Guild Wars 2

Hey there necro community. Long time listener, First time caller here.

been playing necro as my main since release. I have a full rabid set and did the conditionmancer. Have a full zerker set and have done axe/focus build. I am now working on trying out a tankier necro that uses a dagger and undecided offhand with a staff as the off weapon. trait set of 0/0/25/15/30. right now set to focus for additional vuln and self regen on 4 and boon removal/chill on 5.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mVVMMm9cmblMMmbCFM9MpfxMVzmaq

I have had some success “tanking” in dungeons with this build so far. life force regen, utilizing deathshroud properly for on demand stability, between doom and reapers mark i can get a couple interrupts (was thinking of warhorn offhand for a 3rd interrupt that is more accessible.) I can give myself protection with spectral utilities and siphoning health never hurts. I am running soldiers gear at the moment, kind of a hodgepodge of SE, AC, and HotW gear. Right now im just using crests of the soldier but i cant help but think that there is something else i can use.

I guess the main question i have is what runes and sigils would you use here? was thinking of warriors runes for vit, pow, and -1s on weapon swap which would allow for synergy with ‘on weapon swap’ sigils. Also, what changes would you make to this build? please give your reasoning.

Thanks in advance guys.

You’re only doing PvE with this build correct? Then I have a few comments.

• Greater Marks isn’t hugely necessary in PvE. You could easily swap it out with Dark Armor, Ritual of Protection, or Shrouded Removal for greater survivability.
• I don’t quite see the point of Dagger Mastery in your build. I would think that Bloodthirst, Ritual of Life (which can proc Ritual of Protection btw), or Transfusion would be more useful.
• As for runes and the like, personally I wouldn’t bother changing what you have. But I suppose you could splurge on Runes of the Earth for more toughness and protection. And sigils of leeching are probably the best survivability enhancing sigils that don’t require high crit rates.

All that being said I think you could improve your tankiness even more so with a somewhat radical build shift. Something like this perhaps. With clerics gear. Can easily swap into DS every 5s to heal around ~700, lots of protection because Spectral Wall would have 50% uptime, and phenomenal LF generation. It hurts to lose the perma regen from staff 2, but the fact that you’re wearing a lot of healing power should offset that, plus you can always use boon duration runes to fix that.

Thanks for the input.

i was thinking of doing bloodthirst instead of dagger mastery actually but i should definitely try transfusion seeing how i plan and trying to take advantage of weaving in and out of deathshroud. i actually run basically the exact same trait build that you posted there in spvp and btw have found it a very successful build. I will take your advise into consideration

thanks for replying.

In order to make the most of your crit bonus, you need to put a bunch into precision to make sure you get enough critical hits in the first place. Nemesis specifically spoke of this in his videos saying he likes to have about 50% crit chance (precision).

I am not sure what you are trying to accomplish with toughness/health/crit bonus while taking only the base power and precision and running soldier’s gear. It seems extremely bunker-like so I am concerned you may not be doing much damage in return. Without even 10 points in Curses, you cannot even do chill-on-blind to improve your number of chills, if a bunker build is your objective. Sure, you could put a sigil of water or ice on your weapons and eat the best pizza for duration, if you are going for a highly defensive build, but then I wonder why put 30 in Soul Reaping and the rest in Death and Blood Magic instead of at least some Spite and/or Curses.

Speaking of Curses, in PvE, mobs do not cleanse conditions so that is another reason not to ignore what is the heart of the Necromancer design. In wvw and pvp your opponents will cut condition duration and, thus, damage so variations of power builds, including minionmaster, are more favored. Your soldier’s gear is perfectly normal in wvw but I would only use it in pve if you already have enough precision from elsewhere in your build. Honestly, if you look at the skills Necromancer has available, you cannot get away from applying a lot of conditions no matter how you configure it. Not improving condition dps (precision) or duration (power) just pulls the Necromancer’s teeth out. Even minions suffer without 20 points in Spite.

One of the most interesting and exciting aspects of playing Necromancer is that you, the player, get to choose which of your feet to shoot when distributing trait points.

I would guess his reason for 30 in soul reaping is more so for the largely increased death shroud and how long it can last with that. That being said, with that kind of bunker build you won’t be able to do much damage. For rune wise…for my power build and the way I’m built I use runes of infiltration, increases my precision a good bit, and im just disgusting to any mob under 50%, i.e. i don’t wear full zerker and my axe 2 still crits easily for 16-18k against anything remotely squishy.

yes, this build is not designed for damage and is just a bunker experiment outside of the norm. I have full zerker that i usually go 30/0/10/0/30 or 30/15/0/25/0 depending on if i want to use a staff or not. I also have a full condi build with full rabid (my main build, all of my infused and ascended peices are rabid so far) going 0/30/10/30/0. I am aware of the benefits inside of the spite or curses trees. But this thread is not about those builds. The one weapon set that i rarely use is a dagger mainhand and most of the builds i find that use main hand dagger are juggermancers builds. I am not the big of a fan of most of the juggermancer builds ive seen out there ankittenrying to experiment with a bunker dagger build.

@anchoku
You do make a good point that i have the extra 30% crit in the soul reaping tree and i feel that i am not taking advantage of it or putting it into consideration. going to try putting this into knights gear to max out toughness as well as having extra precision instead of vitality. perhaps that can help make up some the lacking damage though i would be sacrificing some power since power is primary on soldiers and toughness is primary on knights.

hydromancy sigil might be a really good idea for the aoe chill and blind (w/ 10 in curses.) I also might rethink some of these traits hence the 10 in curses comment. I do not want to drop the 30 in soul reaping as i believe that stability is too useful for so many encounters. also deathshroud works well with power and is handy for extension of the health pool. Ill probably take out of blood to put 10 in curses and try that out. I probably wont limit this to PvE but it most likely wouldn’t make a good WvW build. May try some point holding in spvp.

Any other suggestions on rune sets that might be synergetic with this build?

If you are going for a bunker build that critical hits fairly frequently, sigil of blood might be useful for stealing health from your opponent but you might want sigil of force to help make up for low power. Sigils of air, earth, fire, frailty, and strength are also options. The nice thing about chill for Necromancer is because there are an adequate number of ways to apply it. Giving perma-chill to your opponent is pretty easy. Now, chill does not stack so do not overdo it and ignore other conditions and damage. Extending condition duration is generally less effective in wvw because people can clear the condition so re-applying shorter conditions or damage fast is usually better.

Even if you do not crit very often, most main hand weapons except staff hit frequently enough to proc so I still prefer that type of sigil. However, for PvE farming and large events, you might want one of the sigils that gain bonuses with kills. I farm with sigil of luck just to boost the item drop rate. In dungeons, WvW, and PvP, I do not bother because I can go down and lose the entire bonus stack. If your crit rate is too low, you might want to grab one of the sigils that proc on weapon swap like battle, doom, or geomancy.

For Runes, Undead is a good place to start because of their great value. You will need to decide which area needs improving in your stats. You can add condition duration, boon duration, healing, critical hit bonus, and other things but ithat all depends on how you are traited. Try playing different trait sets and looking for possible synergies or weaknesses that require improvement.