Guild Wars 2

I’m thinking about running a hybrid build with a mix of power and condition damage, using some undecided combination of rampagers/carrion/zerker gear.

My question for y’alls is what weapon set would be ideal to run for this build. I really want to run a staff with greater marks for the utility and AoE ability, as well as a dagger/warhorn for power-melee DPS. Instead of a Staff, would a scepter/dagger be more useful for stacking bleeds at a slightly faster rate? Also what about axe over dagger so I don’t get murdered in melee range, however I know that the dagger wold give far more DPS.

As far as traits go, I’d probably do 30/30/10/0/0 with a staff, taking retal on DS, Spiteful Marks, Close to Death, Terror, Banshees Wail, Weakness on Crit trait thing, and Greater Marks.

If I went with scepter instead, I’d probably cry with how much more boring than a staff it is, and move the 10 points from death magic into soul reaping and pick up DS CDs and some noice crit damage.

One of the reasons I’m going for a hybrid set up is that the true rumors of Burning/weakness being buffed sound like something great to capitalize on, and that I feel like I could provide more DPS utilizing both power and conditions, however I’m not sure what the optimal way to go about this is. And if you guys think that power builds are just an all around better idea, then let me know.

Thanks for reading this.

When I run Hyb (PvE Only): scepter/dagged and axe/focus.
Scepter Bleeds + Blood is pwoer + Epidemic-> Axe #2 -> DS #1 + DS#1 (might stacks) -> Axe #2 -> Scepter.

Power + Prec + Cnd dmg + crit dmg gear(jewels/weps).

I use Staff + Scepter/Dagger in a marks/wells build that uses both Carrion and Rampager gear. It does ok. In WvWvW I usually try to keep at med-long range dropping marks/wells and using my allies as a screen if there is not any terrain nearby I can use to break LOS; and if someone does break off and come after me, I swap to scepter/dagger to skirmish and bleed them while waiting out staff/mark cooldowns.

On a hybrid setup, i actually kinda doubt my “unholy rule of necromancy 4: Thou must haveth a stave for one of thy weapons since Death itself scales off it” (you get ton of utility and strongest Life Blasts with it). Since Axe with earth sigil can do a ton on a hybrdi setup; especially if you have 30 in spite and 15+ in SR.

My favorite armor set uses Carrion Armor and Rampager Trinkets.
The Vitality gives you some survivability for poking things with your Dagger and for surviving in WvW zergs whereas the Rampager Trinkets give you plenty of precision while not lowering your Power and Condition damage too much.

I like using Dagger/Dagger, Dagger/Focus or Dagger/Warhorn along with a Staff.
The Staff is just plain great because you get both high-Power Putrid Mark hits as well as the Bleeds from Mark of Blood without having either one be really weak.

Dagger deals high damage and pretty much any off-hand works since you’ve got the stats for all of them.
The only issue with going with something else than a Dagger for off-hand is that it’s hard to make use of your Condition damage stat if you only inflict it with crits.
Dark Pact and the Staff redeem this somewhat, however.
…as does Fear+Master of Terror, if you wanna go for it.

And yeah I think that the Burning will make these sorts of builds much better.
You won’t have to work so hard to put condis on your foes while using a main-hand Dagger.

I haven’t tried it with a Scepter much, mainly because from what I’ve heard Scepter scales poorly with Power.
Perhaps I should. What i do like about it is that Unholy Feast actually deals some damage, unlike in a Rabid build where it just tickles. :P

Also something to consider:
If you like you can take the movement Trait for Daggers and you’ll have 25% run speed while in D/D.
Saves you an Utility slot in WvW.

LastDay.3524:

My favorite armor set uses Carrion Armor and Rampager Trinkets.
The Vitality gives you some survivability for poking things with your Dagger and for surviving in WvW zergs whereas the Rampager Trinkets give you plenty of precision while not lowering your Power and Condition damage too much.

With carrion/rampager setup, how do you actually survive for long enough in melee for it to be worth it? Melee really isnt worth it if you go hybrid from what i know.

Andele.1306:

LastDay.3524:

My favorite armor set uses Carrion Armor and Rampager Trinkets.
The Vitality gives you some survivability for poking things with your Dagger and for surviving in WvW zergs whereas the Rampager Trinkets give you plenty of precision while not lowering your Power and Condition damage too much.

With carrion/rampager setup, how do you actually survive for long enough in melee for it to be worth it? Melee really isnt worth it if you go hybrid from what i know.

Positioning.

In dungeons I try to position myself much like Thieves do.
Warriors and Guardians are very plentiful so I rarely need to be the main target.
When stabbing monsters on the side or to the back I tend to take much less damage.

Once I take too much damage I dodge backwards and use Consume Conditions, use Life Siphon and skills from off-hand, enter Death Shroud and Life Blast until 50% Life Force.
If being close is way too dangerous (Like say Lupicus, or the Wolves in CoE) I just use Dark Pact and Staff instead.

After all of that the cooldown on Consume Conditions should be done or almost done and I heal up and jump back in to stab more.
You need to jump in and out and it’s quite risky, but I enjoy the playstyle.
It’s kinda like being a slow Thief, but with more room for error.

There’s probably a more optimal way to do it, but I enjoy it.

As for WvW the only time I really stab is vs random mobs, vs doors and when I pull some poor guy with Spectral Grasp…
Stabbing an upleveled zerker Staff Elementalist is funny.

LastDay.3524:

Andele.1306:

LastDay.3524:

My favorite armor set uses Carrion Armor and Rampager Trinkets.
The Vitality gives you some survivability for poking things with your Dagger and for surviving in WvW zergs whereas the Rampager Trinkets give you plenty of precision while not lowering your Power and Condition damage too much.

With carrion/rampager setup, how do you actually survive for long enough in melee for it to be worth it? Melee really isnt worth it if you go hybrid from what i know.

Positioning.

In dungeons I try to position myself much like Thieves do.
Warriors and Guardians are very plentiful so I rarely need to be the main target.
When stabbing monsters on the side or to the back I tend to take much less damage.

Once I take too much damage I dodge backwards and use Consume Conditions, use Life Siphon and skills from off-hand, enter Death Shroud and Life Blast until 50% Life Force.
If being close is way too dangerous (Like say Lupicus, or the Wolves in CoE) I just use Dark Pact and Staff instead.

After all of that the cooldown on Consume Conditions should be done or almost done and I heal up and jump back in to stab more.
You need to jump in and out and it’s quite risky, but I enjoy the playstyle.
It’s kinda like being a slow Thief, but with more room for error.

There’s probably a more optimal way to do it, but I enjoy it.

As for WvW the only time I really stab is vs random mobs, vs doors and when I pull some poor guy with Spectral Grasp…
Stabbing an upleveled zerker Staff Elementalist is funny.

For short you are actually dealing damage only 1 out of every 1 seconds while on dagger. (since even with best positioning and soldier gear pre boss, some are just unable to be meleed).

Andele.1306:

For short you are actually dealing damage only 1 out of every 1 seconds while on dagger. (since even with best positioning and soldier gear pre boss, some are just unable to be meleed).

Nonsense!

Just like Warriors you need to pick and choose which mobs to melee.
It takes a bit of getting brutally murdered before you learn which ones you can and cannot melee.

Most mobs in AC and CoF fall quite handily to old stabby stabby if you position yourself and dodge well.
Meleeing Alpha in CoE is pretty fun, too!
On that note my guildies melee him with Mesmers as well.
it’s tricky as Necro because you don’t have Vigor, but it’s definitely possibly to melee him for the whole fight, minus forward dodges and heals.
Not saying that I actually succeed at sticking to it every time, but the difficulty is what makes it fun.

Also mind you the Dagger has 1 melee attack, the rest are ranged!
So long as you don’t fiddle your thumbs while Life Siphon and off-hand skills are on cooldown you can easily make up for the time you spend not meleeing just by using Life Blast until 50% Life Force.

Life Blast above 50% has higher DPS than the Axe’s auto-attack does, so the same goes for Axe as well when Ghastly Claws is on cooldown.
(Well, except the Axe generates way less Life Force than the Dagger does so it’s not as easy to utilize often)

The Immobilize from Dark Pact is also great when you have a Zerker warrior or two in your party.
It’s the perfect setup for Hundred Blades.

Now whether you’d wanna use it in some super high lv Fractal I don’t know, because I rarely play fractals at all, but it’s certainly good in CoF and AC.
You can stick to many mobs for the entire duration in them, just not to all of them.

You’ve gotta learn by trial and error and if you make a mistake you are down, coupled with your downed health bug.
It’s risky for certain, but you deal way more damage than you would with the Axe.
I might switch to Axe if it gets a buff or two, however.

LastDay.3524:

Andele.1306:

For short you are actually dealing damage only 1 out of every 1 seconds while on dagger. (since even with best positioning and soldier gear pre boss, some are just unable to be meleed).

Nonsense!

Just like Warriors you need to pick and choose which mobs to melee.
It takes a bit of getting brutally murdered before you learn which ones you can and cannot melee.

Most mobs in AC and CoF fall quite handily to old stabby stabby if you position yourself and dodge well.
Meleeing Alpha in CoE is pretty fun, too!
On that note my guildies melee him with Mesmers as well.
it’s tricky as Necro because you don’t have Vigor, but it’s definitely possibly to melee him for the whole fight, minus forward dodges and heals.
Not saying that I actually succeed at sticking to it every time, but the difficulty is what makes it fun.

Also mind you the Dagger has 1 melee attack, the rest are ranged!
So long as you don’t fiddle your thumbs while Life Siphon and off-hand skills are on cooldown you can easily make up for the time you spend not meleeing just by using Life Blast until 50% Life Force.

Life Blast above 50% has higher DPS than the Axe’s auto-attack does, so the same goes for Axe as well when Ghastly Claws is on cooldown.
(Well, except the Axe generates way less Life Force than the Dagger does so it’s not as easy to utilize often)

The Immobilize from Dark Pact is also great when you have a Zerker warrior or two in your party.
It’s the perfect setup for Hundred Blades.

Now whether you’d wanna use it in some super high lv Fractal I don’t know, because I rarely play fractals at all, but it’s certainly good in CoF and AC.
You can stick to many mobs for the entire duration in them, just not to all of them.

You’ve gotta learn by trial and error and if you make a mistake you are down, coupled with your downed health bug.
It’s risky for certain, but you deal way more damage than you would with the Axe.
I might switch to Axe if it gets a buff or two, however.

Thanks for the input! After thinking about gear and weapon choices and whatnot for a while, I think its best that I wait for the balance patch with the multiple trait changes before I make any definitive decision about gear/builds. Since its probably coming within the next 2 weeks or so, that won’t be long at all though.

Instead of carrion and rampagers, it might make more sense to go for a mix of rampagers and and valkyrie for the extra power, crit damage and vit, since valkyrie would provide more power. With ascended Berserker/Valk amulet, a rampager ring, and zerker/valk rings I can get 52.57% crit chance, 21K HP, 42% crit damage, 2136 power and 640 condition damage. Of course with 1016 toughness I’d still be pretty squishy..

This way I can use MH dagger as the main weapon and have barbed prec/sigil of earth procs, Marks, possibly utilities and the burning (however it gets implemented) to supplement the power DPS, and using withering precision and locust swarm I can maintain weakness on a group of mobs for a very long time. I feel like that set up would make more sense than using a scepter, which would be better if I went for a carrion/rampage gear set.