Guild Wars 2

is this a thing of the past?
does anyone still use it in any game mode?

if no, does spectral line need some buffs to make pure spectral builds appealing?

I think the biggest problem with spectral builds is the fact that the core spectral trait conflicts as a master trait with the DS 50% reduction of the passive energy loss

I believe that if Vital Persistence was made baseline, spectral mastery would be way sexier than right now.

You can build extremely tanky and take spectral skills to stay on points forever and ever

Spectral pull doesn’t benefit from the trait and isnt very strong & spectral wall isn’t a skill that should be used outside of World vs World.

So pure spectral builds aren’t a thing.

But there’s nothing wrong with taking Spectral Armor, spectral walk, lich form & Corrupt boon in Pvp (or the same three spectrals and well of suffering in pvE).

Vital persistence isn’t the must that everybody seems to say it is.

I like spectral wall: it helps decap, in stomp/rez situations, and you can combo for chaos armor. If only the CD was shorter.

nekretaal.6485:

Spectral pull doesn’t benefit from the trait and isnt very strong & spectral wall isn’t a skill that should be used outside of World vs World.

So pure spectral builds aren’t a thing.

But there’s nothing wrong with taking Spectral Armor, spectral walk, lich form & Corrupt boon in Pvp (or the same three spectrals and well of suffering in pvE).

Vital persistence isn’t the must that everybody seems to say it is.

^this.

Vital persistence ain’t even half as good as people seem to think. I’ts just a flavor of the month thing.
Personnally, I’m still using a spectral build in WvW, I feel it tankyer and stronger than any well build.

I did a spectral roamer uild for a bit, was one of my more successful builds. The main thing is just having to be a lot more aggressive than you normally would to keep your LF up, but with the increased effectiveness and cool downs, Plus 5% on spectra skill activation, you should have no problems. If you take death magic you’ll have no problem with conditions or sustain, I recommend Spectral armor, Spectral walk and plague signet, so if you get overloaded with Condi’s and your CC is on cooldown, you can just fire Them right back.

nekretaal.6485:

Spectral pull doesn’t benefit from the trait and isnt very strong & spectral wall isn’t a skill that should be used outside of World vs World.

I wont deny that spectral grasp is a bit lackluster but it certainly works with the trait. It increases the chill duration by 50% as it should (the tooltip is buggy and doesnt show it though) and it also gets the 5% extra lf.

VP is not flavor of the month it’s been used by pvp necros for a long time. Spectrals were our bruiser option before the patch. With the buff to BM and signets they are no longer optimal for bruiser builds or even sustain builds. They are severely outclassed now. VP doesn’t need to be baseline, spectral mastery needs a huge buff to be worth it over any of our new abilities. I DO THINK there may be some uses for it with reaper but I didn’t test out a spectral reaper last bwe. I will next time around.

I use a specral build in spvp sometimes I like it very tanky. Lich for 22 seconds if used right can put out alot of dmg. I always take spectral armor. I take grasp if I have guildmates on my team to yank back our target or need a quick 20 LF. I use walk when solo for the innovative ways to use it in 12 seconds. More for sitting on a point being annoying.

I dunno if I could ever justify taking lich over plague without marauders, assasin or berserkers.

Only place where u take the spectral trait is pve for shorter lich CD.

The lower DS degeneration is just unavoidable – power, condi, minion, bunker…there is no build that can afford to drop Soul line just for it alone.