Guild Wars 2

Looking for constructive criticism here please. I would love to have intelligent discussions with people that WvW solo with a Necro.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.4|b.1g.h15.d.1g.h1|6.1g.h15|1n.a1.1g.a4.1b.a4.1b.a2.1b.a7.1g.a7|1n.62.1b.62.1b.62.1b.64.1b.64.1c.64|a2.k46.a6.0.u39c|0.0|3s.46.3y.44.4g|e

Thanks for taking a peek!

Not sure what you’re trying to do with this build. Seems like you’re speccing into everything. You’ve got condition and power and some DS stuff. You should pick one thing and then build around that imo.

Scepter is a condition weapon, focus is a power weapon. Staff is a support weapon but is generally needed in WvW (atleast in zergs). If you want to put any points in death magic, i would go for increased mark size.

Have a look at nemesis’s videos for some ideas. His builds are well thought out and pretty refined. I believe they are stickied at the top of the necro forum.

I agree with Spoj

It looks like you’re going for a very dysfunctional hybrid. You can’t have it all, if we could have it all, we’d be D/D Elementalists. I’m not an expert in WvW, but I do know that if you want to solo roam in it, you need speed, and quick damage, none of which this build inherently provides.

I am not in WvW/PvE , but i think i see what did you try’d to do with this build.
Your build looks like mainly based on DS.
I don’t think this is a good idea of solo WvW ,because DS is for more aggressive gameplaye and it will be hard for you solo be aggressive on wvw (mainly zerg game).

You also tryd to play with high crit. that is another aggressive gameplay style.
As Mightaltrall and Spoj already said, you can’t get “all in” hybrite

You can try it on hot join, as it is fastest way to test out experemental builds.
btw. thanks for sharing you idea anyway.

Why 10 in Death Magic? You are trying to build a Death Shroud set. I would put the points elsewhere. Run Consume Conditions and eat conditions for HP recovery rather than trait for its removal. You will actually benefit from conditions applied to you.

The main idea I was running with would be to use DS for applying Fury (bringing crit chance to 73% with a 2x multiplier for DD), Enfeebling Blood for any DD attacks. DS would also only be used for cleansing conditions, casting fear or using Transfer Force if I need to stay in DS a bit longer to fend off a thief or hnnd bld warr for a few seconds.

Having higher toughness was key again for DD reduction. The pets that were selected are for helping with kiting.

Right now I am zoomancer spec and it is fun…when the kitten pets do something…the only two pets that really, consistently, attack are the Blood Fiend and Bone Fiend.

@ Anch

What do you think would be a better use for the 10pts then, if not in DM?

I don’t really see any benefit to putting them anywhere else, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t be convinced otherwise.

Put the remaining 10 in curses or spite. Extra damage or precision.

If you’re going for a Burster or damage over time build, Close to Death is almost mandatory.

TheMightyAltroll.3485:

I agree with Spoj

It looks like you’re going for a very dysfunctional hybrid. You can’t have it all, if we could have it all, we’d be D/D Elementalists. I’m not an expert in WvW, but I do know that if you want to solo roam in it, you need speed, and quick damage, none of which this build inherently provides.

I am not sure how the higher dmg is not being achieved…the DoT dmg has essentially been doubled as well as the base power…along with a 2x multiplier on crit dmg with a 73% (68% w/ staff) chance to crit…

And there is speed built in…Signet of the Locust (25% speed boost)

I guess I’ll have to try out the spec/template to be sure…it seems logical to me…perhaps there is some major flaw that I am missing that you guys are aware of…

Its more that most of your traits dont synergise very well. Also your primary weapon set is a strange choice. Scepter + dagger is a better choice if you want condition damage. Axe + focus or dagger + warhorn/focus is more power based.

I had another look at your traits. It seems in theory like a nice idea. Its just too unfocused. I think you will just find the build is rather underpowered as a result. But I could be wrong. I feel like if you want to use DS like that you should change the scepter to a dagger. Enfeebling blood on DS is pretty much melee range so you wont get any benefit unless you’re in their face. In which case you should take the necro’s best power based weapon (mainhand dagger).

You’re also not going to get much out of terror due to a lack of condition duration and damage. Its a nice cc and provides some good extra damage but is almost wasted on most builds unless you build around it a bit more.

The problem with dagger is that it misses more often than not for me…it seems buggy if the target is running around…

As to the scepter + focus combination, the thought was to be able to strip boons with focus, apply vuln and heal a bit. The scepter is purely for ranged attacks because I will be attempting to kite as much as possible… Having scepter up for heavy healing classes will be nice because of poison; at least that was my thinking.

I was thinking Enfeebling blood would be nice because most everyone is trying to get in your face anyways…there are very few people that actually try to stay at range.

Enfeebling Blood is listed as having a range of 900.

Fair enough. You have obviously thought about it. So I would just go for it and try it out. You will probably find you make tweaks to improve it as you play it. I know i did that alot when i was creating my own builds.

Ive never had an issue with missing with dagger but then im very good at keeping my character moving and facing my target. If you can keep yourself locked on its well worth taking.

Hey, spoj (and everyone else), thanks for your input.
Up until lately I have been doing a lot of PvE and I have found that Zoomancer is the way to go for that…perhaps I’ll make some tweeks to that if I find that the thoughts discussed here do not yield any positive results.

As someone who’s played a similar trait setup as this, I say, nice! 10/20/10/0/30 is a really fun build :-D

I went all power with my WvW solo necro with that trait setup (full Knight’s with some beryl jewels), so I can’t comment on how mixing in the condition damage would work. I do have some suggestions though.

Since you’re using staff, change out Shrouded Removal for Greater Marks. It’s really hard to hit with marks in small fights in WvW without it, and you said you wanted to roam solo. Change out Blood Fiend for Consume Conditions so that you have a bit more defense against conditions. In my experience, Putrid Mark or Shrouded Removal by themselves aren’t enough. Other than that I think your traits are fine.

It doesn’t seem to me like you have enough power in your build to justify all the crit damage. Additionally, your weapon choices work against the power you do have – scepter and staff have the worse direct damage multipliers on them, I believe. D/D or A/D along with staff would work better. But I haven’t played it, so if you’re happy with the numbers you’re getting, that’s fine.

If you’re able to record yourself playing, I’d be interested in a short video showing how the build is working.

And check out the Facemelter build in my signature for my take on the power/condition hybrid with Terror. I have a PvE/WvW version too if you’re interested.

lettucemode.3789:

As someone who’s played a similar trait setup as this, I say, nice! 10/20/10/0/30 is a really fun build :-D

I went all power with my WvW solo necro with that trait setup (full Knight’s with some beryl jewels), so I can’t comment on how mixing in the condition damage would work. I do have some suggestions though.

Since you’re using staff, change out Shrouded Removal for Greater Marks. It’s really hard to hit with marks in small fights in WvW without it, and you said you wanted to roam solo. Change out Blood Fiend for Consume Conditions so that you have a bit more defense against conditions. In my experience, Putrid Mark or Shrouded Removal by themselves aren’t enough. Other than that I think your traits are fine.

It doesn’t seem to me like you have enough power in your build to justify all the crit damage. Additionally, your weapon choices work against the power you do have – scepter and staff have the worse direct damage multipliers on them, I believe. D/D or A/D along with staff would work better. But I haven’t played it, so if you’re happy with the numbers you’re getting, that’s fine.

If you’re able to record yourself playing, I’d be interested in a short video showing how the build is working.

And check out the Facemelter build in my signature for my take on the power/condition hybrid with Terror. I have a PvE/WvW version too if you’re interested.

Interesting input…I will have to check the video out at home! I actually prefer the staff over all the other weapons available…

Many thanks for your input! I will definitely be thinking more about what everyone has said!

Well, while the damage output is excellent on this spec, IMO, there is just a bit too little health.

An ele and I were dueling and they were putting out some good DPS, but I was able to pull out the win a good 90% of the time…though 40% of the time I would enter the downed state and be able to beat them because of the life siphon on Necro…

This has caused me to re-evaluate the spec a bit…I will post the new config soon for those that are interested. Also, I found that popping in and out of DS every 5 seconds got to be a bit of a pain in the butt…though it worked exactly as I had planned…

<— Lazy moder

I need to do a bit more research into how Enfeebling Blood works too, because I wasn’t seeing it pop on my target when I entered DS and when they were at a bit of range…I am wondering if it is PBAOE of 240…

Weakening Shroud (the trait) is pbaoe, whereas Enfeebling Blood (the skill) is ground-targetable.

TheAgedGnome.7520:

Weakening Shroud (the trait) is pbaoe, whereas Enfeebling Blood (the skill) is ground-targetable.

Ah, thanks! I am at work and was unable to test this, so thanks for answering that!

Another question…does closer to death affect pet damage too??

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|8.1g.h15.d.1p.h1|6.1g.h15|1g.71c.1p.71c.1n.a7.1p.a1.1g.a1.1c.a4|1g.67.1i.64.1i.64.1g.64.1g.64.1g.64|k29.f4.f6.k27.0|0.0|3s.3y.41.44.4g|e

How about this build? I figured the Weakening Shroud would be nice for those pesky Thiefs that try to burst you down in 5 seconds.

This is more focused on power with a steady state of damage pouring out, hopefully…

Kitedyou.1720:

Another question…does closer to death affect pet damage too??

I’ve not tested it, but I’m pretty confident it does not. I think the only thing that will help pet damage (besides Training of the Master trait) is vulnerability on the target.

The only things that affect minion damage, besides the trait, are buffs to the minions themselves (spirits/boons) or debuffs to the enemy (vulnerability).