Guild Wars 2

Hello!

So if been playing necro for a while now and liking it alot.
Thou if i want a valid spec i feel “forced” to play scepter or staff.

Now since i like the fast dagger MH attacks. Is there any valid melee spec?

There are melee specs, how valid they are is up to personal oppinion.
melee for necro is hard, requires alot of skill and practice to pull off, prone to getting killed very fast. Its usually a case of kill or be killed and the margins between the two are very close. Check the build post out (although not many melee builds)

Shameless mention of melee build I came up with https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/tPvP-Staff-dagger-dagger-build-full-spectral-warrior/first#post376391 (It has come to my attention that my post about condition duration being mulitplicative is probably incorrect caused by incorrect tool tips and trait descriptions)

I dont claim this is the best build, people have been having some sucess with using wells and people have suggested variations to my build on that post and in the builds post.

If going melee prepared to die alot, once your in combat the necro has poor ability to get out if things go wrong. kill or be killed.

another melee build https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-Mr-Freeze-Build-SPvP-Video-Fun-CC-Damage-Build/first

The problem i see is that the necro is built to grind enemies down, not drop a ton of hurt fast. Dagger is our fastest attack, but thanks to the short range we lose most of our damage if we try to apply mobility to keep alive. also, we have very little short cooldown AOE. End result is that being ganged lead to issues.

If you want to play melee, use the warhorn with the dagger. Seriously, with banshee wail, you can perm cripple on top of its extra damage and swiftness.

Sadly if you want to do this for PvP, get used to not using dagger 2. Ever. Other then that though, it is actually very good, but it’s extremely unforgiving, in that if you miss time some of your key CD’s, you’ll die fast. Also as with all necro’s, its pretty much impossible to disengage from a fight that’s going against us.

Well of sufferer and well of corruption are your friends here, after you immobilize your target, you can dagger 1 them in the back and drop wells, doing extremely good damage, and ruining the boons of classes like warriors and guardians. Also when thieves or mesmers try to stealth, your locust swarm and wells will keep killing them; I’ve killed plenty this way.

Last thing I would suggest is to max out the curses trait line, for withering precision. Because you do so many attacks, so fast (dagger auto is our faster attack, and the wells + locust swarm tick every second), you’ll have no problem keeping weakness on your target basically all the time, which reduces incoming damage a lot, and makes it harder to avoid yours. Also the 66% chance to bleed adds a bit of extra damage as well, and it goes without saying, that target the weak is of great effect.

Not sure i see the benefit of cripple, as we need to be in their face to do damage in the first place. Cripple more benefits ranged weapons like axe of scepter as it allows us to kite in a tighter area. for melee, chill would be more beneficial as it slows down the opponents non-auto skills.

I think it all depends on how you plan on playing the build and laying out your stats. I’m very pleased with my dagger/warhorn//staff build.

For my build, the thing to keep in mind is that you are not there to do OMGDPS. It’s a very sturdy build with a focus on support/healing/pseudo-tanking (being able to take hits, stay alive, and help the group). Wells are your friend here. Here’s the layout:

http://gw2.luna-atra.fr/skills_tool/?lang=en&code=3837004nh8if88h910f0pu05i5l5p5uh5hm
(it appears the link isn’t working properly, you may have to paste it manually into your browser)

Don’t get stuck in the mindset that you are going to rely on only one weapon set, that would put you at a huge disadvantage – I find myself swapping weapons almost every time the CD is done because the abilities of dagger and staff complement each other very well (when one set of abilities is on CD, the other is usually coming off of CD). These two weapon sets also offer you the most self-healing you can get as a necro – rarely will you not have a rejuv running on you, and if things get hairy you can pop into DS until your Well of Blood or Life Siphon are off of CD – this is a very. durable. build.

As for the comment above about necros not being able to disengage from fights not going their way, this build actually allows for that. If things get hairy and you’re getting low on health, pop down a Well of Darkness, Well of Power, and Well of Blood (if any are on CD, just pop what you have, they all help), then Locust Swarm yourself for the speed boost, hit DS, and book it out of there. This may seem like a long sequence of abilities, but you can pump them all out in a couple seconds. This, in effect, will make it hard for enemies to hit you, will remove cripples, give you some health, and the extra HP pool of DS. I’ve used just this sequence to remove myself from hairy situations in PvE and PvP.

If you have any questions about specifics, let me know.

digi, the point of locust swarm is that it’s extremely difficult for them to get out of melee range once you’re there. If they’re a ranged class then you have dark path regardless of build, with its useful chill, or spectral grasp. And then depending on your other weapons there is a good chance you’ll have a chill there, with either the staff or focus, and both the axe and dagger main hand can slow/stop them from moving within 600.
There should seriously be no real issue with closing in on an enemy, and while chill would be great, chill is literally better then cripple in every way, so while I would be happy to replace every cripple we have with chill, I’m not going to hold my breath.

While cripple has 2nd priority in condition removal/conversion, necro’s lack any movement abilities for escape except the wurm, which is unreliable, and pretty much a waste of a utility. While it’s certainly not impossible for necro’s to disengage in PvP, I would say it has it tougher then every other class by far, as our best method is running with locust, dropping marks (most notable chilblains to slow, putrid to transfer any slowing conditions, and reaper’s to turn them around for a moment), while other classes can blink, stealth, ride lightning, and all that fun stuff.

Intresting comments. Will try it out when i get home from work.

I first was looking for berserker gear and get the hp/though etc from traits. Might now get valkery gear with a mix.

Don’t write off Cleric either, the +heals are great.

talk to barti he’s great with dagger/meelee

@riotnrrrd thanks im not that great tho

But here’s my 2 cents about daggers and necros.

Daggers can work on a necromancer but you have to understand a few basics.

Your dagger auto atk > less then any other melee auto attack in most cases

Your burst potential in melee > less vs any other melee or burst spec in most scenarios there are exceptions like heavy well spec and hoping people will dance in it for good damage but this can’t be relied on.

dagger got short attack range

Dagger main got a mediocre lifesihpon but i wouldnt call it totally useless if specced for it it can give you up to 2000~2500 hp back wich can be a lifesaver.

To overcome the first 3 obstables wich is very important to overcome if you wanna be any good with the dagger you have to debuff your enemy or stop him stonecold in his tracks.

how do you do this ?

1. have a great offhand dagger alone won’t bring our your true potential if you wanna be any good with dagger.

This weapon needs to be able to debuff/cripple/make enemies vulnerable. my personal choice altho many people think warhorn is superiour is the focus. reapers touch is a very overlooked skill imo with the right stats gear and trait layout this can 1 enemy your facing 3 times for up to 4k+ total damage or more not alone that it also makes them vulnarable wich icnreased your damage by 9% 3×3.

Next up is spinal chivers. spinal chivers is great to remove boons from enemies, when there not swimming in boons anymore and the protection and fury and otehr benefits are gone.. you ll find them much easier targets the downside is the long casting time tho. an added bonus is that it makes enemies frozen wich makes them much easier to catch up too.

also very important is to learn the art of death shroud espcially dark path is a very powerful ability when mastered it not bleeds oponents but it places you directly behind them and frozen and a good time to unleash some nice burst for the comming 6+ seconds. talking about deathshroud did you know you can change weapon sets in deathshroud ? if you can manage to time that pretty good it can be a great help

Also very important is to have a good offhand my personal choice is not axe.. i think axe is a horrible weapon but staff. Staffs are great you can support your team with staff throw out some good regens , aoe freeze the other side get rid of conditions fast and pass em over to the enemy, save people or disrupt big fights with an aoe fear the auto atk if getting used too is not to shabby altho some people find the sound annoying i dont mind the sound myself.

Lets take a good situation against a thief.. you see the thief and got a staff in hand first throw chillbains his way and he wont be that fast anymore the comming 4+ seconds. now you can chase him at will or he will come to you. if yea see him invis dodge backwards he might land a steal but he wont land his 10k+ backstab while you dodge backwards hit 5 and place a fear the moment you land. Thief is now out in the open feared and out of his steal/stealth cooldown. throw a mark of blood on the ground and let the thief trigger it this will give you health regen while placing a dot on the thief

so thief is crippled dotted and out of stealth and either gonna burn some cooldowns to stealth or is forced to fight in the open. if hes gonen stealth throw a chillbains mark on the ground while dodging backwards time to avoid the backstab again thief fails backstab and is out in the open.. thief dotted chilled and out in the open with his major abilities on cooldown.

now this a whole different story then when you start with dagger. you see thief dagger in hand now no ranged dark path is 1 cast time and probably wont hit because hes either to far away or gonna be in stealth ready to backstab you.. so youre forced for him to come to you and unleash his burst.. then having probably eaten the backstab you have to try to catch him in your 1 second cast dark path. you know what kinda of damage a mediocre thief can do in that 1 second he can probably hit heartseeker x2 wich on a good specced thief hits for 10k+ damage. i can tell you one thing tho its not gonna be pretty if a thief catches you offguard with a dagger in hand. His burst >>>>> your burst its not even close its miles away !

And now you switch to the dagger make em ready lure them into your web of deceit

you have to time your switching throw people off guard let them think your one of those dot necromancers whos placing marks around them and then catch them in your dark pact and burst em down with reapers touch x3 throw in some auto attacks in there got a lot of boons remove those first with chillbains you have 4 seconds to make up of something but smash their face in asap.

is it 100% foolproof not by far but its so rewarding if you get a kill like that. many times i look back my battles and think of ways what i could have done better.. ah hidnsight ^^

Like the way you describe the action,

just wondering if you could give a general go for a spec

as a general go i would go 30 or 10 or nothing in spite. reapers might is great so is close to death as an added bonus the spite tree also gives 30% condition duration can be very important for freezes reapers touch and staf abilities

curses probably zero or 20 why ? altho curses equals precision and precision equals crits the curses line itself it kind of lackluster for a heavy dagger melee spec oh and the 25 point talent is bugged it doesnt give you 2% for each condition it gives you 2% for each unique condition.. wich kinda makes it lackluster to me..

death magic at least 10 for staf i also really like the reapers protection trait if youre new and need to get the hang of the necromancer as melee in general get it.. it gives you a out of jail card from those nasty burst pistolwhips and hundred blades or mesmer combos

blood magic its up to you but as a non well/ minion dagger spec staff i wouldnt advise putting to much points into this.

soul reaping is an interesting one first of all i wouldnt advice you to go full glass cannon melee spec at the start get either a knight or soldiers amulet so you got room to make mistakes and learn.. if you go full glass cannon spec..

1 mistake probably /death

learn the class learn the interaction with staf and dagger learn to weave a web of deceit and know when its time to bail and when you can do all that perfectly try a berserker amulet then and see or you like it.. not before imo.