Guild Wars 2

I love my necro. To death. I play an epidemic condi build and a power well build, but was looking to expand and need advice. I will specify now that this is for S/TPvP, not PvE. I originally made a necro to play a siphon like build and spent weeks trying to make one viable with no outrageous success. I always either died to quickly or would endlessly kite with no significant damage. I know they are definitely not apart of the current meta, I just enjoy the playstyle. I may be wrong but it seems that stacking healing amulets doesn’t increase the siphon healing effectively (possibly at all). If it is simply not functioning correctly I have faith Anet will rectify it eventually. If not I’m worried. Siphoning does heal but without it being affected (reasonably) by stats it becomes less viable than it already is. With fear and area pressure through wells, not to mention two health bars, I picture necros being an extremely effective conquest bunker but that isn’t something you ever see. If you guys have managed to find either bunker vampire/hybrid dps/boon-healing builds I’d love to hear your input on the build in its entirety. Any clarifications or explanations of currently functioning or malfunctioning mechanics would also be appreciated

I dont believe siphon builds can work currently in spvp/tpvp due to the amulets not giving you the stats you need to support it, and you have no access to omnomberry ghosts either.

I usually run vamp builds in wvw/pve because I also like the playstyle, and even though the traits are pretty crummy, it can work if you have 20 in blood with ll and V, high toughness, and omnomberry ghosts for extra siphons.

The ideal stats for survival with vamp is knights(toughness/power/prec), but in spvp for some reason that amulet doesnt exist, so yeah… no bueno.

The siphon does NOT in fact scale at all nor affected in any way by healing power. This seems to be intended by the design team, so for right now there is no way to increase the siphon (both the damage portion of it and the healing). I run a version of this in spvp sometimes but it’s prob not one you’d like. Most people hate it and the only reason I can prob make it work is I have played it into the ground to the point I know it inside and out. I will say though you won’t be able to rely only on the siphoning and raw power to make it work, you’re gonna have to figure in some sustainable conditions somehow.

I’ve been toying with a 0/0/10/30/30 support/siphon build for sPVP. Still in the works but it could prove viable.

I use clerics for more support. Deathly Invigoration is a 700ish heal every 5 seconds, coupled with transfusion and well of blood you have some nice team heals.
Using beserkers gives 3k attack and about 45% crit with 50% crit damage while retaining 24k hp. Armor is only around 2k but a steady stream of heals keeps you up.

I end up being a pain in the kitten to kill and an even bigger pain in the kitten when you let me live.

Keltset.4738:

I’ve been toying with a 0/0/10/30/30 support/siphon build for sPVP. Still in the works but it could prove viable.

I use clerics for more support. Deathly Invigoration is a 700ish heal every 5 seconds, coupled with transfusion and well of blood you have some nice team heals.
Using beserkers gives 3k attack and about 45% crit with 50% crit damage while retaining 24k hp. Armor is only around 2k but a steady stream of heals keeps you up.

I end up being a pain in the kitten to kill and an even bigger pain in the kitten when you let me live.

Tried apothecary for the condition dmg and support instead of clerics? Just wondering. I used clerics for a while but it just feels smoother with apothecary, to me anyway.

Nay of the Ether.8913:

Keltset.4738:

I’ve been toying with a 0/0/10/30/30 support/siphon build for sPVP. Still in the works but it could prove viable.

I use clerics for more support. Deathly Invigoration is a 700ish heal every 5 seconds, coupled with transfusion and well of blood you have some nice team heals.
Using beserkers gives 3k attack and about 45% crit with 50% crit damage while retaining 24k hp. Armor is only around 2k but a steady stream of heals keeps you up.

I end up being a pain in the kitten to kill and an even bigger pain in the kitten when you let me live.

Tried apothecary for the condition dmg and support instead of clerics? Just wondering. I used clerics for a while but it just feels smoother with apothecary, to me anyway.

I haven’t tried it to be honest. Life siphon (dagger 2) and Life Transfer (DS 4) both scale with power so I found it to fit better. I may do some more testing later tonight and post back later with what I find.

I think the siphons are best used as a part of your strategy and not your main device. This is the way I use them anyway. They wont do sufficient healing to enable you to sustain a dps class, but they will add a few extra 1000hp to your total if you play smart.

At some point we should compile a Vampire/Siphon theory craft thread and get it stickied. Seems like every necro has questions about this build at some point in their career. With how unintuitive the traits and scaling are for siphons it doesn’t surprise me. Maybe one of the heavy weights like nemesis can give it a try.

Stx.4857:

I dont believe siphon builds can work currently in spvp/tpvp due to the amulets not giving you the stats you need to support it, and you have no access to omnomberry ghosts either.

I usually run vamp builds in wvw/pve because I also like the playstyle, and even though the traits are pretty crummy, it can work if you have 20 in blood with ll and V, high toughness, and omnomberry ghosts for extra siphons.

The ideal stats for survival with vamp is knights(toughness/power/prec), but in spvp for some reason that amulet doesnt exist, so yeah… no bueno.

is there a internal cooldown on the omnomberry ghosts life siphon?

I know Sigil of blood has a 2 second. And I am not sure on the Vamperic Precision trait.

Would this be similar to a TBC SL/SL Warlock from WoW? Just facetank everything while draining health? It was OP as hell for PvP. It seems A-Net did their homework lol.

Kilger.5490:

I think the siphons are best used as a part of your strategy and not your main device. This is the way I use them anyway. They wont do sufficient healing to enable you to sustain a dps class, but they will add a few extra 1000hp to your total if you play smart.

^ this. I only pull out my siphon if I’m in a long fight and I need those few precious seconds till my dodge/heal/DS/plague are off cool down. Other than that the heal is little more than a way to stay neutral in a fight; healing for as much as your getting hit for.

Dabrixmgp.4758:

Would this be similar to a TBC SL/SL Warlock from WoW? Just facetank everything while draining health? It was OP as hell for PvP. It seems A-Net did their homework lol.

It’s not quite to that extreme, it’s more of a supplemental drain to compliment our massive HP and DS pools.

Kilger.5490:

I think the siphons are best used as a part of your strategy and not your main device. This is the way I use them anyway. They wont do sufficient healing to enable you to sustain a dps class, but they will add a few extra 1000hp to your total if you play smart.

This.
Life Siphoning is a big player in both my wells build and my minion build (shaddap haterz). But I really don’t see it being something that you could base an entire build around itself.