Guild Wars 2

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQEQNArdWjMaV6hbKb0bKAJFX/M0jd115oCITVwcA

Best move:

Spectral walk to enemies, shoot off well, click spectral walk again and get safe. Watch the XP rack up.

This is my build that I have used since level 40 and I like it a lot. This build allows you to farm WvW as well as not spending tons of money on repairs due to the high survivability rate. It also performs well in PvE. This is a long range build that mainly uses the Staff. How can I improve this build? My spectral walk, signet, and DS are all for GTFO situations or other sticky situations. Thoughts?

Summon blood fiend = auto-dismiss build

Not really. It allows for a critical stun/knock down to take place which results in easier/more kills….. learn to play and use it correctly.

Torothin.3271:

Not really. It allows for a critical stun/knock down to take place which results in easier/more kills….. learn to play and use it correctly.

He said blood fiend, not flesh golem. Blood Fiend is easily the most useless heal we have.

woops! What skill do you recommend then for a quick burst of health? For WvW I agree but for PvE it is useful due to it beign another distraction in order to kite…

Well of blood is my preferred heal in WvW and PvE. Pretty much anything that gives area heals/cond removal/boons is great in WvW

Torothin.3271:

woops! What skill do you recommend then for a quick burst of health? For WvW I agree but for PvE it is useful due to it beign another distraction in order to kite…

I think most people will take consume conditions so they can heal AND get rid of conditions other people put on them or conditions that are self inflicted.

Jackal.7432:

Well of blood is my preferred heal in WvW and PvE. Pretty much anything that gives area heals/cond removal/boons is great in WvW

Why would you want well of blood in WvW? It’ll help allies very slightly but it just gives enemies a target area to AoE in, consume conditions will give you a base heal thats really good, and will more often than not save your butt from classes that are going pure contion builds.

WvW builds without epidemic – No good.

World Vrs builds without epidemic might not be great at spreading conditions to enemies, but there are lots of other things they can be doing in pvp like helping supply lines, manning arrow carts or other siege equipment.

WvW builds without epidemic – Just different than others.

Zyphent.2967:

It’ll help allies very slightly

This is why. Area healing, while weak, is good to bring to WvW because it is good for everybody nearby. It’s the same reason people take AoE damage. Staying alive is surely important, but one person staying alive is less significant compared to helping multiple people stay alive.

At level 80, with my stats:

Well heals 5795 initially and 374 per second for 10 seconds.
Consume heals 5795 initially and 780 per condition.

I’m built for wells, too, so my wells give protection to anybody who is inside them for one of their tics. Well of blood also can be cast every 32 seconds (not much higher than consume’s 25 base) and gets a free cast when i res somebody (cooldown 60 seconds?). Admittedly, i build more heavily for support than most, but being able to drop offensive wells up on walls along with marks helps stack up damage. Being able to drop wells defensively for protection helps keep people alive when storming gates.

Zyphent.2967:

it just gives enemies a target area to AoE in

I don’t believe this to be true. I don’t see enemies firing into my wells so much as just ignoring or avoiding them completely. The only thing that would draw fire would be if allies clustered in the well, and since i generally am casting it where allies are clustered anyway, they’re already being fired on and can use the healing and protection i give.

Jackal, I agree. I’m generally more support minded, and love dropping a couple of wells to add prot to my friends on the front lines in WvWvW. Well of Darkness (if traited appropriately) will give 3sec prot, blind enemies, chill with each pulse and life siphon with each pules AND it’s a life steal projectile combo finisher. That’s a big help on the front lines.

Right. So past the blood fiend, I realize that was a mistake. Do you consider this build to be pretty solid? it’s more about survivability and being able to dish out damage from range and use your speed to dictate and be in control of the situation. Believe it or not the GTFO factor is very nice to have and causes less frustration.

This build is not about dishing out damage. It’s about avoiding repair costs, being able to level, and yet being able to contribute from range. I don’t like epidemic. It’s not my play style. This build however is.

I don’t understand the hype on epidemic. In wvwvw with so many people clearing conditions it just seems not that good. And with no penalties for clearing our conditions it just seems like a meh skill (in wvwvw) I also agree with jackal and cerulean. Solo, sure consume conditions, but if I wasn’t running with WOB on my bar with my guild, I’d be kicked.

Also, anyone else find it funny nobody steps in our wells? I’ve been using my wells as a push/zoning technique and its quite rewarding to me. Watching people scurry back from the aoe while my group pushes forward is golden.

Well of Blood + Putrid Mark = Area Retaliation which can really rock in wvw.

The epidemic cooldown is pretty short so it can generally be applied quicker than the regen on many condition removals…..if they do dispell then its another cooldown they have used and your team may be able to take advantage of that. Our support role is NOT all about damage and spreading but our synergy with our team mates and making the opposite side do something other than zerging the team. It IS a support tool and should be looked at in conjunction with team mate condition application and not just the conditions we apply.

Yeah I do the same with spectral walk and wells.

Also use well of blood.

Oldbugga.7029:

The epidemic cooldown is pretty short so it can generally be applied quicker than the regen on many condition removals…..if they do dispell then its another cooldown they have used and your team may be able to take advantage of that. Our support role is NOT all about damage and spreading but our synergy with our team mates and making the opposite side do something other than zerging the team. It IS a support tool and should be looked at in conjunction with team mate condition application and not just the conditions we apply.

Bingo.

Epidemic should be used in conjunction with other players to light up a target with conditions and then the necro spreads.

If you are able to synergize with other players, you can destroy zergs. Sure, condition removal is a problem, however, the reapplication of Epidemic is on such a short cooldown, it’s usually a non issue.

I take CC heal anytime over Well of blood personnaly.

I can’t count the number of them it saved my life. Sure WoB can heal a bit more with ally around, but at least I’m healing those 10 blood stack, poison (30% healing efficient witrhout CC) and cripple I got. It’s vital for me.

I usually use a 2-5 man assault team in WvW, and we are moving too much during fight to use WoB. Positionning is vital in a fight, and I can’t stay in an AoE.

About the build now, I’m personally not a fan of signet of locus. 10% just doesn’t seem to make a difference for me during fight, and the activating heal isn’t as efficient as , let say, Well of darkness (5 sec of immunity vs most class.).

If it’s your only source of swiftnest, I agree with Spectral walk. But if you would be using warhorn, you could swap Spectral walk for Flesh worm. It’s seriously ownage for in and out attack! But yeah, it won’t happen since you need a least one swiftness skill.

Have a good day!

And epidemic can spread conditions to those opponents who avoid your marks/wells. Focus on an opponent (usually melee) who will trigger them and use epidemic to spread it to ALL nearby enemies..including those who avoided the marks/wells. It also forces ALL nearby opponents to dispell…not just the target….sort of like an AoE semi-interupt….sort-of…but it can buy time.

Epidemic can easily spread conditions faster than they can be cleansed you just need to use it on the people being focused so you can spread 8~9 different conditions at once. Most aoe cleanses get rid of 1 or 3 conditions and are on longer cooldowns than epidemic. Mabye your first epidemic gets cleansed quickly but you just need to keep hitting them.

If you don’t have a lot of condition based people in your group epidemic can be used to spread the stronger conditions like high bleed stacks or imoblize. Necro has a lot of strong but single target chills, use epidemic on those to change the tide of battle when rolling in un-orgainized zergs.

I would personally drop Signet of Locust and the Speed of Shadows trait. In WvW speed is vital and perma-swiftness classes are one of the most important but when it comes to fighting or running from a zerg, you will die.

What i would recommend is using Signet of Locust when moving between points but swapping it out soon as you arrive, and also using Spectral Mastery for the 12 seconds off Spectral Walk and again traiting it out just before you arrive.

WvW = Killing poorly geared, upleveled newbies for easy badges.

I’m beginning to think any build at all would work if you’re in exotics. I’m going to try a MM build in WvW just to test it out (it’s the crappiest PvP build I could think of).

Epidemic is awesome because loads of people don’t bring cleanses to WvW, and many in the zerg might not have even bought their cleanse skills yet. Most people don’t load up on Vitality gear, because they want Pow/Pre for kills. They stand in wells and die. I’ve seen so many people just stand around while ranger pets tear them apart.

So, in short, play what you want. It’ll probably work ok. Just remember:

1) Don’t stand in red circles
2) Condition damage hurts
3) Defensive stats matter
4) Pets do damage too
5) It’s usually easier to go around a zerg than through it

All that said, I’ve seen WvW oriented guilds that run groups designed to work together and they dominate. Other than that I think any build will work well enough, so play what you want.

@Pincushion : I already did it, check my post :P

But to say any build work in WvW is wrong. Many build aren’t efficient in WvW. You always need an escape mecanism, and you gotta know how to counter zerg.

You won’t always fight upleveled newbies, and when you aren’t with the zerg (95% of the WVW I do I’m alone with another friend) you will most of the time be undernumbered.

You need good Build to fight underumbered, even if they don’t have the gear you have.

It does annoy me when people like PinCushion assume everyone in WvW except yourself is not level 80, has no gear and cant play the game. In reality i fight more world completionists and level 80s then non.

As for your points:

1) Don’t stand in red circles
Kind of Obvious if you’ve WvW’d for more then 10 mins

2) Condition damage hurts
Try making it stick in large fights

3) Defensive stats matter
In small scale fights or if your a guardian yes, zerg vs zerg/ tower defense, No

4) Pets do damage too
Our minions are also smart enough to stay out of them red circles and survive long enough to do damage, right?

5) It’s usually easier to go around a zerg than through it.
True, Its easier to just Waypoint back before they even see you if theres that many more then your side.