Guild Wars 2

I know that this is the age old question in most MMO’s.

I have recently just moved from ranger to Necro as my main. I made the mistake of buying full zerker armor/weapons/trinkets for my ranger before realising that this did nothing much for my DPS ( because pets are 30-50% of a rangers DPS and they very rarely hit ). So i wasted alot of money.

On my Necro i bought the full carrion for my PvE set using staff – s/d and im loving it, i make tons of cash in the Orr events.
For PvP i bought the karma Rabbid set (Prec/Tough/Cond) and using the same Carrion weapons went into WvW and i am struggling tbh.

During Zerg vs Zerg i make plenty of loot bags, but in small scale skirmishes (my prefered type) my DOT’s just get removed so easily.
I cant touch Guardians or warriors, thieves just remove all conditions every time they stealth…..

So, before i run out and buy my third set – either Zerker or Knights i thought i would ask the question here first.
I have only played condition damage on my Necro, so is Power viable in WvW?
And if so then which armor / weapon / trinket sets should i be looking to buy to get the most out of the Necro in small scale skirmishes – 5v5 etc and soloing supply depots?

Any and all help will be appreciated
:)

Why don’t you use carrion prefixes in wvw as well? In combination with the staff (as main weapon) it makes much more sense than going with any prefix that has precision in it. Plus: it solves your cond dmg vs power delemma because carrion has both.

Power can be viable too. I use 7 different armor sets on my necro, each maximizing either bursting or doing condi damage. I often use a zerker set and have a trait set up of 30(VI-VII-XII)/0/10(II)/0/30(II-VI-XII) using staff – dagger/focus or staff/ – axe/focus or staff – dagger/horn. I use 6 ruby gems on armors, staff has bloodlust sigil and my other weapons have superior sigil of air, frailty, force.

Heal spell is Consume Conditions. My utilities are BiP, signet of locust and signet of spite (i sometimes swap BiP or signet of spite for well of suffering). Elite skill is Lich Form. I would always activate BiP to get 10 stacks might, then use lich form and fire away or if lich form is on cd, I use deathshroud and use autoattack or deathshroud’s aoe skill.

Be forewarned though. This set up is very very squishy but works really really well if you have some people with you(Mesmer with TW is especially awesome with this build).

You can solo camps with this build, however, it can be difficult.

flow.6043:

Why don’t you use carrion prefixes in wvw as well? In combination with the staff (as main weapon) it makes much more sense than going with any prefix that has precision in it. Plus: it solves your cond dmg vs power delemma because carrion has both.

The main reason is because i want to be either all condition damage or all Power/precision. I have never seen hybrid builds working as well as pure builds in this game for the other classes i play. Maybe im wrong, but if im not even denting a guardian with full condition, then i dont see how DOT’s + DD is going to do it. I think i would have to go full DD.
DD = direct damage for anyone wanting to know.

Try playing in spvp for a bit to see what works for you. Both methods are viable from what I understand. I’m happy with a power/prec build and still pretty tanky.

Refer to this forum’s stickies, in particular this one… https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Necromancer-tutorials/first

Nemesis covers the class philosophy very well and offers sample builds that are viable in various scenarios.

His tank build using Power/Vitality/Toughness (PVT) gear is my current favorite even though I don’t kill mobs as fast as with other builds. What’s nice is the survivability.

I do not have the full set yet so I expect still higher stats, butt currently they sit at:
Power 2577
Attack 3688
Toughness 1817
Armor 2737
Vitality 1857
Health 27,782
in Plague form 46,000+
When complete, he will have Power in excess of 3000 and Health above 30000 pre-buff.

Like slalom said, doing the bunker build does pretty good, too. I use Sheobix’s Juggermancer build found here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Juggermancer-Final-Blog-Link

With some support utilities and wells, I do very well in zergs to small groups. Although with 3700attack, you will not see big numbers. But with 1800 tough, 1700vit and health at 31k you will live longer and kill your foes with sustained damage.

That tank build is fine too. I use it sometimes when doing dungeon runs or solo roaming in WvW. I was able to beat a guardian and an ele in a 2v1 scenario because of that trait set up (pretty impossible to do using a zerker set up). Soloing camps is also easy to do with it.

I prefer power. I love the dagger main hand and like how you don’t need a target to auto-attack, it feels a lot smoother. Dagger main is definitely better with pwoer

I roll with hybrid gear and just play modified version of my sPVP condi spec, but from what i have seen you can very successfully play power spec with PVT too.

If you’re running carrion equipment, then you are already running a hybid.. A pure conditionmancer would be running either rabid or shaman, which gives greater survivability but less offensive power.

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

If you’re running carrion equipment, then you are already running a hybid.. A pure conditionmancer would be running either rabid or shaman, which gives greater survivability but less offensive power.

You didnt read what i wrote properly, i wear Carrion for PvE and Rabbid for PvP.

I have just bought a full knights set with Valkyri trinkets, i havent ran it in WvW yet untill i get either the berseker or knights weapons so im still running Rabbid for now.

I play a hybrid build now from a full condition and love it. Still completing the ascended gear but its amazing. I can pull 10k+ hits on my axe and still stack 15 bleeds at 105-138 on my own. It’s full Rampgers with all stat ascended gear.

ArcticRed.3068:

Blood Red Arachnid.2493:

If you’re running carrion equipment, then you are already running a hybid.. A pure conditionmancer would be running either rabid or shaman, which gives greater survivability but less offensive power.

You didnt read what i wrote properly, i wear Carrion for PvE and Rabbid for PvP.

I have just bought a full knights set with Valkyri trinkets, i havent ran it in WvW yet untill i get either the berseker or knights weapons so im still running Rabbid for now.

I guess I should elaborate more then. Wear carrion in WvW. I do it and it works great.