The battlemage – mage who feels more like a warrior, fights up close and personal, can take a lot of punishement, but at same time does not lose magican’s in combat depth, flexibility and plays not seen in typical warrior/berserker. That’s pretty much what this build serves.
If you need a bruiser that will not be a free meal for warriors/guards/scrappers and more reckless thieves then read on, as my best to date necro build follows:
The build itself:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBIhdu1IHN0Tj10gtNwfjDjhamCLQOQDiqYIi/cAMAA-TpBFAB/XGogDCA87PAwJA4hHAwAHBAA
Yes, you’re seeing it right – it’s a core necro build, and not because of lack of xpac, or f2p mercy, but because to achieve it’s synergies and balance it was needed to do it without the reaper.
How to use him:
Offense – wells will give you both quickness as well as protection so you can go dagger/axe happy and pour it on, without too much concerns for defense. However that alone would be a poor strategy with enemy interrupts/escapes. That’s where your traits and warhorn come in. Flashing shroud will give you 3s stability (for stomps, or chanelling important skill), 5s fury and cast enfeeble on them weakening them. Also your crits will inflict weakness as well crippling their dodge and damage options.
Don’t use locust swarm for movement! You have 25% passive speed with equipped dagger for that. Instead save it for battle. Constantly reapplied cripple along with lf generation will greatly help you to stay on them and not behind in your defense while you go stabby-stab on their rear.
When things get ranged you got your axe. Sorry staff, but you suck in terms of power dps and axe’s real burst (#2) along with being a non-projectile based ranged weapon make it imho the best choice for medium range combat. Staff may be cute for harass, but when you’re in real fight where the other side fights back with some real power damage, slow, reflectable and weak staff auto is not gonna win you a dogfight.
Remember your corrupts – dagger #2, axe #3 along with well of corruption all can do some nice corrupting for you when used in the right moment.
Focus #5 may not be a corrupt, but ripping 3 boons along with chill never hurt anyone…save your enemies that is;)
Warhorn #4 is your unblockable interrupt..if you manage to land it.
Deathshroud wise…well it’s the core necro deathshroud. Don’t expect miracles here. But lifeblast is always a long rage combat option vs slower/no dodge avaiable targets, and helps adopt a ranged playstyle, more fitting for a necro current days. And with soul reaping + paladin amulet equipped you will have a fair amount of it to shield yourself.
Defense – as you can see it’s looking good. Pally amulet provides best defensive option, while still giving very respectable offense (high power, high precision).
Tons of protection (both wells, on demand spectral armor, passive spectal armor), stab on ds entry, stunbreaks on ds, well of power and spectral armor, super tanky and immediate to cast plague ensure that if you don’t delay with your reaction too much you won’t drop dead in 5 seconds in your 1v1’s.
Also notice shroud is traited for shorter cooldown, so you can flash it more often and freely to get more of that stab, fury and auto-cast enfeeble. sometimes waiting 3s less to re-enter shroud is difference between life and death. Here you can be more liberal with ds flashing.
Vs condies you got traited consume conditions (which you can shield with ds stab), well of power and passive plague signet from cures. If you go staff instead of axe/focus, then there will be staff #4 too.
Flexibility & variants.
While the two wells are nearly mandatory, the last slot is the “pick it yourself” slot in this build. I tend to use spectral armor the most, but a lot of things will fit there great as well.
Skills like: spectral wall, corrupt boon, corrosive poison cloud, spectral grasp, flesh wurm, spectral walk or even the plague signet all make sense there, and majority of them will be boosted with your traits.
You can choose staff instead of axe/wh for your second set. It’ll give you more control,condi transfer+blast finisher and possiblity to make marks unblockable (you got soul reaping).
But you’re sacrificing your boon ripping on both axe and focus, along with superior and unreflectable ranged damage.
No problem with switching spectral mastery for vital persistance if you like staying in ds longer and aren’t hard pressed for maximum spectral armor uptime. Though it’s an epic skill so think carefully!
So summing up:
Pros:
- solid defense, not a free kill for warrs/guards/scrappers/normal skill thieves.
- can hold a point long enough to call for help and not die before it arrives (plague form + protections and pally amulet)
- core necro spec!
- bursty on demand offense that can hurt them bad
- reasonable amount of boon corrupts
- can be easily tweaked to your needs.
- quickness FUN!
- deeper gameplay (well of power + self inflicted condies, setting up burts or point defenses)
Cons:
- no condi damage
- limited amount of boon corruptions
- limited aoe damage, generally more of 1v1 damage dealer
- no insane might/vulni stacking.
- jack of all trades (defense wise), master of…
- not the easiest to use – you’ll need time to fully tap it’s potential.
Rate, comment, add your 3 cents below:)
(edited by ZeftheWicked.3076)