Guild Wars 2

Hi All,

So I really wanted to hear other necro’s opinions on builds and skills, pro’s and con’s but there’s only 2 necro’s in my guild and they’re never online…..so I created this topic.

I would really like to get good, sound, input on 3 WvW builds and the reasons behind the skill and trait selections you would change.

Please no hate, no L2P, no trash talk or insults. Thanks!

#1
The purpose and play style for the first 1 is roaming and 1v1. I think it has good defense and offense and single target dmg but lacks aoe and thus a good group role.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQRBIhdu1IjW8e1m3GDfCBSx7hLRKQmlh6h7sOfIA-jEDBYOFRjmCEiiAg0Ah+AkABjIAORqIasFOFRjVtATviIq2noIa1A-w
Also, I think the dmg from deathshroud would be good. How do you think this build would fare vs various professions?

#2
The purpose and play style for the second 1 is mid to large group zerg with a backline position and condi glass cannon feel. A pure focus on condi spread.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjMap7Fbub87JkpCfD0jeBXAxoHEjxkMA-jUDBYhYINDRkCAgWIaEJgUBIpoA5QMas1XFRjVzATliIq2hIQeELrGA-w
I’m more interested in how viable you feel this build is and if there’s any alterations you’d make.

#3
The purpose and play style for the last 1 is mid to large group zerg with a backline position and aoe condi pressure but hybrid support as well. This one was very hard as those 3 Utility slots I agonized over. Please let me know what you think
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjMap7Zaea87JApCYP947xFP6BxDnMA-j0CBYhYINJC1JgUAA0CRjoOhZSFRjtaqIas6GYKWER1eEFRrGA-w
I like this build because it seems to be somewhat more durable and has higher survivability that #2 but still maintains it condi pressure and dmg with a slight adjustment for boon removal.

I’m going to respond to the first build, because roaming and 1v1 is who I am and that’s who I care about (Tommy Boy reference, I also zerg, but I’ll let actual zergers preach effectiveness of various builds like it. AoE condis just always seem good to me).

If you want full glass gear, I very highly recommend going Zerker instead of Assassin. You take the +50% crit while in DS, which leads me to believe that you understand that the weapon sets for a Power Necro in PvP are much more for utility/control/LF gain. Not really damage. LB is for damage. Especially since you have Furious Demise, you’ll be at 89% crit BEFORE Deathly Perception. Right now, I have about 75% crit AFTER Deathly Perception in my build/gear, and it crits just fine (in my opinion). If you want to keep your Assassin gear, I’d potentially recommend hitting up Foot in the Grave instead, since you have the crit you need. I just think main-stating Power would give you more bang for your buck since Foot in the Grave doesn’t break stuns by going into DS, and the 50% crit chance just opens up a world of gearing possibilities that aren’t glass.

On that note, being that much glass is going to make you struggle against classes that roam the most in WvW, such as Thieves and Mesmers. If you ever catch them they’ll get destroyed, but you probably won’t catch them because they have too many tools to not get caught. I personally run Cavalier armor + a few accessories for the Toughness. You still get some power, you still get the crit dmg, but you also gain some much-needed survivability in place of less-needed precision (with Deathly Perception). In fact, you could drop several pieces of Assassins for Cavalier, lose no power or crit damage, and still be at 100% crit chance with Deathly Perception if you bring it down to at least 50%. You can bring it down to 30% and still have 100% crit chance while Furious Demise is up, but that’s up to you.

As far as utilities, I swap mine around near constantly, as you’ll probably find that when you fight a certain class, you’ll think “kitten , I really wish I had <UTILITY X>”. Once you build that libraries of "kitten "s, you’ll probably find yourself swapping utilities more and more as you run around and see people. My main recommendation is just be open to using any of the following at any given time:

Plague Signet
Spectral Grasp
Corrupt Boon
Well of Power
Well of Corruption

My un-changing utility though is Spectral Armor. I see you took Spectral Wall, and although I’ve seen many people make very good use of that utility, I just don’t personally like it. With Spectral Armor, you can use it, gain the protection, then go into DS for much more survivability. DS doesn’t actually remove spectral effects even if it says it does, so against an opponent who is attacking you consistently, you’ll gain roughly 40% LF while spitting LBs/etc. Maybe it isn’t your style, but I’d recommend giving it a whirl. I love it too much against all classes to use anything else, personally.

And as for your condi cleanse, shifting Utilities around against condi-heavy classes (some mesmers, engis, necros mainly) will get you part of the way there, but not having any condi clears on either weapon set might really hurt. I played too long as a condimancer with Staff, OH Dagger, and Plague Signet, so I’m too addicted to dropping/transferring conditions to not recommend more.

I have run your exact weapon sets before, and it just feels like they’re too similar to me for it to be really useful. Then again, if you catch someone with Dark Pact and swap to your offset, you can potentially throw the scythe and get a full Ghastly Claws in. As tantalizing as that damage would be, you don’t need it. You can do a similar thing by just doing WH 5, switching to DS, and LBing. The freedom of having a utility weapon set, like Staff, means that you can accommodate a completely new scenario with it, like transferring all of your condis, hitting up an AoE chill/fear, etc. I’ve had this exact discussion with my girlfriend when she helped think through a Powermancer WvW build, and I settled on preferring Dagger/Focus+Staff. I get my lockdown, my big burst, long-distance chill/boon removal, and AoE control/condi removal with my weapons alone.

Anyway, that’s just a bunch of thoughts, and I hope they’re useful in some manner. I have more based on how you’d actually play, but those depend on how you’d actually play, and I don’t know that information yet. I also didn’t want to jar your build too much, as typically people build their own stylistic preference into it already, and changing it too much makes it something they don’t want.

If you want to hash it out a bit more and potentially discuss how you’d approach fights, just let me know, and I can shed some more thoughts on how various trait choices impact those fights. Whether it’s in this thread or in a PM, I’d be happy to do either.

If you think I’m long-winded, wrong, and don’t care about my opinion, you’re entitled to that as well.

Nope, that was great! I definitely see the diminishing returns of the crit chance so key me rework it.

Okay, so after some thought about how to maximize the synergies in that 1v1/roamming build, this is what I came up with.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAodWjMah7VbabM8JEIFvHuEpAZUGqHuD88hA-jkCBYLERjUgRkgAg0AhABLVtIasFOFRjVxATfiIq2doIa1A-w

Weapons:

You make a good point about weapons. It doesn’t make sense to have the purpose behind both weapon sets be damage. So choosing between dagger and axe for main hand was difficult. Both do reasonable damage but I think dagger is slightly better because:
1) Lifeforce will never be on cooldown
2) Has some healing and healing is always helpful
3) Immobilize has a nice duration of 3.5s

Now I thought about the vulnerability that the autoattack of axe can do but considering that duration is 8.5 s, you might only get 10 stacks? Just an estimate but I think that the vulnerability is the best thing the axe has going for it. Ghastly Claws sure does great dmg but so does Life Siphon and GC sure gains a lot of LifeForce but it’s on CD and Dagger Auto already gains LF.

In regard to Unholy Feast, I simply feel that 3.5s of immobilize is better than 6s of cripple and the Retaliation plus all the reasons listed above.

The offhand was a little easier. I felt the boon stripping of SS was essential in a 1v1. The only thing I felt I was giving up by taking a focus is the 2s daze but I like the extra healing and LF from Reapers Touch-plus the vulnerability and lower cooldowns.

Rest of Skill Bar:

Heal Skill = Consume Conditions – easy choice

7,8, and 9 are all spectral for the synergy, the Life Force gen, and 2 stun breaks, and prot. I don’t feel as if any of the signets offer anything particularly enticing except for Signet of Spite. However, since I’m not speccing for condi dmg, I feel that I wouldn’t be getting the most out of it.

I don’t like wells because they’re easy to dodge—granted, they might help with stealth but…
Suffering does good dmg and vulerability but I’m planning on dishing out dmg with LifeBlast so I’m looking for something that can keep me alive
-Corruption is nice but I feel with Spinal Shivers, I have a boon stripping
-Power, I already have stun break, nothing particularly enticing
-Darkness, a waste, easy dodged

I don’t believe bringing minions would be helpful either since they don’t my crit stats.
The others I haven’t mentioned with the exception of Corrupt Boon and Blood is Power don’t seem to have the synergies of the Spectral Skills

Elite = Lich Form, I almost thought about Golem and I’m still not sure but I like the extra dmg from LF + DS

I’m out of time but I’ll post later about Traits and Equipment.

What are you thoughts on the skill bar though? (Until I can get more time on the computer-laptop’s in the shop)

For Signets, I wouldn’t run Spite on my Power Necro, even though most of the condis are utilities that don’t care about condi damage. It would still be useful, but less so because you’re only 20 into Spite and don’t have condi duration on your armor runes. The main Signet I’d recommend just keeping in your mind is Plague Signet. The ability to wipe all conditions multiple times (Putrid Mark + Plague Signet) is thoroughly good, but I wouldn’t recommend carrying it as a default. Even if you end up having it against some classes you wouldn’t expect it to be useful on, like Warrior, turning a 5-second immobilize back on the War and bouncing away to do more damage while he’s rooted is golden.

Also, keep in mind if you do end up using it, that Blind makes Plague Signet miss and not transfer any condis. Putrid Mark, however, will hit through blind and transfer all of your condis. I have no idea if that’s intended, but that’s how it is.

The only other utility I’d recommend keeping an eye on (it seems like Corrupt Boon is probably in your awareness already. It’s so good.) is Well of Power. It doesn’t seem like it’s very good, and it feels more like a stun break than anything. But if you haven’t, scope these conversions:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Well_of_Power

Vigor from Chill/Bleed, Aegis from Burning, Swiftness from Cripple/Immob. Especially if you’re in Death Shroud just turreting someone, standing in Well of Power and having a condi turned into some awesome boon that you otherwise have no easy access to feels really good. It still might not fit your playstyle, but I wrote it off until I tried it, and now I try to keep it around in many cases. The main one at the moment I’m trying to work in is placing it when I think a D/P Thief is going to Black Powder+Heartseeker back into stealth. The blind shot from Black Powder makes it so any quick-reaction you have to stop it will miss, but if I have WoP convert that to Fury on its own in a timely manner, I might be able to turn the tide.

I haven’t had success with that particular nugget quite yet because I haven’t focused enough on testing it, but in general I like WoP.

Otherwise, the Spectral line of Utilities are all always good, in my opinion. Moreso if you trait heavily into them. I’m not the biggest fan of Spectral Walk for anything but cliffdiving, but you may like the extra mobility it offers, the additional LF, and general access to Swiftness. The Necro has so many fun toys for Utilities, I’d just recommend playing around with a bunch of them to get a feel.

Lich Form I can’t bring myself to press in a 1v1. It’s amazing to have around in case you run into a larger fight, but unless you chain it properly and really nail someone, they’ll probably just run away, or strip Stability and play with you while you have no access to your weapons/utilities, etc. Consider taking Flesh Golem while you roam, but know that I keep Lich Form on all the time because I hate how finnicky all of the pets are, even if the on-demand stun is useful regardless of whether or not it attacks.

1. Like Cog said zerkers over assassins. Dont stack precision in a burst build if you dont have to, and aim for 3200 power unbuffed in any glass cannon build. I dont know the threshold but at a certain point critical damage is useless without the power to back it up.
2. Need Terror trait for that extra condi damage. Wouldnt take any +duration modifiers other then the food. Reason being is that your conditions will be cleansed often, so you want the most condition damage possible.
3. Grab chilling darkness over hemophilia. Use spectral wall with terror(drop lingering curse), and well of darkness. You dont need blood is power because your might will be coming from other classes, and the bleed damage is next to worthless because of how long it takes. Well of power is best used with power necros, but if you dont have any then its good to have for sure. Also consider poison cloud.