/4 i go ds again and shoot some life blasts(so not 10sec worthless dmg), then exit ds switch to axe-focus and start rotation. again…also lb dmg with staff is better than dagger and almost same as axe traited.
Warhorn is cool for lf regen and some melee dmg…with the axe i try not to stick on the enemy as that can get you downed in fracs..so not that useful. If i want swiftness i switch focus to warhorn, use skill 5 and switch again to focus

I really liked the hybrid build too, condi spreading and good crits…more survival than zerk..lots of buttons to press…but now dhuumfire is more pvp oriented, its not worth to take it over close to death as in the hybrid build and the ferocity really dropped the dmg boost from the trinkets.

gogo frostfang

Fractals thus if condi, do the meta already carrion scavanger build.
Rampagers takes too long time to get rolling over zerker, but does less in terms of anti-armor damage/vs mai mzerk and co than siphon condi.
Otherwise zerk/soldier/valkyre (and especially if well of blood)/zealot, assassin can be a option but it seems dumb with Deathly precision being a trait that exists.

Ascended armour is only needed for high level fractals. So for that reason I would recommend berserker. It will be account bound so you can use it on ele/mesmer aswell. The only other option would be rabid but I really dont think thats worth going ascended on.

Also you mentioned you like having a bit more range. You can still use axe or staff on my build if thats what you are more comfortable with. My build is more of the most optimal traits, weapons dont matter too much.