Guild Wars 2

Looking to rub the dust off my necro from PVE and wvwvw. What are the best wvwvw builds atm?

Would love a build that can do decent damage and survive (who wouldn’t), but feel free to suggest any build that lends itself to either extreme (like well bomber i heard about)

Thanks

P.S please include what gear

If you rely on cover of allies in semi-zerg fights, you could go full power build, berserker gear, Dag/dag + Staff and put 20 points in spite and at least 20 points in Soul reaping. The rest is free choice. (power builds have great utility flexibility)

condition build with Scepter/Warhorn (with at least 20 pts. in soul reaping for perma-swiftness) use carrion’s gear with probably 20-30 pts. in curses for scepter and bleed based traits. Use Blood is Power util and spread with epidemic, etc. only downside is people with condition cleanse are going to give you a hard time and take you down with CC since we have weak stunbreakers and long cooldowns.

Hybrid build, 20/30/x/x/x or 30/20/x/x/x or x/x/x/x/30 and invest in Rampager’s gear (power/cond/precision) and use staff, put 20 points in death magic for staff mastery and greater marks and either lean more on Condition or Power by investing in Spite or Curses, then use Blood is Power (if you want raw damage output) to use up the most resources for bleed/ then use dagger mainhand to finish off with whatever might stacks you have.

I’ve personally had great success with all three, using Berserkers, Carrion, and Rampagers gear respectively. power dag/dag build can kill people really fast if you have the element of focus and surprise, because if the opponent doesn’t get his wits within 5 seconds, he’s going to go down with power dagger1 alone. (talking about 1k-3.5k dmg per auto attack alone.)

Condition builds are great because they allow you to attack from a range, but people with cleanse will know how to combat you since they’re prepared to fight someone like you. In that case, bubble up and run. We as a class don’t have a strong CC selection to re-engage if they cleanse+ self buff with a lot of boons unless you rip them with corrupt boon or evade in a Well of Darkness. But even then, those utils won’t always be in place on your bar most of the time.

Hybrid builds are just as successful, because the wonderful Blood is Power utility gives you 10 stacks of might ( + power and + cond) which allows you to drop you bleeds on the guy then switch to dagger and use that might to close in for the kill (if you get close, some player’s minds leave the thought of managing anti-condition play and go straight to trying to CC you.) try to use BiP, Spectral Walk, Spectral Wall, or WoD.

Minion master builds right now are not viable for competitive play and the necro community is pleading for improvement on it since it’s a much desired playstyle.

I’ve used Axe + Warhorn, Staff in a 30, 25, 0, 0, 15 trait build with full Berserkers armour and Ruby jewelery for a long time now and i feel it very effective.

The 470 additional range on the Axe over the Dagger means i can keep auto attacks on enemies without puting myself in the direct line of fire and vulnerability stacking is really important when re-flipping supply camps before points ticking over, Well of Suffering > Lich Forms Marked for Death > Rending Claws can stack up 20 stacks from the off and you can keep 6-8 stacks on just by yourself.

Ive played my Necro as a meat shield with combo field support, typically ill bomb it into a zerg head on double dodge rolling to avoid cripples and chills then drop Well of Suffering and Well of Corruption and then going into Death Shroud and Life Transferring to keep it up whilst everyone piles me with my Retaliation on before backing out, Consume Conditions with Spectral Walk and switching to staff occasionally picking off the odd strays with an Axe burst.

Axe vs. Dagger is really just sacrificing marginal amount of raw DPS for extra range. I would argue that they are both viable, despite people knocking off the axe as a kitten weapon choice at the moment. Play with a warhorn offhand at all times though, it is much more beneficial to most builds than focus (healing+chills?) or dagger offhand (redundant and unnecessary Enfeebling Blood) although dagger offhand can be useful in some cases, warhorn offhand will be most useful in the end. (warhorn will allow for perma-swiftness and fastcast interrupt which is invaluable)

scepter main for conditions, dagger main for those daredevil players who can handle the line-of-fire gameplay, or axe for versatile range by sacrificing marginal dps and dagger2 siphon ability (which is currently a weak skill)

Yea neither one is better then the other, ive played Dagger necro in SPvP for along time now and the damage & immobilize cant be beat but i use Axe for WvW and there are times ive picked people off at range from a zerg with Ghastly Claws.

I do feel warhorn offhand trumps focus and dagger though, the 2/ 3 second daze is deadly when used correctly and its AoE range is huge, but i think it comes down to personal preference here.

So what is usually a power build composed of as far as gear? Utility slots? main source of damage(im guessing utility slot for this)?

Is there any well bombing build with axe that has good tanking or escape?

I found builds & specs that revolve around durability and manoeuvrability tend to win out as a soldier that is downed or dead does no damage and doesn’t get to where they are needed as soon as possible.
That may mean you have less focus on ‘raw damage’, but it also means you’re the last man standing and the last man standing- wins. Or in worst case scenario, run away to fight another day

As a personal preference, I support my group with large amounts of AOE conditions to cripple, damage and incapacitate the enemy, that also means I don’t have a lot of single-target focus either. But you cant have everything.

If you want to try a different but effective build ( and soon to be more effective if they debugged our minion AI), try this build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBHbhG2IjWrepmvG9eCQSR0UD9IXprlSx6uD

I named it Kamikaza MM build because not having staff or scepter, you will charge in a lot, burst people down and sacrifice minions for damage/escape.

^ I wouldn’t recommend this kind of build since it has a pretty low base vitality, and DS scales with vitality. Also, it has little sustenance and in WvW you’re going to want to last longer, as thresher said.
@John Lucier, try checking out https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/How-to-Hit-Like-a-Truck/649058 since it is pretty much a well bombing build, just swap in axe for dagger and have a go at it.

For me, axe is the tank spec weapon, where dagger is the ‘life siphon’ type weapon.

Because axe stacks vulnerability on each hit, you can stack up to 10-12 stacks on a single target using vulnerability sigils and runes without using wells or focus 4. This makes me think that this is for minion based builds (which kinda suck atm, but whatever, not the point).

Not sure why people suggest dagger/dagger and not dagger/focus. Focus is a 1200 range 6 second chill, very good for running down people [edit] when specced.

Pretty much the only thing I do in this game is WvW, and most often on my Necro. Been at my ‘final’ gear for 6+ weeks or so, and have tried countless builds and alternate gear and have settled on a build that I find work best for myself and my playstyle. This is a condition based build, with balanced primary stats.

Build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-1_-3d;0kHFC0r3gJkJ0;9;49TT;01;0169417;4a-F4S;1jwmAjwmAa

With this build, I’m sitting at 22k HP, 1650 Toughness, 1500 condition damage (prior to Sigil stacks), 1550 power, and 32% crit chance.

Differences from your ‘traditional’ condition build — the primary offhand I use is the Focus. I enjoy being able to trait the focus for 1200 range, and Spinal Shivers can put 7-8s of chill on your target, which you can then spread to five other enemies with Epidemic. I don’t see others talking about it much, but is absolutely fine to use Epidemic on targets with -0- bleeds — I do it all the time on targets with decent duration’s on Chill and Poison (two conditions we have in great amount, which are highly discounted).

There are certain situations where I deviate from the Focus — and that is primarily on keep/tower offense, as the focus cannot hit those on walls. I also, obviously, will swap to a warhorn for swiftness.

Gear:

-5 pieces of “Rapid” gear (Condition, Toughness, Precision). 4 of these from the Orr Karma vendors, plus the Khilbron chest from the AH (~5g).

-Carrion Boots

-Carrion Rings and Accessories

-Invaders Amulet (Power/Vitality/Toughness) with Carrion Orb

-Soldier (Power/Vitality/Toughness) Backpack with Carrion Orb

-Bramblethorn Staff (Condition/Toughness/Precision)

-Mystic Wand Scepter (Condition/Toughness/Precision)

-Carrion Offhands

-6x Rune of the Undead

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=;04-8c;0kHkH0G4wJkJ0;9;4T9;0T19B3;626A4BG0I;1OZG5OZG55Bk

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/74956-movie-power-necro-versus-thief-and-warrior/

Cempa.3645:

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=;04-8c;0kHkH0G4wJkJ0;9;4T9;0T19B3;626A4BG0I;1OZG5OZG55Bk

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/74956-movie-power-necro-versus-thief-and-warrior/

Melee power/wells are certainly fun, but I believe the OP was looking for WvW builds/ideas.

Not looking to hijack the thread, but I figured it would be redundant to make a new one on the same topic…

Could anyone suggest for me a super tanky/CC build for WvW? I want to get around somewhat fast while being basically a nigh-invincible distraction. I want to slow and impair enemies and make them feel like I’m a threat. I want them to think “Oh this kitten clothie is just asking for my knife in his face!” only for them to be foiled by massive amounts of health, boons, conditions, life steal, life force, or whatever I can use most effectively.