Guild Wars 2

Just curious- Im not a huge pvp player, but I find it strange that Wurm is the standard skill to take over WoP. My utility bar setup Ive been working with is WoS/currupt boon, WoP, and Spectral Armor. Just looking at the surface of WoP v. Wurm I would thing that converting boons and a shorter cast time would be more beneficial. Can someone explain this to me? Thanks!

You can teleport with Wurm.

OlliX.1705:

You can teleport with Wurm.

This is basically it. Necromancers are not mobile, and the ability to set up a place to teleport to can’t be understated. The well may convert conditions on you into boons, but the necromancer doesn’t have a huge problem with conditions. Getting focused in a team fight is much much worse and wurm allows you to teleport away.

The irony in using the Wurm, usually coupled with Spectral Walk and Corrupt Boon, is that you need a teleport because the Wurm/SWalk combo is taking away utiliy slots that would allow you to face-tank or avoid damage entirely in the first place.
At some point a few “popular” players startet using it and now it’s considered meta, that’s all there is to it. But imo you are very correct in assuming that WoP and Spec Armor provide more defense, not to mention the ability to stay on point intead of abandoning your allies.
Ultimately the situation determines which skills are optimal to have. Either way, you’re always compromising by choosing one skill over another, so overall it comes down to your and the opposing team composition, and of course personal preference.

1) Opens up now possiblities to survive fights by using teleport spots (such as the roof on Khylo, upper-keep on Forest, bridges on Temple and so on, most classes won’t be able to follow you).
2) Life force. As you can no longer stack LF before the match, some necs tend to use it at the beginning of the game to gain some life force and become less of a free kill with a brief access to DS.

Wurm gives you something that the other utilities like WoP or Spectral Armour don’t – a choice.
What kills necros? Direct damage, condis? Not really. CC is the ultimate necro killer.
That choice to disengage and go back to the fight or rotate somewhere else is the key to the efficient necromancer gameplay.

Also, I can’t imagine playing without Wurm on some maps (Kyhlo, Legacy, Temple). It just gives you so much compared to the other ones.

Here’s the thing: Necros currently (in PvP) facetank basically everything that comes their way. Flesh Wurm allows you to actually create not just 1200 distance between you and 2 people who are training you down, but allows you to create vertical distance that other people can’t follow without also using a z-axis teleport. This is vastly more valuable than being able to take a little bit more damage, because (as we all know being Necromancers) avoiding damage completely is a lot more valuable than being able to take a bit more damage. Also Wurm allows a way to be semi-mobile as a Necro, which can be really nice.

That’s not to say that it is required in every build. Wurm is great for glassier builds, teamfighting builds, or builds that want a bit more mobility (mainly between home/mid). If you’re a power necro, a side-node fighter, or bunker then taking more damage or having more DS is valuable.

Ok and one more completely unrelated question: with the terror trait: if they currently have fear and you reapply it, do they take damage again or is it only when they are without fear and then gain it? I searched around and couldnt find an answer.

tboneking.2531:

Ok and one more completely unrelated question: with the terror trait: if they currently have fear and you reapply it, do they take damage again or is it only when they are without fear and then gain it? I searched around and couldnt find an answer.

Terror turns Fear into a damage-over-time condition. The longer they’re feared, the more damage they take, just like Burning. Still has its usual effects, though.

Now, if someone else (say a Ranger with wolf pet) applies Fear, when that duration is running its course, they don’t take damage from Terror.

Basically you have to be the one that was the source of the most recent fear for it to damage them. It is similar to how burning/poison work, but in fear’s case instead of just doing less damage it does none.

Z axis teleports are really important in SPvp.

The Wurm is sorta a z-axis teleport. You have to set it up ahead of time, and you can’t move too far away or it’ll fail. That we all take a teleport that is so kitten compared to Mesmer/thief/elementalist testifies to he strong they are.

You don’t need such ports on Foefire, but necromancers are Worse on that map since it is so huge necessitating taking swiftness just to turtle behind other classes.

Besides wurm’s need to be placed before activation, it is exactly the same as every other shadowstep mechanic in the game. Portal is the exception to the rules, but other than that Wurm’s active is the same as mesmer/ele/thief jumps (with a longer distance than most).

Speaking of Portal, it would be awesome if Wurm had the same range as Portal.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

tboneking.2531:

Ok and one more completely unrelated question: with the terror trait: if they currently have fear and you reapply it, do they take damage again or is it only when they are without fear and then gain it? I searched around and couldnt find an answer.

Terror turns Fear into a damage-over-time condition. The longer they’re feared, the more damage they take, just like Burning. Still has its usual effects, though.

Now, if someone else (say a Ranger with wolf pet) applies Fear, when that duration is running its course, they don’t take damage from Terror.

That plus if You spread any other applied fear with Epidemic to more targets, targets (except the one you’re spreading from, originally) will get Fear from You, so it does proc Terror.

I.e. Ranger fearing his target for 10 seconds with MoC and Boar’s bundle skull, you spread it to other targets, Terror procs on other targets.

Wow that sounds both hilarious and amazing. I thought it was just a one time proc, not a dot thing! Thanks!

this thing us useless… the cast time is so long and the teleport rarely works even if you can see the thing. i have been testing the worm after i read this post because it never occured to me that leaving my team mate to a 2v1 was ever a good idea, it seems to get blocked by the smallest of things. in kyhlo i was trying to use it to port from mid to home and it never worked.. even if i went outside the building , i tried to use it to port up to the walkways outside the building and it never worked

is there only specific locations that it will work or something?

unlucky.9285:

is there only specific locations that it will work or something?

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmOLbG3IdOU-AWqgi-JUumYBt3l1rIlY6&feature=mh_lolz

Also works for FW, or any blink/teleport of it’s nature

You don’t really leave your teammate when you port away. It’s exactly the same as porting with lightning flash so you can recuperate. You are not giving your teammate a hug (which you don’t wanna do either way cuz of cleave), but you are still there… in essence… in SPIRIT! Jk… but really, you end up being alive… which is better than downing and being a burden. You can also easily use ranged attacks after you wurm port.
And 2nd… when you first use the skill, it will take you some time to get used to how it works and where it works. After a while it should fail maybe 1% – 5% of the time. And if you are trying it for the first time… Although situations will arise where you’ll have to summon it mid-fight, usually…. you need to summon it before a fight because because then during your fight the cast time is instant

I’ve seen many an sPvP vid/stream where the Necro ports vertically then still provides high condi pressure, for example. You may not be physically on the point, but you’re still fighting for it, only now it’s potentially with impunity.

Also, in WvW if you set it near your base before you roam out, you can still use the teleport even though you’re out of range. It always ports you the same direction (back directly towards it), but it’s then an instant case blink/stun break that may catch your opponent off guard since they didn’t see you cast any Flesh Wurms anywhere. Combined with SWalk, you can effectively travel 3000+ distance instantly with a pre-set Wurm + SWalk port combo. It’s hilarious to suddenly be so far away from your opponents, but I personally still prefer other utilities (as a WvWer).