Guild Wars 2

The Critmancer
The best of both worlds

UPDATED: October 2, 2012

Change Log:
Sept 21 – Deathshroud Update
Sept 30 – Utility Bar Update
Oct 1 – Right Tool/Strengths of class
Oct 2 – Patch Fixes from Oct1 Update

Role: Balanced
Range: Mid Range 900-1200
Death Shroud Use: Offensive and Defensive
Focus:Power and Conditions

Crit Highs:
Lifeblast 3300 / Staff 4 2300 / Life Drain 4200 ending damage

Bleeds – 100ish tick dmg

Table Of Contents:
Introduction
Build Concept
Traits
Utility Skills
Weaknesses
Strengths
Death Shroud Use

Introduction:

After playing WvW for a solid amount of time and learning the different trends on how capture points change and supplies become targets only to swap to towers etc. I have a long history from DAOC and Warhammer and I was fairly sure I knew what I was looking for when I rolled the Necromancer and I think I am getting pretty close to finding it. The build itself is a hybrid that takes two distinct specs for the Necromancer and combines them. What I think makes it special is the natural cycle in which the abilities roll off and compliment each other, but more on that later.

Build “Hybrid” Concept:

One of the nice things about GW’s is the overall unique nature in which it was devised. The combat system and stating of the gear is very customizable and there are unique methods to achieve various stat numbers that would otherwise be OP if found on a piece of gear. Building off that we have the two aspects of the build.

Power/+ Crit Dmg

Superior Sigil of Blood Lust – +250 Power at Full Stacks

Food – +200 Might for 30s after you kill something +10% crit damage +10 experience

I’ll be honest it feels like a bit of a band-aid but when you farm some mobs real quick outside the spawn keep you can usually get at least 10 stacks before you engage anyone. The food really shines when you start attacking points or engaging enemy players and you start to constantly see the buff lingering longer than you might originally expect. 30 seconds in a fight can be a long time to kill something to prolong the stack. Not to mention each kill with the (Staff I put Blood lust on) weapon that has your BL rune will keep pumping your Power up.

Conditionmancer

One of the biggest complaints that Conditionmancers have is that there is no burst what so ever. I can attest to this as I first designed my Necro for full Conditions and was able to stack up to 1450 condition damage. Unfortunately my bleeds were only ticking for roughly 112-120ish and while I do not believe there are diminishing returns I did feel that stacking the condition damage to high was “putting all your eggs in one basket” and for WvW that wasn’t as effective as I felt I could have been. Not even adding in the already mentioned issues with Conditions for us (Necros) in general. So basically what I did was focus my Runes on Conditions.

I chose Superior Rune of Undead because it has the most +condition damage totally 250

28+55+100+5% of toughness is added to condition dmg.

Once again I am trying to get as much stat power as I can in the allotted spaces we have.

Ending Stats:
((Its late aka early in the morning so I will post exacts tomorrow, Numbers are rough/rounded estimates))

Fully buffed from food with +250 Power stacks no Boons

Attack – 3000
Crit – 40% + 54% Crit Damage
Condition Damage – 1100 (97-100 bleed ticks)
Toughness – 1275
21,000 HP

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Traits 20/30/0/0/20

Critmancer Traits on the Calc

20 Spite

- VI – Reaper’s Might – Lifeblast and Plague Blast grant Might

+ Adding stacks of Might when your Life Force bar is full and you have Fury from entering DS your LBs usually crit around 3200 with full self buffs mentioned above.

- VII – Spiteful Marks – Marks deal 10% more damage

+I am in the staff a lot usually either building Bloodlust stacks or dropping Marks in the rear. It may not initially appear so but when you stack this trait with 50% chance to crit and for 40% more it can be quite a hit. Staff 2 3 and 4 if they all crit can hit for well over 4-4.5k.

30 Curses

- II – Hemophilia – +20% Bleed duration

+Conditionmancer staple

- VII – Master of Corruption – Corruption Skills Recharge 20% faster

+ Might get some flack here, it’s a personal choice. I love Corrupt Boon. I feel it is the ultimate game changer when your trying to burn a single target down. 8 seconds off the duration (40 ->32 seconds) is nice. Especially when it was being replaced by inflicting blind also inflicts chill.

- XI – Lingering Curses – Scepter conditions last 33% longer

+Conditonmancer staple

20 Soul Reaping

- II – Vital Persistence – Death Shroud drains Lifeforce 25% slower

+Obvious with how much you are naturally switching in and out.

- VI – Unyielding Blast – Lifeblast pierces and causes Vulnerability

+One of your power attacks and finishers at mid range when people are downed. Adding a pierce and vuln to it along with might makes it quite powerful.

or

- X – Soul Marks – Marks generate 3% Life Force

+It appears as if this trait is broken and not all the Marks are applying the life force gain?? I really like the idea because without Spectral Armor on the Utility Bar it is only going to fire at <50%. That means your only Life Force control is Staff 1 and Scepter 3. With DS being so important it really is nice. I think at least a few Marks apply the 3% I’ve used it a bunch and have been pleased if not ignorant of the overall results in my quest to perfect my gear numbers.

Utility Skills

Blood is Power – Good heavy long duration bleed for bleed, great as a queue up for Epidemic

Epidemic – Need I say moar? It’s natural synergy with both the food this spec uses and the Sigil make it a MUST.

Corrupt Boon – My personal Choice. I think it adds an Ace in the Hole if we are having trouble dropping a single target. Nothing is better than seeing a Guardians full stack of boons vanish in a wave of Conditions that can then be naturally cast epidemic on everyone. Oh and their panic as God mode has been stolen from them.

UPDATE – 9/30/2012
Well of Suffering – A new favorite of mine with the boosts to Power. I can really hit hard with the ticks if people are not moving out of this. Great for Offense/Defense of sieges and for zerg fighting.

Corrosive Poison Cloud – Another great addition if you are running with Well of Suffering. It will benefit from conditions and it is a constant poison (Heal debuff) in similar situations of Well of Suffering.

Spectral Walk – Obviously a speed boost and great for a solo roamer. I have used this ability for it’s immediate buff when dealing with a more melee group. It can really turn the tide and out-position opponents.

Elite Skill – Plague – You could make arguments for any of the Elite skills. I prefer Plague because I’ve found it’s use in defense of points or attacking groups of enemies is just unbelievable. Practically a perma blind/bleed machine with a cripple if needed. Oh and the bleeds hitting for 100 is nice too.

Inherit Weaknesses

coming soon

The Right tool for the Right Situation

Foreword: I use Epidemic on most if not all specs. To not to is to silly IMO with points invested in condition damage

Taking a look a the Utility skills is where this build needs to look for it’s “perks”. These will really define what the class is going to be geared for doing. It’s important to note that this spec can be flexible in it’s effectiveness across a long span of WvW gameplay.

Example:
For solo roaming and small group engagements?
Blood is Power/Spectral Walk/Epidemic

Towers/Sieges/Zerg?
Well of Suffering/CPC/Epidemic

Small to large group fighting?
Well of Suffering or Corrupt Boon/BiP/Epidemic

Use you Utility skills to your advantage, each of them excel in their specific area and should be used exclusively. You will find this build work 10x better if you are constantly rotating these abilities to handle the scenario presented.

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Death Shroud Use

I do feel there are some issues with DS but it mainly that DS 2 takes too long to reach the target and DS 3 fear is to short. Not to mention the traits for DS need a look because there are ones that are broken and ones that are just plain useless

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read on these forums that DS is only being used as an “oh kitten” button for when the Necro needs to escape. This makes me want to Facepalm because Necros are getting hung up on the whole “second life bar” aspect of it and are not putting the particular tools of the mechanic to good use.

To start, DS is really going to be something that is dependent on your build. It can be as much an offensive weapon as it is a defensive. In terms of my particular build I use it more for its offensive capabilities but do leave room for the defensive when needed.

1. The first thing to remember about DS is that your Lifeblast will hit the hardest from 100% life force to 75% give or take. After that the numbers significantly decrease to where at 50% it’s no longer really viable to spam. Not to mention I have traited to gain Fury when I enter DS usually giving me roughly 70% chance to crit as well as Might (and Vuln/Pierce of you choose it) on Lifeblast. What does this mean for you? You are now a Power machine that is able to pump out 2500-3500 lifeblast crits. I usually get around 3/5 crits before my Life force drops too far and I swap out.
2. The second thing is to never stay in Death Shroud for too long. It is a situational mechanic (which will be explained later) that really shines when you try to perform quick actions then swap back out. Lingering too long will set you back in the long run with Life Force if you don’t have ample means of gaining it back. It will also leave you without that emergency button second health bar and as stated make your attacks weak.
3. The third is and final thing is that it is an incredible downed finisher. My highest crits come from Lifeblast on downed targets that I could not get to in melee due to damage. I am able to sit on tower walls on Lifeblast finish people if they are too close as well.

Situational Uses:

• Gap Closer – A very effective gap closer (if it didn’t take so long to get to the target if they are moving away). With the build I have here I am able to close the gap and immediately stack bleeds and start pumping Lifeblast and building might stacks. Swapping out I can now stack conditions and overwhelm them.

• Downed Finisher – Pretty much explained this one, LB is a great finisher if you are unable to engage a target for the Finish in melee.

• AoE Finisher – You can stack all your Conditions and then Epidemic, Swap to Death Shroud, Gap Close if needed and then hit your Life Drain and wtach the health abrs tumble, especially if you have Might stacks.

• On Demand Burst – One of the lacking areas of the Conditionmancer, the Critmancer is able to turn DS into a 3k crit machinegun to finish off opponents if they DoTs aren;t doing it. Most classes are still panicking when they see the spam crits.

• Interrupt – Not at easy as you might think, the Fear is actually great for interrupting a heal or cast.

• Oh Kitten – Yes it can be used for this. I know I will burn it for the added buffer of damage just to make sure I don’t lose my 25 stacks of Bloodlust. The key is to play the Necro so that this truly is the LAST RESORT. This class is not strong when it gets separated from the pack by a group of others. There are no escape measures except surviving till help arrives or you can zone in somewhere safe.

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Would love some constructive criticism on what I have down so far. Or do I have to whine and say Necros stink or draw evil pictures of JP to get feedback now?

I have a similar utility set up (Blood is power and Epidemic)..

For my 3rd utility:
I am currently trying to decide between a Plague Signet + Feast on Corruptions Heal skill combo — can see this being useful as it removes conditions on allies and can send over to foe, and epidemic again!

Or Spectral Walk + Well of Blood combo — can’t argue that a 33s swiftness would be useful in wvw for getting out of those situations — and also well of blood helps allies w/ healing as well

I read a good # of people use wells as well, but they do have relatively long cooldowns.

Honestly, it’s a tough choice as I see ppl forgoing Blood is power altogether — but I do like the 39s bleeding so I think it’ll be in my arsenal for now.

Sorry if I response wasn’t helpful — the necro has a number ofvery useful skills esp for WvW — it’s down to personal choice

LeetKony.5627:

I have a similar utility set up (Blood is power and Epidemic)..

For my 3rd utility:
I am currently trying to decide between a Plague Signet + Feast on Corruptions Heal skill combo — can see this being useful as it removes conditions on allies and can send over to foe, and epidemic again!

Or Spectral Walk + Well of Blood combo — can’t argue that a 33s swiftness would be useful in wvw for getting out of those situations — and also well of blood helps allies w/ healing as well

I read a good # of people use wells as well, but they do have relatively long cooldowns.

Honestly, it’s a tough choice as I see ppl forgoing Blood is power altogether — but I do like the 39s bleeding so I think it’ll be in my arsenal for now.

Sorry if I response wasn’t helpful — the necro has a number ofvery useful skills esp for WvW — it’s down to personal choice

Agreed it is so much personal preference. I just want to try to find some viable specs in WvW that kind of break the barrier on some of the current limitations of the Necro class.

Right now Wells are great for a utility setup but the problem is the gearing is all for Power/tough/Vit which I did not do haha. I just fell in love with the control of the Conditionmancer but I felt I was too weak when fighting up close.

Nothing is better than spamming 3200 Lifeblast crits to burn a Downed Target that you can;t reach in melee for the Finish then being able to pop back out and Rinse/repeat you condition spreading.

It’s a pretty solid build from what i can see. I’m more interested in your gear choices to get that optimal stat balance tho personally!.

I did a balance of CoF stat gear / Exotic 42k Karma / Nightmare (TA) gear – I will post in a few what overall gearing choices I went with.

EDIT: Oct 2 to fix Jewelery pieces

Focused on stating

Armor – 6/6 Undead rune
*Power/Prec/+%critdamage
*Prec/Tough/Cond
*Power/Tough/Vit

(I have been swapping between no Power/Toughness/Vit and just keeping the other two stat choices but I am always particular to more well rounded builds as they seem more effective in WvW.)

Trinkets:
Earringsx2: Power/Prec/%Critdmg (with matching stone) – Berserker
Ringsx2: Power/Vitality/%Critdmg (with matching stone) – Valkyrie
Amulet: Power/Precision/Cond (with matching stone) – Rampager

EDIT: The Jewelery should reflect how you want to focus your hybrid. I continued in my theory of Balance.

Priority: Power
Emphasis: %Critdmg/Precision
Interest: Vitality/Condition

Weapons:

Staff – Nightmare staff from TA – Prec/Tough/Cond with Sigil of Bloodlust

Scepter – Prec/Tough/Cond – Sigil of Earth
Dagger – Power/Prec/Condition – Sigil of Battle (3s might on weapon swap)

Its fun in wvwvw, spam lifeblast for might stacking, target someone with alot of bleed and spread it with epedemic, had bleed ticking for 200 yesterday.
I am going to try this with might on signet use and the charr battle roar today, 12-15 stacks of might should be possible.

Yeah I have totally come full circle when it comes to Might and this build. As I posted above on my gear choices, I actually swapped my Endurance Sigil on my Dagger for a Battle one for the added might stacks when I weapon swap.

Between having 3 orbs of power and Might stacks I was around 3500 Attack critting for 4k on Life blast. Wasn’t very long lasted but it was still pretty crazy.

EDIT:BTW I can;t seem to make my textile anchors work in the OP. No idea what I’m doing wrong.

So you listed 3 different types of armor specs to use. Did you mean to do an even spread of the 3 of them (2 pieces each) or what? Thanks

@Shibumi

I did personally. I’ll elaborate a bit better.

There are two types of “Gear Types” that I prioritize for this spec.

Precision/Toughness/Condition
Power/Precision/Crit%

These can be found from Twilight Arbor and CoF.

I personally have used 42k Karma pieces with Power/Tough/Vit as a medium for added survivability in WvW. It is a personal preference of mine because of the playstyle I prefer. I am a very IN YOUR FACE Necromancer and prefer the added survivability as opposed to a more glass cannon spec.

The choice is yours based on your preference.

If you want to focus on the pure Hybrid DPS aspect of this build then I would focus purely on those gear types. You will have ample Toughness you just will not have the extra Vitality.

Thanks for the clarification and info! Much appreciated.

You are so right about people using DS as a get out and survive trick, i was one of them until i started learning what does happen when you are in DS. This is a Great Post thanks for sharing this info.

@Shibumi – No problem any time! I started updating again since now that our server has settled down we are actually in a really close 3 way fight so I have been able to see what is MOST viable when the odds are relatively balanced.

@PCorajr – I was also in said category until I started really digging into the methodology of DS and read some threads on here. ANet marketed the Death Shroud as a second HP bar and that is what I thought it was even up to about lvl 50.

Most people prefer to see it that way because swapping in and out of DS on every fight might not feel “right” to them.

Granted it depends how you build the Necro but most people I’m sure would prefer to keep DS as that second HP bar to make the class a bit easier to play. I also believe this is why ANet stated it would be the toughest class to play.

It literally requires the most oversight. You can’t just AoE mobs down with a greatsword like a Guardian or Warrior. The class requires that META game of swapping in and out for the different tools of DS.

Like an Engi gets a tool belt, we get 4 abilities as well.

You should rarely use 2 and 3 in the same DS swap just due to their completely opposite functions (seems counter productive to fear and gap close)

That means you have 2 Utility skills, your Oh Kitten button and your Lifeblast.

That right there is 3 different reasons you could enter DS and use Lifeblast in each.

But like I said a lot of people don’t want to expend that much effort in a class to compete with other classes that may just spam a button or two.

@Zintair
Kudos to you man. BIG Kudos.

This build made necro the most interesting class to play (for me). I love having a button to press every GCD (sorry for cursing but: Enhc shaman pre cata anyone?), and if you do it correctly, you really see the difference in your performance.

That’s exactly what this build does to me for PvE. Yes, I’m a bit squishy in dungeons as of now (not enough toughness or gear overall), but man do I have to be active to contribute! And if I’m active, I can really melt away my foes, literally. I dont know how I compare to other DPS-classes, but atleast this is way more fun than anything else I’ve tried.

Popping all your bleeds, spam bolts and see your dots rise and rise and rise. It’s amazing.

Again, thanks man. Lovely work. I’d love to see you upload a video of you playing this build!

The necro really is a late bloomer, and if the necro community can find more builds like this, well.. just wow. Amazing class.

Again. Thanks.

@Pookzob- I appreciate the feedback and I’m glad your enjoying the class. Once they fix some of the bugs for the class just wait.

I’ll start on a video it’s about time I’ve made one.

BTW in PVE if I am free casting I rarely do not pick up aggro and I usually end up tanking it from there.

Veteran Guild Supervisors at Supply Depots will basically become your arch-nemesis lol.

i went through this thread and i think i may be of slight help with a necromancer build. it took me some time to decide whether i should post my knowledge and expieriences here, but in the end, not only can it potentially benefit necromancer class in general, but someone may throw a hint that will increase my own effectiveness. The only way i can think of is simply to describe the build i`m using at the moment.

My current build:

Gear:

I`ve spent some time wondering what would be the best combination and so far came to the conclusion that i`m going to mix up main strenghts of the necromancer.

~ Armor – full exotic (if possible) – i`m using the standard explorable dungeon stat armor, which is ++power, +precision, +crit dmg, which gives an awesome base for great damage and most importantly, high critical chance. (personal hint: get the orr set so your necromancer looks evil, scary, undeady and in my opinion simply amazing!).

Runes – one of the secrets i`ve discovered during some research, trial and error and hints from a friend (kudos Ace). The secret is the Rune of Divinity (i hope that the price won`t go up because i mention it here). Why is it so awesome? Because it increases EVERY stat. And that`s not only power, precision, toughness and vitality. It`s also condition damage (!), prowess (crit dmg!), hunger (life force pool!) and others like compassion (healing done), concentration (boon duration) and also giving you and additional 2% additional critical damage bonus! (I`ve updated the Gw2 wiki with condition damage info, gotta add the rest as well, but i`m kinda lazy). The bonus works for everyone (not sure about the exact numbers on the secondary stats or other profession skills), but on the necromancer is simply seems pretty darn awesome. Use them in all armour pieces.

~ Jewelry – full exotic (if possible, if not, a small hint – buy green ones from the tp, theyre dirt cheap and are a nice base before you can replace them piece by piece for exotics) Coral <jewel piece> of the Rampager – ++ Precision, +power, +condition damage.

The reason why is because i wanted some condition damage and in my opinion this is one of the ways to get it.

~ Main weapon set – exotic staff – i use it, i love it, even though it slightly lacks in single target damage, it greatly makes up for it with debuffing, fearing and something i find very very important – transfering conditions from you to your enemies (which synergises with the poison cloud mentioned later). (personal info – i`m using the best looking staff for a necromancer in my opinion, took a while to get, unfortunately i want to keep that secret to myself for the time being :p; if you`re curious, google “bone staff” or you can just pm me on the Underworld server, my nickname is Obituss).

~ Secondary weapon set – Scepter + dagger/focus – i don`t really like using a weapon other than the staff, but there are times when everything is on cd and swapping is a good idea. Scepter main hand i consider the only choice worth using, the offhand you can decide for yourself if you want some bleed damage and jumping blind + damage or vulnerability stacks + regeneration and single target slow.

Weapon sigil(s) – secondary weapon should have a Bloodlust sigil (preferably superior) to be able to stack additional power on kills (who doesn`t want more power?). Then just swap to the main weapon and profit. The main weapon sigil though is a very personal preferance (i use a Superior sigil of flame, but there are other choices you can go for, like vulnerability stacking or might stacking). Just don`t use the Sigil of Air, because it does the same damage as fire, just to a single target. So just don`t (unless they change it).

Traits:

30/30/0/0/10

1. 30 spite

- Maximises the power stat increasing the damage as much as possible through the trait tree

~ Close to death (XII) – Increases damage bye 20% to enemies below 50%

It`s pretty self explanatory, even though it may seem to be situational, it`s great for finishing up enemies and overall damage increase

~ Spiteful Marks (VII) – Marks do 10% more damage.

Because my main damage weapon is a staff, this one is pretty much mandatory.

~ Reaper`s Might (VI) – Life Blast and Plague Blast grant might for 15 seconds.

Another great thing to have, considering that much from the damage of this build comes from the Death Shroud, which not only has very good aoe potential with piercing attacks thanks to the trait taken in the Reaping section, but also it can offer incredible damage untill you reach 50% in the Life Force bar; thanks to this trait your damage will increase the more you attack in Death Shroud as well as a short period afterwards, since the might stacks will remain for a brief time, everything while stacking vulnerability on enemies affected by Life Blast.

2. 30 Curses

~ Withering precision (XII) – 25% chance to cause weakness on critical hits.

As much as it`s not a damage talent, it works exceptionally well with this build, considering you will be critting almost all the time, which not only allows you to decrease the dmg potential of enemies (both in WvW as in dungeons), but while doing so increase the survivability of both you and your allies (this build uses ground targetted wells as well as Corrossive poison cloud which pretty much guarantees weakness on all targets affected by your aoes).

~~Target the weak (25 points in the cursed tree) – 2% increased damage for each condition on a foe.

This is the main reason why i even started playing a crit based build on my necromancer. I`m really surprised that i haven`t seen 1 person use it in his build yet, considering that it can net a stable increase in damage , not only because a necromancer uses bleeds, poison, vulnerability, weakness and other effects if using appropriate utility skills, but when facing a boss, or someone or something durable enough to get a lot of other debuffs, this just makes the dmg increase borderline overpowered. (At the moment it`s bugged and it doesn`t affect condition damage, but when it does, it`s going to be that much more effective).

~ Focused rituals (IX) – Well skills use ground targetting.

It may seem strange to others, but i started playing necromancer immediately using and focusing my gameplay on this trait and play him as an aoe nuker. Thanks to this trait, the necromancer can play a role of an aoe nuker/debuffer, doing great deals of damage and debuff enemies.

~ Reaper`s precision (V) – You have a 33% chance to gain 1% life force on critical hits.

Free life force on crits that are going to happen almost all the time? Yes plz.

3. 10 Reaping

~ Unyielding blast (VI) – Life blast pierces and causes vulnerability.

This trait takes care of making your enemies stacked with vulnerability i mentioned earlier and redesignes your life blast making it a piercing aoe. Even though it`s not as good as a normal circle one, you will find it can affect several enemies if positioned right and make them vulnerable in the process. Plus thanks to the 5 point mini trait Gluttony (increases life force gained from skills) you will be quite often using Death Shroud for dps purposes instead of just a survival thing, plus you get a nice crit damage increase and some life force pool bonus as well.

Healing skill:

~ Well of blood – Conjure a well of blood to heal allies.

Since i`m using the well ground targetting trait, this was practically a no brainer. But why it really is a great choice i have only discovered recently. Not only can it heal allies (to some extent, but it`s still nice to have), but it works in conjunction with your second staff skill – Mark of blood, that gives regeneration to allies near the mark detonation. Granted it requires some positioning, finnesse and getting used to for it to work, plus a bit of luck, but once you get used to it, it`s a great way to get back up with health.

Utility skills:

~ Well of suffering – Target area pulses damaging foes and inflicting vulnerability.

Well of suffering, does high damage ticks in aoe while applying vulnerability stacks that further increase the damage done and making a dark field combo possible in the process to inflict blind (yet another condition, even though situational, can grant another 2% damage increase to targets affected thanks to the 25 point granted minor trait).

~ Well of corruption – Target area pulses converting boons on foes into conditions.

Well of corruption does lower damage, but it takes care of one thing that can buff your enemies – their boons. Not only you can stack wells for awesome aoe damage, debuff enemies, but also take care of their boons in the process (to me that`s at least great).

~ Corrossive poison cloud – Weaken yourself. The target area is enveloped in a noxious cloud that poisons foes and leaves them weakened.

Now here you might wonder, why would i use this on a crit build? Mainly because for the stacking poison damage, because it`s an aoe and it`s great for making your foes less of a threat. Plus there is no other aoe high damage alternative. Here dear reader if you managed to stay with me up to this point i offer a small usage hint, maybe you know of it, maybe not. After using the cloud, try and keep you staff 4 ready. Why you would ask? Well because the staff 4 transfers conditions from you to your enemies, making the weakness self debuff nonexistent, not only that, but increasing the time that it`s going to affect your enemy (pretty cool huh?). Try playing a bit with this combo, use it in conjuction with death shroud and lich form and you`ll see the nice synergy it all has with each other.

VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: remember that weakness doesn`t affect critical hits, so if you use Lich form (pretty much 100% crit chance) or have a very high crit chance by yourself, don`t bother yourself too much on dropping that debuff unless you specifically want your enemy debuffed with it for as long as possible, since the duration will stack after using Putrid mark)

Elite skill:

Lich form – Assume the form of a lich for a brief time.

Now here is why i went with power and crit. The stat boost is a bonus to your current stats, so the more power, crit chance and crit damage you have, the more destruction you will cause. With my build and gear, you will have virtually a 100% crit chance, making every single attack landed hurt. And by hurt i mean make them wish they didn`t run away from you as soon as they saw you change. I`m not joking. Gear up and play with it in WvW to see how fast and easy you can melt enemies one by one, or god forbid if they`re close enough to each other to be affected by the pierce mechanic of your main nuke.

Simplest skill rotation hints i could give are:

1. Start with Corrossive poison cloud to get your foe(s) weakened and poisoned, if you suspect them having a brain (not an npc or someone who is immobile or doesn`t pay attention), start with the third staff skill Chillblains to maximise the effectiveness of your aoes; planning is crucial at this part, because if you manage to land that slow and can even slightly anticipate the direction your enemey will go to, then you can land a nice “carpet” of aoes making sure that if they try to come out of one, theyll go into another.

2. Be sure to use the fourth staff skill Putrid mark right after the poison cloud, to drop that weakness debuff on you, and further increase the duration of it on your enemy (there are other ways to achieve that, like using well of blood and hoping for a light field combo to dispell it, but that`s situational and you`ll decide for yourself what your choice of damage is).

3. If facing enemies that you know will have an edge over you, prioritise decreasing their damage potential – even thou you will be using a build that can be considered a glass one, you have great survival tools. Start with Chillblains or poison cloud, depending whether the enemy(ies) are far or close (if close, the slow won`t do as much, then use the cloud). After casting both of them, use Well of blood if needed, and/or Reaper`s Mark, into Mark of blood if enemy(ies) are close to get the additional regeneration (if you manage to get both of them working, you`ll see some great healing that can surprise your enemies). When you know you`re safe, use the normal combo – wells, putrid mark into Death Shroud insanely high Life Blast crits (personal hint: fear skill can be used while casting Life Blast, so cast the Blast as soon as possible and fear if needed, the cast won`t be interrupted) or use the Shroud sooner to stay alive longer and dish out as much damage as you can.

4. I know it`s rather logical, but remember to use the Lich form when you know you can benefit from it (using it when almost dead will only end up wasting the cooldown), not to mentioned if used early, the % health gets converted into Lich health, virtually greatly increasing your health pool. I know i already mentioned it but i`ll repeat it to be sure – Lich form is great. Use it. Love it. Lich form hints are somewhat long so i will skip them, if someone wants them, i`ll write about them in another time.

Conclusion:

This build has great both sustained damage and burst damage potential, while having a decently high condition damage. You will see some high numbers almost all the time while using it and it can give some unliving pleasure to see enemies melt to the power of your dark arts (everytime i manage to land a full combo it just makes me feel happy inside watching things die… hey i`m a necro, i can take pleasure in that).

All in all, this build makes the necromancer into a one big killing machine. Just be sure not to be too good with it, or Arena net decides to nerf it, even though there`s like hundreds of bugs reported about the necromancer :p. I hope that someone finds the stuff i wrote useful.

Regards
Obitus

@Obitus Thanks for sharing your build. It does sound very glass cannonish. How do you fare in WvW? I’m sort of leaning to Zintair’s armor choices just for a balanced build, but I will definitely be trying out different configurations.

Thanks for the post Obitus!!!

I’ve been eyeing the Divinity Runes for a long time now but the price has been so steep on them it’s been reduced to hoping someone took a chance with them.

If its possible could you post your final stats on…

Power
Crit Damage Increase %
Attack
Crit Chance
Armor
Toughness
Vitality

I would really like to see where you end up with your gear choices and with the Rune setup. It would go VOLUMES into me being able to configure the OPTIMAL build for if you want to hybrid. And accurately gauge where to direct stat points based on gear choices.

@Shibumi The beauty of the build is that even though it`s a glass cannony one, with the divinity runes that increase stats like toughness, vitality and even compassion (healing done) plus the power to compassion conversion from the 25 point mini trait from the Spite tree and lots and i mean lots of ways to cause weakness to enemies it has loads of survivability. But back to the question, i`ve done a lot of WvW, both with a group and solo. While my pc isn`t great and i find myself not being able to load all enemies in larger encounters, using my aoes causes a lot of aoe damage while being able to survive as long as not greatly outnumbered. As for the solo WvW (i`m bored sometimes when dugeons and events are bugged) this build is just pure poetry. I can easily kill enemies in 2 v 1 situation and even kill most of them in a 5 v 1 (i made a trap the other day behind a mountain, managed to instantly kill 3 ppl before i got killed). Not only the lich form is basically an avatar of death form that demolishes enemies, but Death shroud does insane damage and that`s not even considering slows, vulnerability stacks, weakness and it`s all in aoe, so personally playing in WvW with this build is just fun as hell.

@Zintair At the moment i`m missing 2 exotic pieces, since i had to invest gold to get exotic jewels and haven`t managed to farm arah because it was bugged: the chest and the legs, which will increase my stats by a lot once obtained (i`m using lvl 60ish blues). But here are my stats at the moment (all other pieces are endgame exotics):

Power – 2037 (without +250 from the bloodlust stacks)
Crit damage – 43%
Attack – 3148
Crit chance – 59% (79% for a few secs after entering death shroud)
Armor – 1668
Toughness – 959
Vitality – 959
Condition damage – 714

Lich form stats:

Power – 3690 (without the +250 from the bloodlust stacks that also affect lich stats, will update once tested)
Crit damage – 34%
Attack – 4509
Crit chance – 97%
Armor – 1668
Toughness – 959
Vitality – 1875
Condition damage – 714

I can`t wait till i`m full exotic and will update the stats when i get them, but so far this build is very powerful and a lot of fun in WvW, dungeons and solo play.

Regards
Obitus

@Zintair

How does yesterday’s change to Blood is Power affect your DS-hopping build, since it is no longer a source of instant 20% life force?

@obitus I noticed you didn’t choose Blood is Power, and I can understand why since its bleed is kind of bad for PvP (no 30 second bleed goes its full duration in PvP) and was used by a lot of condition builds just for the life force (mainly for defensive DS I assume).

i`m not sure if i stressed it enough, but my build is not only a damage powerhouse, but is invaluable in dungeons or any other place, cause it can keep the weakness debuff 90% of the time in aoe(thanks to the 30 points in the curses tree and the trait and poison cloud), that along with well of blood + constant regen from the staff 2nd skill, make the necro a very wanted addition to a group

and yeah i don`t consider the bleed duration buff strong enough to have it equipped, esp when there are other very valuable options to take

@obitus the bleed duration is completely orthogonal to what most people are venting as being a “nerf” to BiP. The 20% life force gain from BiP has been replaced with 10 stacks of Might. Would 10 stacks of might be worth it to you in your build, over say the Well of Corruption?

@Shibumi – Well as it stands Blood is Power really only fit into the build in my smaller group/single target setups. Taking a look at the ability itself it is a nice Bleed for some decent damage but losing that Life Force regen was a tough hit for what I found useful about the ability.

I am going to have to test the added stacks of Might. On paper I am really liking the idea of what this could do. 10 Stacks of Might is pretty serious as it affects both Conditions and Power (what this hybrid focuses on).

I need to re-apply some testing in WvW which I am doing right after I post this.

Changes on Oct 1 that affect this build:

Blood Is Power: This skill now grants 10 stacks of might but does not grant additional life force.

Epidemic: This skill no longer has infinite range.

Last Gasp: This Soul Reaping trait will now apply protection and remove stun as if using Spectral Armor. It also now has the displayed 60-second recharge, and the duration has been reduced to 6 seconds to properly match the skill.

And then some important things to note:

Spectral Grasp: This skill now also grants 10% life force when used. It also benefits from the Curses trait Spectral Attunement to properly increase the chill duration to 6 seconds.

Spectral Walk: This skill now stops granting life force when struck if the player activates Death Shroud, Plague, or Lich Form.

What does this mean for the Hybrid spec?

Currently testing the various ability changes because some of the changes do affect this hybrid.

Testing:

• Spectral Walk viability as LF regen (solo small grp effective?)
• BiP viability as a DoT + Might stack to start a DPS rotation
• Spectral Grasp as a Pull/chill/LF regen utility skill (Small to large grp + siege effective?)
• Epidemic – viability with the range nerf and testing LOS ability
• Last Gasp – Going to be keeping an eye on how often this procs now (and if spectral cooldown might work better with this build considering the other tests I am doing)

obitus.9643:

i`m not sure if i stressed it enough, but my build is not only a damage powerhouse, but is invaluable in dungeons or any other place, cause it can keep the weakness debuff 90% of the time in aoe(thanks to the 30 points in the curses tree and the trait and poison cloud), that along with well of blood + constant regen from the staff 2nd skill, make the necro a very wanted addition to a group

and yeah i don`t consider the bleed duration buff strong enough to have it equipped, esp when there are other very valuable options to take

@Your posted Stats – My only concerns would come with the relatively low Vitality and Toughness you have similar to Shibumi’s concerns but I do like where your stats are headed.

I am going to give Lich Form a shot in WvW too. I just saw it as this huge target that says stun and burn me. Definitely more offensive than what I like to do with Plague or the Flesh Golem but I bet the 4k Crits rock on auto attack spam.

At 50+% crit I think you have gone a bit too high though. I have recently dropped my crit down to 40% but between 40-50% is all you should need any more and I think you are losing too much stats in other areas.

For example a 50% crit with a 50% Crit damage increase is going to be better than a 60% chance to crit for 40% of the damage. I have not done the math but this has always seemed to be the case in MMOs.

I see crit as … Get enough of it so that you are critting often and then completely focus on HOW MUCH DMG that crit does.

My ideal world would be 40% crit with a 70% damage increase. I do enough sustained damage with my condition stacking/spreading that when I need the burst I will start critting HARD and fast when I am spamming Marks down or dropping a Well of Suffering on a zerg.

IMO It’s all about the crit damage, in fact I have never seen a game that lets you stack crit damage so high. If I wasn’t so interested in conditions and being able to spread them for SERIOUS impairment I would be selfish and focus on Power/Crit damage and try to melt people.

Although I will be testing a BUNCH this week due tot he new patch notes. There is much that needs to be thrown in the hopper!

Zintair, can you link the rings your wearing? I can’t find anything with Prec/Tough/Cond.

Oh I made an error on my Jewelery pieces! I accidentally put them as Prec/Toughness/Cond but they were originally (Rare) Power/Prec/Cond. ANet hasn’t implemented any jewelery pieces of that stat combination.

I have since replaced with Exotic Power/Prec/%Critdmg and Power/Vit/%Critdmg

Zintair.1987:

At 50+% crit I think you have gone a bit too high though. I have recently dropped my crit down to 40% but between 40-50% is all you should need any more and I think you are losing too much stats in other areas.

For example a 50% crit with a 50% Crit damage increase is going to be better than a 60% chance to crit for 40% of the damage. I have not done the math but this has always seemed to be the case in MMOs.

I see crit as … Get enough of it so that you are critting often and then completely focus on HOW MUCH DMG that crit does.

I did some quick calculations, and since I was suprised when I realised that %CritChance is better than %CritDamage (if the math is correct.) I’ll share it. I also though at first that CritDamage > CritChance.

- Take random number of hits (for the example, 100), and average damage (120 for this example).

50% CC (CritChance) and 50% CD (CritDamage)
This nets you about 18000 total damage.

40%CC and 60%CD
17280 total damage

60%CC and 40%CD
18480 total damage

30%CC and 70%CD
16320 total damage

70%CC and 30%CD
18720 total damage

If I didn’t make mistakes, stacking critchance is apparantly more rewarding. This seems to be true also if I change the number of hits (say bossfight) to 500 or something higher, or if the damage without crit would’ve been 1000 instead of 100.

Note: There is a possibility that not CC% of hits will crit, which makes the calculations slighty inaccurate.

TL;DR: CritChance > CritDamage. The more often you crit the more damage you’re doing.

P.S. @Zintair: Dont be offended by me saying “you’re wrong”, I just wanted to figure out if your statement was true. I had the same thought like you when I started, so hope I didnt step on any toes. As said before, thanks alot for the build. Still keeping me very busy and happy!

tbh i think that when i manage to get the last 2 pieces of exotic gear, i will be at about 60ish% crit chance and ~10% more crit damage ending up at about 50. I personally wouldn`t switch stats, because id rather have a stable amount of crits instead of hoping for being lucky and with those stats i`ll be able to have 100% crit chance on my lich form and about 80ish for a few secs after popping death shroud.

the new patch forced me to try out the new BiP and i really like how it can synergise with the staff 4. it would be logical to use it in single target situations like dungeon bosses and such (after using it, it does a combined 10k of bleed damage to your enemy after transfering the bleed with the staff skill, which is kinda cool). but i dont really know which abbility id drop, probably the well of corruption as youve mentioned. and theres the thing that you can get might from other sources like death shroud, guardians, even a staff sigil, making the choice of this skill less of an appealing one, espiecially considering the maximum debuff stacks on bosses.

the thing that i wish theyd change is increase the damage of the well of corruption and give damage to the well of darkness (even if it means slightly nerfing the blind) so we are able to have a nice aoe build (its still a lot of fun to play the one im using at the moment with the 2 wells and aoe poison + weakness from the cloud)

edit: i forgot that the well of corruptions ticks can proc things like bleed on critical, weakness or critical, etc, so im not gonna drop it personally

Oh no quite the contrary I’m glad you were able to do some maths to figure it out. I was basing my opinion more on what I have seen.

However!

This keeps in mind that in order for you to achieve a certain CritChance you need to sacrifice %CritDmg. I don;t know how exactly this might be the case. Your numbers certainly don’t lie and after doing some more math the ratio holds that

70% CC w/ 30% crit dmg > the other samplings.

How can we factor in the the ability to add %CritDmg without adding Precision and vice versa. We would need to analyze the gear sets TBH.

This is making me consider swapping Rune sets however.

I may be trying to look for a more Precision/Condition damage setup.

Once again thank you for the math. I think the only way I;ll be 100% convinced is to see what different people are coming up with in terms of final CritChance stat and %CritDmg.

Once we can get a smapling of some end totals then we can make a brackets like you did and really measure where your going to yield the best NET damage in terms of balancing CC and %CD.

Thanks again!

Dont forget about power. Power increases your base attack-damage which is also the base if you crit.
A high power, critcchance and low critdam build may be better than a low power, high critchance/critdam build.
But I am not a mathmagician, it is up to someone else to find the sweet spot of power, cc and cd.

what is your gear loadout?

dont forget about one of the most important factors in my opinion that concern crit chance – the on crit effects, like bleeds, vulnerabilities, etc. that also factor into the effects, making crit dmg a part of the whole

So, which amulet are you using? It makes a huge difference on the stats and the whole build, but you do not mention it in your first few posts here. I presume you are using rampager’s.
How does it compare vs NPC’s ( a standardized target)? Try killing the Thief NPC in Mists/sPvP area without using all of your skills (use weapon skills 1-5 and only 1 utils, except #6, no shroud).

I’m not entirely sure if I’m doing the math correctly or not, but I seem to be getting the exact opposite results.

(Average Damage (1 – Crit Chance) + (Average Damage (1.5+ Crit Damage)) Crit Chance

If we use 500 as an average damage per second, 70% crit chance and 30% crit damage results in:

(500×.3)+(500(1.8)).7= 780 damage per second

And with 30% crit chance, 70% crit damage:

(500×.7)+(500(2.2)).3= 680 damage per second

If I’m doing this incorrectly, please don’t hesitate to inform me otherwise. But from what I’ve done, I believe crit damage is more effective than crit chance without taking power into consideration (which would be better than both in equal amounts).

I’m an idiot, please disregard my previous message as I cannot edit the post. I labeled the equations wrong on paper, and continued to transfer it here without realizing it.

You are all correct, critical hit chance does provide more damage than critical hit damage alone. (although common sense should have provided this answer regardless).

@Ackinbal – Yes my Amulet is Rampagers

Rampager is really the “Best” set if you are lookign to stack purely the main stats of this hybrid. I like I said before swapped in some added Vitality so that I would have a bit better of a DS to work with considering I derive a bit of my Burst DPS from there.

Update: October 10, 2012

BiP – Pretty effective for smaller engagements. After using the ability a lot since it was patched not to long ago I have found it does still find a way into my specs. I enjoy the Might stacks followed by the Epidemic spread which stacks 2 Bleed and 3 Vuln. That is 5 condition heal if you needed it and will spread conditions with the 10 stacks of Might.

Spectral Walk – Horrible for using when you are trying to gain LF in WvW. It might be much more effective in smaller engagements or 1v1 but it just never found a way into my builds other than for the speed buff.

November 14, 2012

I have recently made some changes to my gear. They are not 100% final but I have been running a few different things that I wanted to relay to people.

I’ve taken my Crit in the Critmancer more seriously.

Sigil

I swapped Sigil of Bloodlust to Sigil of Perception

+250 precision on the stack (I’m still on the fence with stack sigils but this has been devastating when at full stacks.)

I also swapped Sigil of Battle (+3 might stacks on weapon swap) for Sigil of Fire. The AoE from the sigil on my Dagger offhand crits for about 800ish and AoEs around the target. Best burst damage upgrade for this offensive build

Runes:

I also swapped to 3 Afflicted / 3 Krait for the improved Bleed duration of 15% and 15% not sure if it stacks or is multiplicative. Has made my bleeds a little more resilient when they aren’t being removed.

Will be updating the OP with this info.

I know this is the necromancer forum but really a month old thread.. ?

Thanks for the update! Build looks very solid.

barti.7685:

I know this is the necromancer forum but really a month old thread.. ?

What’s the difference it’s my personal thread for a build I use in WvW. I do appreciate the bump however.

I’ve been playing around between Bone fiend/wells/Corrupt boon and alternating my tactics. The Blood in Power nerf is still definitely being felt.

Having a lot of good fights in a 5 man I’ve been running. This is solid survivability, great damage from both Power and Cond sources. Utility with Epidemic, wells and the staff.

BTW

Lifeblast/Lich Form with a Mesmer and this crit power hybrid is quite devastating.

Scary 3-4k projectile burst although situational.

I would like to thank both obitus and Zintar for their sharing, this actually made me play my necro once more…and it’s fun!

One ‘meh!’ factor thou, Lifeblast superior? Do a knockback to interrupt and the necro lost all his superior DS damage. Even mobs in in Orr do this.

Aupheus.9038:

I would like to thank both obitus and Zintar for their sharing, this actually made me play my necro once more…and it’s fun!

One ‘meh!’ factor thou, Lifeblast superior? Do a knockback to interrupt and the necro lost all his superior DS damage. Even mobs in in Orr do this.

Yeah ove the course of this build I transitioned from Heavy condition damage to a focus on Crits with Power and added conditions. I focused mostly on Might stacks for gaining additional power and cond but the reality was it was never enough for long enough to make a difference as I continued to play against people playing FOTM class spec etc.

I’ve since devoted a heavy portion now to Crit with the Sigil swaps etc. I am probably going to be replaceing Might on Lifeblast and re-thinking the traints.

With Friday around the corner and a new update I am going to wait and post a full update once the patch drops.

I can;t agree more, nothing is making me more angry then when I try to Life Transfer and I get stunned immediately. But this is also a more glaring issue with the Necro in general then I fear my spec.

Thanks for the compliments. I will say it’s still my only class that I get the urge to play just due to how much you can do to it. It really is a great class just very difficult to Master.

Sadly I never saw why Devs put so much emphasis on DS.

Dmg = Scales based on LF

LF = How much Vit you have

Vit != DMG

I find I need to swap in and out to quickly to really gain any benefit.

I am loosing my faith in necromancer as time goes on. I feel we have a lot of great players who have tried every which way to find holes in all the bugs to produce a decent build etc. I run this exact build, and I play with the same exact variables (might stacks, DS good/bad, DS dancing, etc.) and I just find us having to work so much hard just to get to be par with the other classes. So many bugs, trait lines that don’t make sense, weapons that are sub standard with damage, etc.

Finding out that our DS trait line did nothing to boost DS LF, pissed me off. How the HECK are they just now acknowledging that 2 months after release? Most of these bugs that have been listed since release have been listed PRIOR to release in beta.

I do thank you Zintair for this build, as it helped me fine tune my build which was similar. However, I find my interest in the class slipping and I am afraid that my hopes, which are tied to this incoming patch are going to be for naught.

I don’t believe bleed duration duration and scepter duration stack in the spite line, so might want to re-spec that.