Guild Wars 2

I made a quick compilation of some fights I had during this week’s Mag/DR/BP matchup.

I hit 80 just before the holidays and have only played it for a week since then, so I’m using a lot of different builds in the video and make some silly mistakes.

As most of you know, wells are really strong so I’ve tried to use them in combination with Locust Swarm and DS4 to achieve something resembling burst damage. I’m also sticking with dagger and warhorn. I feel the LF generation, DPS, and root on that set outweigh the range limitation in most cases.

This is the base build I’m using. Sometimes I use the lifesteal traits, sometimes I go for marks. My gear is a mix of Berserker, Knight, and Rampager.

http://bit.ly/13Cl6ZQ

What is your exact gear set-up? what pieces are berserker, knight or rampager.
I’m wanting to try out the power type necro. Would love to know!

Ty in advance

I followed the general principle of prioritizing Berserker stats on Hands/Feet/Shoulders/Amulet/Weapons, with the rest being a mix. It’s not necessarily the best setup. I was sort of running out of cash and bought a few pieces with dungeon tokens, but it works.

http://i.imgur.com/z6cu4.png

did you settle for a final build? what works best
oh, and just a question, why the 30 pts in soul reaping?

I haven’t really settled on a final build. I like the 30pts in Soul Reaping because having a 5s CD on DS gives you better situational access to the DS abilities, namely the fear, and lets you phase in and out for the fury buff without gimping yourself too much. There are definitely compelling arguments for shifting around 10 or 20 pts here and there and a lot of the builds I used took other traits in lieu of Near to Death.

Nothing really stood out as ‘the best’ though.

mad props to you for using “in lieu of”
I deffo like the vid though, seems very nice! Would love to have a power set, I went for rampager/pvt gear though, so can’t reach high levels of power without buying a new set.

One thing that I have found very valuable in WvW using a power build is Foot in The Grave. 3 seconds of stability doesn’t sound like a lot but believe me, when you’re surrounded by a zerg and pop into DS, the first thing they will try to do is knock you down, fear you, etc… I could rarely get off Life Transfer before I took this talent, and now I am able to use it fine 95% of the time.

Great video. You should consider trying stability on death shroud. As mentioned above, it helps protect your LT. You can use it to counter INC CC and you can use the stability to help with stomps.

Yeah, I was definitely flubbing the finishers on a lot of people. I was under the impression that shroud stomping had been ‘fixed’, but I see now that people are saying otherwise in a couple threads.

Even if it’s been fixed, you can toggle in and out of ds and retain the stability. The problem is the length of stability doesn’t cover the full stomp. ;(

I wouldn’t say you were flubbing things. Necro is one of the classes inherently weak at securing stomps.

Were you the dude in the Jumping puzzle that I messaged?

Razgriz.2590:

Were you the dude in the Jumping puzzle that I messaged?

No.

Yeah just looked at your weapon set. The guy I had met was running a D/D necro. Power/crit.

which foods are you using?

nice vid, yeah the 5 sec CD on DS vs the 3 sec stability is seriously a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it to. Both are so valuable. I have been using the stability, but am gonna give 5 sec DS CD another try.

I am on BP, perhaps we shall bump into each othe before thursday. Enjoy the next tier you guys have been amazing (don’t you dare quote me on the WvW forums, I will deny ever saying that )

edit Just took on a hammer guardian and a warrior… 5 sec DS cooldown was awesome for the fears, but as soon as I went DS it was knockdown everytime, gotta dodge, get more range or figure out some magic way to get stability :P

Ooooh Oozo aka [Anonymous Defender]I love your vids, running a build and setup I got from your vids/posts

maxsettings.2834:

which foods are you using?

I generally use Omnomberry Pies. They go well with the high crit rate and attacks/second. I’m sure other foods would work but they’re a favorite of mine.

Oozo.7856:

Even if it’s been fixed, you can toggle in and out of ds and retain the stability. The problem is the length of stability doesn’t cover the full stomp. ;(

You can cover the whole animation with 20% boon duration IIRC.

Yeah I was going to mention boon duration increase effect that three seconds. so 20 points in the toughness tree gets you that, or runes focusing on boon duration.

I also really enjoyed this video. You play very well for someone so new to the necro class, so I am going to go out on a limb here and assume your previous class had to have been a melee one. Your reactions are very good in that environment, which is something I can’t boast, having almost exclusively run a ranged condition build for so long.

Pretty nice video. Looking forward to seeing more.

lettucemode.3789:

Oozo.7856:

Even if it’s been fixed, you can toggle in and out of ds and retain the stability. The problem is the length of stability doesn’t cover the full stomp. ;(

You can cover the whole animation with 20% boon duration IIRC.

I’ve never tested it personally. Boons provided by traits seems to be iffy. It seems like sometimes boon duration works but sometimes it doesn’t for traits (probably bugs, heh). I’d defer to anyone who has actually tested it to verify that it does apply to the trait.

Rennoko.5731:

I also really enjoyed this video. You play very well for someone so new to the necro class, so I am going to go out on a limb here and assume your previous class had to have been a melee one. Your reactions are very good in that environment, which is something I can’t boast, having almost exclusively run a ranged condition build for so long.

I have a mesmer/warrior/thief too. I’m collecting bits of footage from each so hopefully I’ll have some more videos. Definitely more stuff for necro as well.

YES, a power build with daggers AND ONLY TWO WELLS! This guy gets it, three well builds are bad and axe doesn’t make use of them like dagger can. I also agree with using warhorn offhand with a dagger, that daze makes you safe and allows you to land darkpact ( I like to darkpact then run behind the guy the stab him non-stop while he can’t do anything)

Hey, after watching your video, I switched my spec to run something similar. Do you mind telling me how much Power, Precision and toughness you currently have? The editor isn’t showing it properly. I want to know how much I should shoot for. Thank you so much. Very nice skills, man. I hope you keep making videos!

karitzuki.7659:

Hey, after watching your video, I switched my spec to run something similar. Do you mind telling me how much Power, Precision and toughness you currently have? The editor isn’t showing it properly. I want to know how much I should shoot for. Thank you so much. Very nice skills, man. I hope you keep making videos!

Thanks. I linked my skill sheet earlier in the thread. I don’t think the stats matter as much as the general playstyle. You could easily drop some toughness for more offensive stats to deal more damage, or drop crit-damage for toughness and have a little more EHP. There are times where I’ve considered both options. I don’t think condition damage is as useful as I originally had, so I might consider dropping that first.

karitzuki.7659:

Hey, after watching your video, I switched my spec to run something similar. Do you mind telling me how much Power, Precision and toughness you currently have? The editor isn’t showing it properly. I want to know how much I should shoot for. Thank you so much. Very nice skills, man. I hope you keep making videos!

http://i.imgur.com/z6cu4.png

Cempa

Just my 2 cents:

I would try raising your Attack power a bit. you have 61% natural crit without consumable buffs or sigil stacks. So with food and sigils you would be ~81% (off the cuff calculation). 81% crit is awesome and all, but you could probably give up some of that to boost your Attack into the 3k range.

What do other necros think about crit% I roll with 61% crit chance and +57 to crit damage, and 3,243 attack power. Obviously I would like to see all those numbers go up, but at what cost?

When do folks think diminishing returns kick in for crit%?

Fraeg.9837:

Cempa

Just my 2 cents:

I would try raising your Attack power a bit. you have 61% natural crit without consumable buffs or sigil stacks. So with food and sigils you would be ~81% (off the cuff calculation). 81% crit is awesome and all, but you could probably give up some of that to boost your Attack into the 3k range.

What do other necros think about crit% I roll with 61% crit chance and +57 to crit damage, and 3,243 attack power. Obviously I would like to see all those numbers go up, but at what cost?

When do folks think diminishing returns kick in for crit%?

There are no diminishing returns.

Fraeg.9837:

What do other necros think about crit% I roll with 61% crit chance and +57 to crit damage, and 3,243 attack power. Obviously I would like to see all those numbers go up, but at what cost?

It would cost you whatever toughness/vitality is currently in your build.

In my opinion, however much crit you want depends on what you want to do with that crit. Base crit chance means you have no intention to use the crit sigils or deal high damage. 30% crit is enough for the higher-chance-to-proc sigils, like Nullification, or a good damage boost without sacrificing much defense. For things like Sigils of Blood or Rage, or if you have over 50% crit damage, you want 50% crit chance or more.

Personally I don’t see any need to go above 50%, though. Necros have access to Fury on demand basically for free, so that frees up some Precision in your gear for other stuff.

I generally aim for around 50% crit in a Power/Crit DS build or dagger build. 50-60% crit damage is usually pretty good as well, although I haven’t tried in PvE or WvW with good gear and food yet.

Like Lettuce said, every time you pop into DS you can get fury which really helps, especially in a DS build. It’s nice seeing those 4-6k’s popping up on Life Blast, especially when it pierces.

Ojimaru.8970:

Fraeg.9837:

Cempa

Just my 2 cents:

I would try raising your Attack power a bit. you have 61% natural crit without consumable buffs or sigil stacks. So with food and sigils you would be ~81% (off the cuff calculation). 81% crit is awesome and all, but you could probably give up some of that to boost your Attack into the 3k range.

What do other necros think about crit% I roll with 61% crit chance and +57 to crit damage, and 3,243 attack power. Obviously I would like to see all those numbers go up, but at what cost?

When do folks think diminishing returns kick in for crit%?

There are no diminishing returns.

I worded that poorly then. Basically: if you have 100% crit but horribad power and +crit damage you wouldn’t be doing yourself any favors. You would be better off Dropping the crit % and picking up more attack power and +Crit damage.

My question is where do folks feel the line is for crit%? As in “get at least this much, but anything after that is just gravy, and you should probably focus on attack power and +crit damage”

such amazing player stop asking about gear… this is skill guys,

I’m a condition necro but your necro really really rocks, grats

I think most offense centric builds focus on 50% crit to answer the question. That is where most people feel the greatest effect of crit vs crit damage/power. With food buffs running if you run prec. food.