Guild Wars 2

Topic is pretty self-explanatory. What do you guys think is the best Necro build for 1 on 1 fights? More interested in power builds than condi builds, by the way.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW4djMah7dbabM8JEoCvX0DkRZYGqHwz68hA-jEzAY/Ij/BIIAEGIiAc2rIasVyioxqXwUmJV5Codjs7QZVKABVGB-w

This is my build. It has won quite a few duels for me. It focuses on fighting from Death Shroud. I spend most of my time with staff out in general wvw.

However in duels you want to make sure you start with full LF bar. Go immediately into shroud and fight in it till it runs out. Then pop Spectral Armor, and then Lich Form. Fight in Lich Form until you are at 25% health. You must let your life get low, because you want to proc the other Spectral Armor that activates when you are hit below 50% health. These 2 spectral armors will refill your LF bar while you are fighting as a Lich. As soon as you pop out of Lich form, go back into shroud.

If he STILL isn’t dead as your second shroud is getting low, try CCing him and back off. Leave shroud and heal, use marks to kite then switch to D/F to quickly rebuild your LF. Switch to staff and drop marks right before you return to Shroud. Repeat this cycle as much as you can….and if Lich comes off cd then you need to /bow to your opponent because dang that fight lasted too long ;p

but yeah I regularly win 2 and 3v1’s with this build. It’s a awesome combo of tank and heavy crits.

Watch out for chain stun wars/engi’s though. Against these people Lich form is vital. If you don’t kill them in Lich then forget staff because you will need to generate LF like crazy to make up for all the time you are going to spend with your face on the ground.

Is this about sPvP or WvW?

Lorelei’s build looks decent. The spectral/lich rotation sure can be deadly… but it has several weaknesses:
1. You might not have the chance to fill up your life force completely before the start of the duel.
2. Once you fight the same opponent a second or third time, a large rotation like you described it becomes predictable and therefore a liability.
3. Lich Form: for duels nothing (!) beats the Flesh Golem, it doesn’t matter which build you have, the golem is the best elite. Not just because of what he contributes to the fight while your other elites wouldn’t do anything, but because Lich or Plague can be hard countered by some classes.
This is also where the liability of a rotation comes into play, if I as a necro know that you are going to use Lich Form, then I’ll save up Corrupt Boon and all other CC at my disposal for when you transform and I’ll kill you before you can drop out again. And other classes can prepare for that just as well…

So what is the “best” build… I don’t know, I doubt there is one. I believe powerbuilds are a little more versatile in regards to how well they do against other classes/builds.

Terrormancer, i think. But personally can’t use it. MM is my choice.

Lorelei.3918:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW4djMah7dbabM8JEoCvX0DkRZYGqHwz68hA-jEzAY/Ij/BIIAEGIiAc2rIasVyioxqXwUmJV5Codjs7QZVKABVGB-w

This is my build. It has won quite a few duels for me. It focuses on fighting from Death Shroud. I spend most of my time with staff out in general wvw.

However in duels you want to make sure you start with full LF bar. Go immediately into shroud and fight in it till it runs out. Then pop Spectral Armor, and then Lich Form. Fight in Lich Form until you are at 25% health. You must let your life get low, because you want to proc the other Spectral Armor that activates when you are hit below 50% health. These 2 spectral armors will refill your LF bar while you are fighting as a Lich. As soon as you pop out of Lich form, go back into shroud.

If he STILL isn’t dead as your second shroud is getting low, try CCing him and back off. Leave shroud and heal, use marks to kite then switch to D/F to quickly rebuild your LF. Switch to staff and drop marks right before you return to Shroud. Repeat this cycle as much as you can….and if Lich comes off cd then you need to /bow to your opponent because dang that fight lasted too long ;p

but yeah I regularly win 2 and 3v1’s with this build. It’s a awesome combo of tank and heavy crits.

Watch out for chain stun wars/engi’s though. Against these people Lich form is vital. If you don’t kill them in Lich then forget staff because you will need to generate LF like crazy to make up for all the time you are going to spend with your face on the ground.

Starting a Duel with a full LF bar,is looked down on.Most Necro’s will go in to DS to show the other person they don’t have any.

For the record, this is primarily about sPvP.

Starting a Duel with a full LF bar,is looked down on.Most Necro’s will go in to DS to show the other person they don’t have any.

That is news to me. Of course I don’t go do formal fight nights either, just random duels with people I meet in wvw.

Also to the guy who talked about rotations; yeah, its never a 100% sure thing. You have to know your skills well enough to be able to improvise if the crap hits the fan. I’m also always further tweaking my build, like today I am moving to Runes of Exuberance. I will use a Dagger with a warhorn slotted with a rune of speed for roaming (to make up for the loss of swiftness duration), and keep my D/F for zerg fighting. I also slotted a sigil of fire in my staff, and moved the bloodlust to my dagger. So dagger/Focus for building Lifeforce and Bloodlust, and Staff for max dmg.

As for spvp, this build works there too. Just go soldier trinket with a zerker jewel and pack (or divinity) runes with the above traits. Sigil of Fire (or accuracy or force, your pick) in the staff and whatever in your secondary set.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=;08cZ;1kHkD0s3oI-K0;9;4J-TJ-18;229A16;2XkV7;2IBl3IsW63NQ

MM builds tend to be the best for dueling. The other builds can work, but they are much harder to pull off. For example a berzerker build (even with soldier gear mixed in) is going to tank quickly if you mess up, and if you blow Lich at the wrong time, you pretty much lose outright in all damage-heavy builds. And in PvP I just find most tanky power builds just don’t have the damage output to put down any other bunkers in a 1v1 unless they Lich properly.

The build I linked has high damage from minions and the armor-ignoring siphoning, along with still decent base power. Also tons of CC. It has worked for me for ages.

You can change it around a bit, using D/WH or D instead of staff and Soldier instead of Cleric if you want a more up-front power but less sustain.

Banjal.7328:

Starting a Duel with a full LF bar,is looked down on.Most Necro’s will go in to DS to show the other person they don’t have any.

That’s complete bullkitten tbh, if I duel with my necro I’ll be darned sure it’s with full LF. It’s part of the class, it’s what a necro has to negate serious dmg and so on. Unlike a warrior who starts at 0 adrenaline, he can quickly build up his bar by attacking. A necro cannot (and before you say a necro can, no he can’t, only some spells grant LF and it takes a very long time to build up LF outside of killing lots of mobs.). So it is in no way unfair, for a necromancer to start off in 100% LF.

Heavy burst/CC classes all agree that it’s not fair to let a necro have LF to protect themselves from burst/CC at the start of a fight.

Oozo.7856:

Heavy burst/CC classes all agree that it’s not fair to let a necro have LF to protect themselves from burst/CC at the start of a fight.

I don’t think its fair for other people to have defensive CDs up at the start of a fight. I want to see everyone I duel use all of their defensive abilities before we start fighting so I can burst them without them being able to do anything. What’s that? That’s complete BS of an idea? So is telling a Necro not to have access to their only defensive mechanic.

Dietzen.6127:

Banjal.7328:

Starting a Duel with a full LF bar,is looked down on.Most Necro’s will go in to DS to show the other person they don’t have any.

That’s complete bullkitten tbh, if I duel with my necro I’ll be darned sure it’s with full LF. It’s part of the class, it’s what a necro has to negate serious dmg and so on. Unlike a warrior who starts at 0 adrenaline, he can quickly build up his bar by attacking. A necro cannot (and before you say a necro can, no he can’t, only some spells grant LF and it takes a very long time to build up LF outside of killing lots of mobs.). So it is in no way unfair, for a necromancer to start off in 100% LF.

You must not Duel alot on the SPvP duel servers,cause it’s the etiquette.

Also it is very easy to build LF with the right build.If you are a DS necro you spec and use skills that build it fast.I can go from 0 to 50% LF right when a duel starts.

Banjal.7328:

You must not Duel alot on the SPvP duel servers,cause it’s the etiquette.

Also it is very easy to build LF with the right build.If you are a DS necro you spec and use skills that build it fast.I can go from 0 to 50% LF right when a duel starts.

Just because its etiquette doesn’t mean it isn’t stupid.

Yeah after thinking about it, if etiquette demands I have a empty lifeforce bar at the start of the duel…well, I guess i’m just going to be a Rude person then. Lifeforce is our defensive mechanic…it’s like asking a guardian to pop all their seals or w/e they are before they go fight.

Minion builds are strong. Fear builds are strong. But I think for high level play Foot in the grave becomes more and more important or else you’re gonna have a bad time against cc duel classes. Power builds can get insta gibbed. But if you’re skilled enough yo can do it.

The answer depends upon which job and build type you face. Every Necromancer build can be countered.

Berullos.6928:

Minion builds are strong. Fear builds are strong. But I think for high level play Foot in the grave becomes more and more important or else you’re gonna have a bad time against cc duel classes. Power builds can get insta gibbed. But if you’re skilled enough yo can do it.

Not gonna happen. Not unless all opposing 5 man teams are warriors. People will just save the warriors for last.

Berullos.6928:

Minion builds are strong. Fear builds are strong. But I think for high level play Foot in the grave becomes more and more important or else you’re gonna have a bad time against cc duel classes. Power builds can get insta gibbed. But if you’re skilled enough yo can do it.

Actually if you’re running a minion build properly CC doesn’t matter too much so long as you don’t just sit there going “I HAZ MINYUNS IT DUN MATTER”. But as long as you keep playing smartly, 2-3 of your minions are still hitting 100% of the time (ranged, won’t get CCed), and Flesh Golem gets stability after charging, which means he will attack the whole time too. If you use the standard minion setup, that means the only things getting CCed are Bone Minions (which you can blow up easily because most CC spam is melee and they are instant cast explosions) and yourself.

Back before CC warriors were popular (and they were weaker, mind you), I 2v1d two CC warriors on a point for a long time before my team was able to come in and mop up two very low warriors (who I just couldn’t quite finish off, for obvious reasons) as a minion build. Simply because if they CC’ed me, all of my passive stuff was still coming in, and its not like you stay CCed ALL the time, so if you’re smart you can still get a few things off like Axe 3.