Guild Wars 2

So guys whats the current WvW frontline zerg necro build? Thx in advance

Do you want to be as tanky as possible or deal a decent amount of damage. I’m really asking if you want your power to be above 2k before stacks or if you want 30kish hp and 3kish armor.

high armor decent damage ok hp I guess

I’d recommend going full soldiers. The effective hp and effective power are awesome. Some would probably recommend knights, but soldiers does more damage and makes you more tanky. As for everything else, trait 0/2/2/4/6. Take chilling darkness, ritual of protection, transfusion, ritual mastery, vital persistence, near to death, and foot in the grave. Take well of blood, plague, and well of darkness. The other 2 utilities can be any of the remaining wells or spectral wall. As for weapons, take staff and warhorn. The mainhand is your choice between axe and dagger. For runes and sigils, the best is sigil of energy on both weapons. Sigil of momentum, bloodlust, or life on one weapon, and the last can be whatever. For runes take whatever you can afford that you like. Rune of the dolyak is a good option. For food take -condition duration food (look it up online) or healing power food. The other consumable should be sharpening stones.

I’ll post a link later, I’m at work on my phone right now.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2F%3FfRAQNAoYWjc00SbNNG3wfjihBRqUTWLYUBoO6ykA-TFjFABws%2FwSKhQSJDAnCgrUCakShjUGQo6CnpH4QVaS4JAgmmmAAIAO6RP6RP6R7mD9mD9mDtUAFpMC-w

I do not recommend using the chill traits unless your going for condi duration which neither my build or the aboves poster have any at all. Just focus on aoe dps and staying alive. If you have some good guardians you can even swap fitg for deathly perception.

thx alot guys

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBIhZakjmebLuxmG+bUMMIymKDMRFg6tRTC-TlCEAB2s/gTKx2SJITKPM4BAooaJtpPAgjAQjqa8wpAgMALbB-w

It is using tankier gear then what I’d normally run, but I already have little trouble surviving anywhere in a zerg. I’m not sure about the shrouded removal trait, but since I can only remove condis with my heal, I figure that may be a good choice.

Spectral Wall+ Well of Corruption = lots of angry people. :p Protection is nice too and spectral wall isn’t bounded by the 5 person aoe limit.

Educate me if I’m wrong. I just don’t see necro’s need to run frontline. Middle maybe, but for front, I have doubt.

No cleave,
No blast,
No leap,
No knockdown,
Dagger 2, 3 require target,
(Almost) no stability
Our wells can ground target with trait

The only benefit to run front I can think of is plague+chilling darkness and aoe 5target limit.

I would rather stay in middle/back range, reduce armor to buff power and do what we do best, aoe pressure, boon stripping, fear.

I mean, we can run frontline and stay alive if build right, but why do we have to.

To archon and nexed, you aren’t frontlining if you have precision as a stat on any of your gear. Same with ranged wells, no point if your actually frontlining. Also, most people in a pug zerg aren’t running -condition duration so chilling darkness is still 25 seconds of chill.

To afya, no we aren’t built for front lining, but you can do it. Decent stability uptime, warhorn and wells make necros better than most classes at it just not as good as warriors or guardians.

@Afya.

1. Use zapv’s build,
2. Run right behind the hammer train.
3. Enter Death shroud on the first charge as soon as any stability you got from guardians wears off(the proc’d stability will get you past the static fields which get used at the start of fights),
4. then exit and dump your wells (gaining some protection),
5. Then enter plague and try to use your chill trait to disrupt the enemy hammer train.

It works.

An el cheapo Runeset is Rune of the Earth which gives you a protection proc as the #4 proc (it’s like a second spectral armor!) and a reflect projectiles proc as the #6 (this is a lot of survivability if you are in plague form or still can death shroud).

I’m not pug zerging. I am running with the hammer train in my guilds gvg group and in my group raids. Your joking if you think you can’t have precision as a frontline player. Look at my builds stats. I’m on a t2 server and still capable of running without full ptv due to my excellent guardians and eles and our recovery on water fields. Maybe YOU aren’t able to use precision but I am perfectly capable of dropping my wells with the train after receiving stab leaping up to the guardians with ds 2 hitting ds 5 4 going daggers spamming 1 until recovery, swap to staff drop 4 on the water field and mark the enemies. Rinse and repeat. All while in the hammr train.

If you don’t run frontline as a necro against decent groups the gank squads will pick you off so kittening fast even in full zerker gear you are better off staying with your driver, especially if he is a guard. Sure occasionally you are going to have to pull off if kitten gets to heavy and you are getting focused.

NeXeD.3042:

I’m not pug zerging. I am running with the hammer train in my guilds gvg group and in my group raids. Your joking if you think you can’t have precision as a frontline player. Look at my builds stats. I’m on a t2 server and still capable of running without full ptv due to my excellent guardians and eles and our recovery on water fields. Maybe YOU aren’t able to use precision but I am perfectly capable of dropping my wells with the train after receiving stab leaping up to the guardians with ds 2 hitting ds 5 4 going daggers spamming 1 until recovery, swap to staff drop 4 on the water field and mark the enemies. Rinse and repeat. All while in the hammr train.

If you don’t run frontline as a necro against decent groups the gank squads will pick you off so kittening fast even in full zerker gear you are better off staying with your driver, especially if he is a guard. Sure occasionally you are going to have to pull off if kitten gets to heavy and you are getting focused.

So let me get this straight, you recommended your build for very specific gvg fights, where you have very good eles and guards providing support to you, to a random poster on the forum who probably isn’t gvg. OK just wanted to make that clear.

nekretaal.6485:

@Afya.

1. Use zapv’s build,
2. Run right behind the hammer train.
3. Enter Death shroud on the first charge as soon as any stability you got from guardians wears off(the proc’d stability will get you past the static fields which get used at the start of fights),
4. then exit and dump your wells (gaining some protection),
5. Then enter plague and try to use your chill trait to disrupt the enemy hammer train.

It works.
…..

Yes it works. I just don’t see the benefit running the whole time with hammertrain. Like…run it for the sake of running it. The only benefit as I mentioned is to share the AoE limit, and maybe save trait point from ranged wells for other trait line.

If you don’t run frontline as a necro against decent groups the gank squads will pick you off so kittening fast even in full zerker gear you are better off staying with your driver, especially if he is a guard. Sure occasionally you are going to have to pull off if kitten gets to heavy and you are getting focused.

Going backline doesn’t mean you just sit there all the time. I usually move along with the train, kind of in parallel way. Don’t let enemy get between you and your frontline. Join to limit damage and reset to get heals if pressure increases.

And yea, full soldier isn’t necessary. I suggest mixing in knight, cavalier, or zerker if you see fit. I’m not doubting the survivability as necro has more EHP than guardian plus our DS. Heck, my necro plague in the train running rabid from time to time.

The life siphon trait for wells may be useful if you want to be in frontline.
I think something like a 0/0/2/6/6 build could work rather well.

zapv.8051:

To archon and nexed, you aren’t frontlining if you have precision as a stat on any of your gear. Same with ranged wells, no point if your actually frontlining. Also, most people in a pug zerg aren’t running -condition duration so chilling darkness is still 25 seconds of chill.

To afya, no we aren’t built for front lining, but you can do it. Decent stability uptime, warhorn and wells make necros better than most classes at it just not as good as warriors or guardians.

But I do, and typically don’t die so I’ll just be there. I can’t even entertain the thought of doing pvt on pvt on my guardian, much less a necro. I actually run with even less armor since I don’t run melandru and nor do I have full ascended, but I figured I wanted to suggest a spec that is sturdy regardless of player reflexes. 2700 armor for a light class with the inherently decent health plus guard stacks would accomplish that and reliable access to stability and the occasional protection would do that. Personally, when I was new to wvw, I came in full zerker armor, and obviously that was kinda disastrous. I added more and more soldier gear to compensate and many hours later, I have a good idea on what the threshold is given my own abilities (which are terrible) so I see no reason to think people could play even glassier and win.

I’m pretty sure if I’m bringing in a 4% crit chance necro to fight, I’d be better off on my guardian spamming staff autoattacks— I mean in reality wells without some damage gear are pretty terrible at damage especially suffering since nobody’s gonna stand in there for 6 whole ticks. But necros excel in single target damage pressure and ranged condition management. IMO, if you discount this then I see no point in playing necro to begin with. And yes, Necros aren’t as good as Guardians and warriors at frontlining for many reasons, but one of these things is mobility. Necros don’t have gap closers so in order to sync your attacks with the guardians and warriors leaping in and beating you to the punch, that range is needed.

Also, no ranged wells? I also have to contest that. Being able to cast corruption as you’re coming in gives out a better chance of ruining their stability. If you’re casting on approach that may already be too late; and don’t forget wells have a cast time too. You just need one pulse of it. Casting it on yourself? Well, wouldn’t it suck to overwrite a water field with one of your dark fields wouldn’kitten Fights are already mobile and chaotic enough that I don’t think spending all the time for perfect placement and timing is worth it.

Necros have no end to ways in which they can buy time so your allies can heal you. It’s not like I would advocate full zerker melt in 2 seconds builds, though arguably someone would probably disagree with me there too.

And Nexed’s post sounds right to me. I think you’re actually safer @ the frontline due to the all the healing being dropped, the buffs being provided which by and far compensate for the necro’s complete lack of reliable healing. And you have FITG to back yourself up. I mean what’s the point of such a huge life pool if you can’t replenish it? And I’m merely on a pleb server in a pug zerg yet the pug guardians and eles can still do it. And yes lower tiers have blobs of people too. Pretty sure an organized group would be even better. Though actually reading that post made me reconsider chill a bit.

Muchacho.2390:

The life siphon trait for wells may be useful if you want to be in frontline.
I think something like a 0/0/2/6/6 build could work rather well.

I’ve tried it. It’s not that great because by going 6 in SR you’re going for a shroud build… which will negate your siphons. You’ll be basically contradicting your own build. I would prefer a 0/2/2/4/6 build where you take ritual of protection for your wells— I think that will do a lot more than the puny heals plus group protection is never a bad thing.

What do necros lack, healing and boons stay with those gaurds ladies. And eles you guys rock

ArchonWing.9480:

Muchacho.2390:

The life siphon trait for wells may be useful if you want to be in frontline.
I think something like a 0/0/2/6/6 build could work rather well.

I’ve tried it. It’s not that great because by going 6 in SR you’re going for a shroud build… which will negate your siphons. You’ll be basically contradicting your own build. I would prefer a 0/2/2/4/6 build where you take ritual of protection for your wells— I think that will do a lot more than the puny heals plus group protection is never a bad thing.

Actually thats the reason why i dont like the bloodmagic line in general but you know unlike other encounters in Zerg vs Zerg there a good chances that the wells hit often. And if they ever change the siphons to work in Ds (which i still hope) it may become really good.

ArchonWing.9480:

snip text limit

Gosh what a long post, you talk a lot about yourself at the top, which is off topic. Then you say that a guard with 4% crit chance is better at dealing damage than a necro with 4% crit change (actually 9 due to 2 in curses), which is laughable. Then you say wells do bad damage without damaging gear, that’s true, but then again soldiers is the 6th highest effective power in the game ahead of gearsets like knights that you used in your build.

The second paragraph is a mess, your basically saying that you take ranged wells so you can strip stability early, which you still won’t do because there are other boons ahead of it. You also say wells will overwrite water fields if you don’t have ranged wells. That’s dumb, as you could just as easily overwrite them with ranged wells. Your last sentence in the paragraph perfectly explains why ranged wells don’t matter. It is far to chaotic and mobile for your placement to be that bad regardless.

Full zerker necros are very viable, they deal a crapton of damage.

Nexed post is also wrong. If your not on the front line and getting killed your doing it wrong. Your much safer because zergs have to focus the hammer train. That is the point of the hammer train, either it draws all the attention or it walks all over you.

The real reason I picked soldiers gear is because it gives stupid amounts of effective health and effective power. In fact no gear set gives more effective health and effective power. Also, if you think you need precision to deal good damage your kidding yourself. 2300 power with no might stacks is a lot, and while i would deal more damage if i stacked a little precision there isn’t a good gearset for it. There is nothing that is main stat power second stat precision, and third stat toughness or vitality. Ferocity is wasted unless your main focus is damage which it won’t be unless your full zerker. Also here is the actual build post sorry it took 2 days:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBHhZakkmiarpxlG+bUUMISdayY9iKA1TPWE-TFCEABRcIAUU9Hb2fwJlfAcCA4SJ4DPBA30HQKAmUGB-w

You keep on using full ptv, I used to do that too until I decided to try and deal more damage and crit more often. Also I’m critting ALOT because I’m staying with the train. Also axe is poop.

What server and what guild are you in zap.

Also the point of the hammer train is not distract the zerg or whatever the kitten your talking about its to kittening kill people that don’t have stab because they didn’t stay with the guardians lol.

NeXeD.3042:

You keep on using full ptv, I used to do that too until I decided to try and deal more damage and crit more often. Also I’m critting ALOT because I’m staying with the train. Also axe is poop.

What server and what guild are you in zap.

Also the point of the hammer train is not distract the zerg or whatever the kitten your talking about its to kittening kill people that don’t have stab because they didn’t stay with the guardians lol.

PVT does a lot of damage, very close to the amount your build does. The only reason I take axe is for perma retal because it destroys engis. I wouldn’t actually use the auto.

I’m on Yak’s Bend, I don’t have a guild, don’t need one when I only roam anymore (used to command on Darkhaven, but to many terribad players so I left).

Your last point is incorrect. The point of the hammer train is to draw all of the attention, and engage the enemy zerg’s hammer train. Staying with them means you should expect to get hit by the enemy zergs hammer train and backline. Staying on you backline means you only need to worry about gankers which are few and far between in most zergs anyway.

zapv.8051:

ArchonWing.9480:

snip text limit

Gosh what a long post, you talk a lot about yourself at the top, which is off topic. Then you say that a guard with 4% crit chance is better at dealing damage than a necro with 4% crit change (actually 9 due to 2 in curses), which is laughable. Then you say wells do bad damage without damaging gear, that’s true, but then again soldiers is the 6th highest effective power in the game ahead of gearsets like knights that you used in your build.

If that’s a long post, I fear for the literacy levels in this country.

Well, duh. How does it make any sense if I don’t detail my experiences to determine where I get my build from? lol. Maybe I should just pass my anecdotes as truth. My analogy is that I don’t even feel like stacking so much defense on a guardian who has such low base health, and they’re arguably obliged to stack on more defense. My point isn’t that a guardian in full ptv could do more damage than a necro, but if you’re not taking a necro for more damage, then why bother? If you’re going to build a brick, then a guardian’s going to provide more to the group. Oh sure, you have chill and corruption and maybe modest damage?

Oh and btw bro, you don’t have any cleave. That’s a problem with necromancers atm and already puts our damage potential behind those classes with swinging hammers. But at least you have locust swarm to make up for that. I can respect for you for that. And lol, enjoy your 9% crit chance.

The second paragraph is a mess, your basically saying that you take ranged wells so you can strip stability early, which you still won’t do because there are other boons ahead of it. You also say wells will overwrite water fields if you don’t have ranged wells. That’s dumb, as you could just as easily overwrite them with ranged wells. Your last sentence in the paragraph perfectly explains why ranged wells don’t matter. It is far to chaotic and mobile for your placement to be that bad regardless.

Common sense?

Water fields go on you. You know. Front line? You? Stacked on the hammer train? Cast on enemy coming at you. Not just at the hammer train? Okay, let’s not even talk about stability if it failed. What boons wouldn’t you want to strip?

Nexed post is also wrong. If your not on the front line and getting killed your doing it wrong. Your much safer because zergs have to focus the hammer train. That is the point of the hammer train, either it draws all the attention or it walks all over you.

Getting killed means you rally people so I have no idea what you’re talking about. You will obviously get killed more but I just thought it was funny how you phrased it.

It’s wrong because you say it’s wrong? That’s what most of your post is about. Your experience is different from others. Well, guess what, unlike you, I never made such nonsensical assumptions to begin with. On my server, the hammer train also bites off the tail of the enemy train for the overextenders, so calling it a mere distraction would be quite the disservice.

zapv.8051:

NeXeD.3042:

You keep on using full ptv, I used to do that too until I decided to try and deal more damage and crit more often. Also I’m critting ALOT because I’m staying with the train. Also axe is poop.

What server and what guild are you in zap.

Also the point of the hammer train is not distract the zerg or whatever the kitten your talking about its to kittening kill people that don’t have stab because they didn’t stay with the guardians lol.

PVT does a lot of damage, very close to the amount your build does. The only reason I take axe is for perma retal because it destroys engis. I wouldn’t actually use the auto.

I’m on Yak’s Bend, I don’t have a guild, don’t need one when I only roam anymore (used to command on Darkhaven, but to many terribad players so I left).

Your last point is incorrect. The point of the hammer train is to draw all of the attention, and engage the enemy zerg’s hammer train. Staying with them means you should expect to get hit by the enemy zergs hammer train and backline. Staying on you backline means you only need to worry about gankers which are few and far between in most zergs anyway.

If you’re just running hammer train straight into hammer train you’re doing it wrong. Im seriously starting to think you shouldn’t be giving advice on here. Archon is right you are going for the tail. Veil and dodge statics and try to take out the tail of the enemies train.

Hammer train is not the damage that kill people, it’s the CC. Most of the damage comes from backline like necro and ele. (That’s why I suggest leaving the frontline job to the hammer classes and we necro do our own things.) There is no point to hummer bomb the frontline knowing they all have stability on. As a backline you will see the whole picture clearer. You will see your team’s hammer train try to cut off enemies front and backline. And same for the enemy. As a backline your job would be to move along with the frontline, bomb enemies’ backline. But you have to move from the outer radius, not go head to head like your backline.

Afya.5842:

Hammer train is not the damage that kill people, it’s the CC. Most of the damage comes from backline like necro and ele. (That’s why I suggest leaving the frontline job to the hammer classes and we necro do our own things.) There is no point to hummer bomb the frontline knowing they all have stability on. As a backline you will see the whole picture clearer. You will see your team’s hammer train try to cut off enemies front and backline. And same for the enemy. As a backline your job would be to move along with the frontline, bomb enemies’ backline. But you have to move from the outer radius, not go head to head like your backline.

The CC is indeed very deadly, but in and of itself won’t kill anyone unless there’s a bit of direct damage dealt. You certainly can rely on the backline to clear people out though remember that they themselves are also being pressured by the enemy train so it’s not as straightforward. I’ve recalled many an instance, especially on my engineer, where she got hit by a bunch of hammer train hitting like wet noodles and promptly just stunbreaked/condi cleared away and thanked them for the protection proc while they were just too slow to even manage to chase her sidestepping away. I like to laugh when I get hit by a <2000 dmg multi-hitting whirling wrath (total!). Getting hit by modest 3-4k life blasts though… that hurts.

Don’t get me wrong. I think necros lack the autoattack cleave and mobility to keep up with the warriors and guardians, so they’ll need to compensate elsewhere. Still, this is a thread about frontlining so if that’s what the OP wants, that’s what they should get. It’s entirely possible that I have overcompensated in certain areas, but at least I didn’t tell anyone to use my crappy 2.3k armor spec. :p

ArchonWing.9480:

It’s a long post, as in it is a long post compared to what is common on these forums. Also length has nothing to do with literacy. Also, you make a lot of assumptions if you fear for this countries literacy based on one post. Your definitely not a scientist.

A necro in pvt will do way more damage than a guard in pvt. If a guard did more damage total in pvt it would also do more damage in zerker, and people wouldn’t run necros for zergs at all cause there would be no point. A well necro does more damage than a single guard. As said before this post, I’m not saying necros should play the role of tanky frontliners, but that is what the OP asked for. As for damage it is at least as good as your builds singular long cooldown well.

As for cleave, your build doesn’t have cleave either so I’m not sure I understand your point. The reason we are taken in zergs and gvg is for blinds, boon corruption and spectral wall protection and cc. The point of locust swarm is cc not damage, the aoe interrupt and aoe cripple are very good in wvw if you didn’t realize.

The next paragraph is barely legible, but I’ll extrapolate. Yes the water fields go on you, but theres nothing saying your wells can’t go on top after that as the water field should still have priority. Furthermore, water fields are generally used when there is a small break in the action as the hammer trains are running around for another go at each other. Not right when you are engaging. Also, my well of corruption will corrupt just as many boons as yours, but I didn’t waste a trait to make that happen.

I don’t even no what to say about the last paragraph, it is very disconnected from what I actually said. You implied I said a lot of things that I didn’t. For instance, you said that I said the hammer train was a “mere distraction.” I by no means said it was a mere distraction. I said it attracts the attention of the enemy zerg or kills you. Those two things are completely different.

NeXeD.3042:

zapv.8051:

NeXeD.3042:

You keep on using full ptv, I used to do that too until I decided to try and deal more damage and crit more often. Also I’m critting ALOT because I’m staying with the train. Also axe is poop.

What server and what guild are you in zap.

Also the point of the hammer train is not distract the zerg or whatever the kitten your talking about its to kittening kill people that don’t have stab because they didn’t stay with the guardians lol.

PVT does a lot of damage, very close to the amount your build does. The only reason I take axe is for perma retal because it destroys engis. I wouldn’t actually use the auto.

I’m on Yak’s Bend, I don’t have a guild, don’t need one when I only roam anymore (used to command on Darkhaven, but to many terribad players so I left).

Your last point is incorrect. The point of the hammer train is to draw all of the attention, and engage the enemy zerg’s hammer train. Staying with them means you should expect to get hit by the enemy zergs hammer train and backline. Staying on you backline means you only need to worry about gankers which are few and far between in most zergs anyway.

If you’re just running hammer train straight into hammer train you’re doing it wrong. Im seriously starting to think you shouldn’t be giving advice on here. Archon is right you are going for the tail. Veil and dodge statics and try to take out the tail of the enemies train.

Think what you want, fact is any good zerg will make the enemy zerg go through their hammer train before they get to their back liners. It certainly isn’t what you described which would be two hammer trains running right past each other to get to the backliners. Also in pug zergs, which is of course more pertinent to the topic at hand, people are far to scattered to even think about what is backline and what is hammer train.

1.) Yep, I’m mocking your complaint about length.
2.) Well, clearly the point of contention here what we consider what is too tanky. You set off a cutoff limit at precision being in any stat, which I found to be arbitrary.

3.) Well duh of course my build has no cleave either. My point is that necros don’t have cleave so they have to catch up in other ways. But of course you conveniently ignored that sentence, so there’s no point arguing. Even a guardian that cleaves several opponents for several hundred damage each per hit in a zerg means that your single target damage is going to struggle to keep up.

And if you haven’t realized yet, that well is completely for utility. I picked shorter cooldown/unblockable marks/piercing life blasts to make up for my lack of contribution during cooldowns.

4.) You have control over where you wells go. Obviously in my situation where I only have one well there isn’t that big of a difference, but I prefer to have clutch control over such a thing. When I run 2-3 well builds I think, it’s very advantageous to have them pop wherever I want them to be.

5.) My point is you can’t just flat out say people are wrong when they described their experiences— you’re basically claiming our experiences are wrong when they’re most likely just different from yours. [Of course, you ignored this point, but whatever]. I mean this all started because you decided somehow that precision and ranged wells automatically disqualify a frontline build without elaboration, thus all the text walls happened. You then went off on talking about how you not dying in the frontline means you’re doing it wrong, which of course doesn’t make sense, so I decided to poke fun at you.

As for the hammer train comment, I thought you meant it was just relegated to those two purposes. Maybe you can clarify.

No zap you are wrong because I say you are wrong and that is apparently how things work so you are wrong because that is what I have decided it is.

zerk or bust

Ok OP here thats what im running right now and it actually works REALLY well.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAoYWjc0UTbLNG3wfjiihSuSAqqMuAg6g4IKCA-TVyDABK8EA2U9HeU+Bg5PR0Hoz+DIoEMgDBAEnAASB81WA-w

The idea behind is that the 35% boon duration gives me basicaly perma swiftness with rune of the pack procs and spectral walk (spec walk is 49 sec swiftness alone) and almost perma fury with furious demise and rune of the pack procs.
You also get some nice might stacks with reaper’s might, sigil of strength and rune of the pack. Soul comprehension and near to death give a full death shroud every 7 sec.

Its really tanky with almost 2900 base armor and thx to 50% crit chance with fury it deals actually good damage. You need to have a guardian for stability in your group to run it and the boon duration food is soul bound and a little bit anoying to make and costs a bit if you buy the candy from the market.

That’s a very balanced build with great stats. That little furious demise trait can allow for some decent bursts without having to take death perception. Do you feel like you are missing anything? Can you manage being condition spammed?

I think you should exchange 1 point from death to curses to grab ground wells though or if that’s not your thing since I don’t want to argue that again :p, weakening shroud is pretty sweet too considering you have Near to Death— Weakness is a nice condition that necros can provide as opposed to poison and bleed that fly around everywhere. Soul Comprehension is not a bad thing to have, but you’ll get more out of your plague and dagger 4. The thing about “on death” traits is that they are a snowball thing meaning they tend to work the most in fights you’re already winning and you should have tons of LF from SR. If you don’t like your DS is generating fast enough, take vital persistence to slow down decay.

I don’t really think the boon food is worth it. IMO it’s only worth taking when you have enough group boons like on a guardian which spit them out constantly to everyone. Yes, you get more swiftness but you already have pack runes, and you can squeeze a bit more out of FITG, but IMO you’d be best served taking toughness/vit food or -condi food. Also, swiftness is pretty common on zergs, so you don’t need perfect swiftness uptime though I understand that travel on a necro can be pretty painful.

Question from a level 70 necro. Running power build in the lines of Mayama. Although I picked targetable wells.

but ignoring that, why wouldn’t most “in your face” necros like we see here, not run the warhorn? I traited it and have 3 sec aoe daze on pretty short recast time.

I really helps when you are up front plus I “sticks” folks in the wells.

Again I am not max level so might be missing something. I never see focus off hand btw. not sure why, guess offers little?

They’re both good offhands.

Warhorn has the daze but note that the enemy frequently has stability on first approach so shooting it off immediately is not a good idea. Later on though it’s quite nice. And yes, locust swarm does heavy damage as your train runs through people and can be good with plague especially if you take chilling darkness (use the 2nd one always).

Dagger off has a condi transfer and also a blind with skill 4, also good with chilling darkness, and an aoe weakness which is solid too though I find these a little hard to land. Weakness is not as a common condition as others and also helps you immediately by blunting the blows of the enemy’s next attack; so it doesn’t matter if it gets cleansed.

Focus offhand is alright too, but I think the long cast time makes it very hard to use. Skill 5 is strong but only single target and skill 4 can be useful, though I don’t think it makes that much of a difference as opposed to the other two.

ArchonWing.9480:

That’s a very balanced build with great stats. That little furious demise trait can allow for some decent bursts without having to take death perception. Do you feel like you are missing anything? Can you manage being condition spammed?

I think you should exchange 1 point from death to curses to grab ground wells though or if that’s not your thing since I don’t want to argue that again :p, weakening shroud is pretty sweet too considering you have Near to Death— Weakness is a nice condition that necros can provide as opposed to poison and bleed that fly around everywhere. Soul Comprehension is not a bad thing to have, but you’ll get more out of your plague and dagger 4. The thing about “on death” traits is that they are a snowball thing meaning they tend to work the most in fights you’re already winning and you should have tons of LF from SR. If you don’t like your DS is generating fast enough, take vital persistence to slow down decay.

I don’t really think the boon food is worth it. IMO it’s only worth taking when you have enough group boons like on a guardian which spit them out constantly to everyone. Yes, you get more swiftness but you already have pack runes, and you can squeeze a bit more out of FITG, but IMO you’d be best served taking toughness/vit food or -condi food. Also, swiftness is pretty common on zergs, so you don’t need perfect swiftness uptime though I understand that travel on a necro can be pretty painful.

The curses trait is really situational all options are good. Im not 100% sure but afaik soul comprehension gives you life force for dead enemies and allies. I dont think its needed but the buff food + 15% duration from the curses trait line give me 100% fury uptime. Pact runes give 13,5 seconds and furious demise 6,75 seconds. I dont really need minus condi duration food, the on demand 4 (with +% buff duration) stability really help and the self condi clear is enough usually.

Perma fury is nice, but do consider you’ll have 85% fury uptime without the food.

And yea, I didn’t factor in allies dying as life force. That’s probably why my LF meter is always full. :S

If by frontline you mean melee, it doesnt exist because necros do not have a cleaving melee weapon. They are at their most useful, in my experience, casting from afar with wells/ deathshroud.

Mayama.1854:

So guys whats the current WvW frontline zerg necro build? Thx in advance

No such thing as frontline build for necros. The closest zerg based build would be a power wellomancer with axe+warhorn/staff.

Pretty sure it exists, I play it. Not axe either, d/d Or d/w staff. We have a leap, sorta. We have stab.

Of course Frontline exists.

Plague with Chill traits + sprectral armor + good runes and food is great in wvw.

You know how the tightly packed skill group always defeats the big Zerg with a long tail? Well Chilling traited Plague can give even a tightly packed skill group a long tail. This turns the hammer train into a hammer trickle, easily defeated. That’s worth a spot in a skill group.

nekretaal.6485:

Of course Frontline exists.

Plague with Chill traits + sprectral armor + good runes and food is great in wvw.

You know how the tightly packed skill group always defeats the big Zerg with a long tail? Well Chilling traited Plague can give even a tightly packed skill group a long tail. This turns the hammer train into a hammer trickle, easily defeated. That’s worth a spot in a skill group.

It doesn’t need a melee or frontline necro to run “chilling plague”. Any necro that traited chilling darkness can run that. With stability, blinds, stats boost from plague, all the aoe share in frontline, with little defense stats, necro can hop in the train to plague with no problem.

So after some tweaking I run this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAoYWjc0UTbLNG3wfbijBR2RRiLA19GGE-TVyDABK8EA2U9HeU+Bg5vJOBAioPQn9HQQJYAHCASB41WA-w

Its really good in small scale too people usually focus you as necro and its really hard to kill you with this build.

For frontline WvW, I like soldier’s with as much AoE as possible. After that, stack on more condition duration just to be annoying. 1v1 is not as helpful in zergs because it is difficult to keep after the same target for a kill. Big AoE can really help your team in a large battle and condi-duration seriously inconveniences people by keeping them at combat speed. Mobility limiters like cripple are tough on zerg members and long poisons waste a portion of heals if condi-cleanses are not available all the time.

Condition damage, itself, is not nearly as effective in WvW zerg and siege battles as condition duration. Just an AoE blind can slash enemy mobility enough for team members to close the gap.

I agree with Afya here. From T1 experience, Necro’s role in WvW blobs is AoE dps, boon strip and conditions. I say conditions because staff is a hybrid weapon, which is usually a staple for most necros in Wvw blobs.

Honestly, if you really want to frontline, a guardian feels alot like what a front line necro should be except switch the conditions with boons and switch boon strip with sustain. Wells are basically symbols.

Edit: And plague sucks. The 1s blind and 1s chill get kittened on by melandru+lemongrass poultry. Use lich and strip stability. No stab on train = dead train. Lich also super buffs your wells.

Yeah use conditions in a massive zerg fight! And while you are at it you should use lich on your condition build because it strips boons like stability!

If the bloodmagic buffs are good maybe a bloodnecro will find his place in the frontlines.

Condition builds are great when running in a havoc group but there’s way too much cleansing in large organized groups to make them effective.

Death Shroud based Power build with 6k+ Life Blasts:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBHhZakjmaabpx4GOcTMMUQflZ5FEVAQ9VEF5KA-TVCEwAJOBAp2fwpyPuKBN8AAYp+jkjAQb9BAOEAkCgJhRA-w

If you don’t have guardian support you might want to swap out Death Perception for Foot in the Grave. The focus of this build is to stay in Death Shroud as much as possible and Life Blast.

Marks → Wells → Swap → Axe 3 for Retal → DS → Life Transfers → Life Blast til Life Force is drained → Rinse and Repeat

My guild is in T1 and I can frontline all day long with this build.

http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNAW4Yjc00YbNNu0whbihBR2UZmeWwXxFA-TVDBABRqEM69H0SpXXKD6TjAnqVAxRAAgLCglqq0iGCV0gwwDCQPdBBAQAu5NzmtZwQH6QH6QHaD9mD9mDdolCQPlRA-w

Great survivability (vit, toughness) and sustain (dagger, passive siphons, LF regen), with surprisingly good damage (3100+ power with full stacks). My zerker set rarely leaves my bags anymore.

Only against the better guild groups do I swap WoS for WoP (stun break, boons) and use lemongrass. Or just backline it.

Also, dagger is great for ganking/distracting enemy squishies while wells and DS skills are on cooldown… makes for an active, fun playstyle.