Guild Wars 2

after going through the necro changes several times, theorycrafting and reading about the new “necro jesus trait” i started putting a build together for pvp.

some clarification first: i have my fair share of experience on all of my classes, including necromancer on which i have 500 games, but i would not call myself, obviously, a skilled necro. that’s the reason why i’m posting this here to discuss and get advice.

role

the role of this build will be to deal condi damage, to corrupt, apply vulnerability to increase the damage of the team, soft ccing with chill and to support allies.

gear

the amulet that will be used here is rabid because siphons don’t scale too well with only healing power so settler is not enough increase in healing for the loss in damage. rabid is prefered because of on crit procs, works with carrion aswell but not as good.

the build will run with staff + scepter/focus with energy/ice on staff and geo/energy on scepter/focus. instead of ice you could also take hydro. the reason why i took chilling sigils instead of frailty is because with frailty you can more or less stack up to 3 stacks, you can do the same with ice and get the 3 vulnerability stacks from the trait.

why focus and not dagger? focus is perfect for applying vulnerability and chill and removes conditions so it’s the perfect choice for this build. you will already have enough condi cleanses from traits and signets so dagger is not needed. having said that, nothing is final and if dagger proves to be the better choice it would obviously take focus’ place.

as for the runes i’m torn between undead and scavenging. undead providing more toughness and condi damage, scavenging more vitality and lifeleech (hopefully this will work through shroud too).

skills

the healing skill will be consume conditions (and hopefully they will remove the corruption category from this one).

the utility skills can be filled with 3 signets or 2 signets and spectral walk, armor or flesh wurm.

as for the signets i would use plague – cd down to 30 with the patch and your 2nd condi cleanse, undeath – for jesus, and spite because everybody loves it.

your elite will be plague for the safe stomp it provides and the survivability on demand.

traits

http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQB1AKoBPw~

spite

adept: chill inflicts 3 vulnerability for 8s
master: spinal shiver at 50% enemy hp.
gm: signets -20% cooldown, 3x might for 15s, corrupting 2 boons.

i think for this traitline my picks should be pretty comprehensible, they have a good synergy and signets are kind of the core of this build. chills inflict vul which is good for you and your team because it gives you more damage and a cover condi.

curses

adept: if you have 3 condis your next crit casts plague signet
master: shroud 2 corrupts 2 boons and chills
gm: heal 10% of your condi damage

adept was pretty clear for me, a free corrupt, transfer and 3x might on a 24s cooldown.
the master trait was a bit more difficult and i decided to go with more corrupts and chills instead of terror because i don’t have the +50% fear trait from soul reaping.

the grandmaster was most likely the most difficult one and i went for more survivability there, lingering would have been my 2nd pick because 100% condi duration is crazy. when i test this on the 23rd and i feel like the heal is negligible i will switch to lingering instead.

blood magic

adept: 4 stacks of bleed on enemy casts minor vampirism signet
master: you and allies siphon health with every hit
gm: shroud4 heals, downed players ported to you

adept because of the signet trait again, 28s cd life leech and heal is not that bad.
master for the team support and because it’s better than its 2 rivals
transfusion because it’s op and the main jesus trait in the build

commenting traitline choices

i did not go into minor traits much but they are very decent in those 3 lines

i would have loved to have dhuumfire master of terror and terror but sadly it was not possible to have everything so i decided to go with the lines that i picked because i felt like they have the best synergy for the role that i want to fulfull with this build.

death magic’s gm trait that heals in shroud and other traits from soul reaping will be missed but sacrifices had to be made.

negatives

the damage is lower than the one of a full condi necro and the usual necro problems of lack of stability and mobility remain but you can at least provide a useful support for your team.

feel free to comment and share your view about the build and give me feedback.
nothing is set in stone

would still be happy about some feedback, especially now after the ready up.

This is pretty much the exact same build i came up with. People were to angry to reply to my thread though. Lots of trait synergy, Lesser vamp signet is like 12~15s so very good on that and just the build should work wonders.

Edit:
Its protected vs condi spikes by plague sending as well.
You have these options:

• Locust 30(24)s – ( AoE boon removal and up to 7k heal )
• Lesser Vamp 15(12)s – leech proc and extra boon removal on low cooldown
• Plague+Plague sending 30(24) – 5 condi transfer and 2 boon corrupt
• Spite – Mass condi and additional boon removal

etc etc and all of those are easy to use.

That is close to what I plan on running: http://dulfy.net/gw2traits#build=AgQB1AK8BPQ~

I’d personally not take parasitic contagion. If you are wanting to support, a 10 second aoe weakness would work well. It will probably get cleansed quickly, but short cooldown and you can also single target it with crits.

I’m also not a fan of the focus. The vuln is nice, but the casted shivers is way to long of a cast. Try horn. Frontal daze and locust will proc your siphons 10 times in an aoe.

Traits, look into signet of locust, it gives you an aoe boon corruption with your signets trait.

Looks good other than that!

good to see that i’m not the only one seeing theoretical potential in this build^^

@zin
the reason i took contagion over the weakness was for self sustain. even of the weakness is nice, a dead necro doesn’t support anybody.

i’m still not too sure about the focus, on paper it is the best synergizing weapon for the build but i can’t tell how effective it will be in practice.

what do you mean with signet of the locust? the signet in general or is there a trait that i didn’t see that procs it? the reason i didn’t take locust in my utility choice is because i felt like the other signets were stronger in comparison.

Jekkt.6045:

what do you mean with signet of the locust? the signet in general or is there a trait that i didn’t see that procs it? the reason i didn’t take locust in my utility choice is because i felt like the other signets were stronger in comparison.

It would have a 24s cooldown, trike a potential 5 targets, heal you for 1.4k hp for each struck and corrupt two boons on each struck target. Its not a weak signet by anymeans.

not by itself no, but i feel like i get more from spite (which would be the only one i would think of switching out). especially because it’s quite handy to use before scepter 3.

Jekkt.6045:

not by itself no, but i feel like i get more from spite (which would be the only one i would think of switching out). especially because it’s quite handy to use before scepter 3.

Its the only one with an aoe. With the trait its very powerful for removal and healing. The radius increase to 600 means its far more likely to hit % targets now aswell. Maybeon a condi build you would get more from spite but you wont bnefi from the power opposed to the increased move speed allowing you to get around faster, especially with your lack of horn. May be beneficial to try it out.

I don’t think there’s a whole lot of value in any signet other than plague because it’s such a short cooldown stunbreaker. Spite I could see if you’re ok with only one stunbreaker.

Sigmoid.7082:

Jekkt.6045:

not by itself no, but i feel like i get more from spite (which would be the only one i would think of switching out). especially because it’s quite handy to use before scepter 3.

Its the only one with an aoe. With the trait its very powerful for removal and healing. The radius increase to 600 means its far more likely to hit % targets now aswell. Maybeon a condi build you would get more from spite but you wont bnefi from the power opposed to the increased move speed allowing you to get around faster, especially with your lack of horn. May be beneficial to try it out.

gonna try various things anyway also with different comps as that’s also an important factor.