Guild Wars 2

Ive been working on this build for a few weeks now and thought it was time to get other people insight. I will try and provide video footage if people would like.

Focus is on duration of none damaging conditions + crit and power. This works well in both group and 1v1 situations

The build
http://tinyurl.com/9saj5we

30/20/0/0/20

V X XII
VI X
IV IX

Some key information
100% extra fear duration 3 × 2 second with damage (around 500-600 per tick)
57% chill duration
43% duration all other conditions

Please note: This is not a one button wonder build it requires time and get used to it and master it but so far for me its been worth the effort.

How it works (maths involved)
Wait a second you only have 90% fear duration….. True but as noted in this post
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Bleed-duration/first#post334522
condition durations simply don’t add up (20%+20% = 40%) they actually stack in multiplicity (20% +20%=44%) so on a 1 second fear we add 30% from spite, 50% from trait master of terror, 4% from rune set 2 and 6% from rune set 4

0.3 0.5 0.04 0.06
1 1.3 1.95 2.028 2.14968
note getting 10% from the lyssa rune set just comes to 2.145 which does not proc a seconds fear damage tick

Same logic can be applied to the other conditions +10% chill more from sigil

Weapons

Dagger 1 hits fast it hits hard and build LF,
Dagger 2 drain is ok now they fixed it a little not intended for much use in this build,
Dagger 3 immobilized is almost 6 seconds in duration
Dagger 4 should only be used if you have a large amount of conditions on you
Dagger 5 very useful for group fights to cast over a node before running in to help your team mates netting a 15.73 weakness on foe’s

Staff Is usually a must with any pvp build for the aoe fear for stomping/reviving with the extra bonus of an additonal 1 second
Staff 1 hits harder than you think with power+crit and since it pieces it hits mutliple people if you are in close combat
Staff 2 not really an asset with this build, adds small amounts of regen and bleeding
Comboing staff 3 and 4 will chill, poison and weaken for long periods of time

bleed’s generated from on crit auto attack and staff 2 will be low in damage but may help prevent the removal of the important conditions such as weakeness, chill and vulnerbility

Utility’s

Your utiltys are going to be fluid as the match changes. you should start the match by using my research on LF generation as out lined in this forum post https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Get-up-to-57-LF-out-of-combat-before-pvp-starts/first#post368927 use only spectral wall, walk and the golem switch will grant you around 30% LF before even stating a match, you will start the match with spectral wall on cooldown of about 20 seconds (but who fights within the first 20s of a match) after any

Spectral walk can be equiped at the end of any fight for any util you don’t have on cool down used and swapped back to the original util giving you speed between fights

Spectral wall Is very very good in this spec it will stay for around 12 seconds in a fight granting protection two times (walk through a second time just as the first stack wears off ive not been quick enough to get 3 sets but it might be possible ) the vulnerbility on it is not to be sniffed at poor players will walk through the field 2-3 times if you dance around it stacking the 25vulnerbilty almost instantaniously and with our high condition duration that is going to last (unless they remove it of course soon as they walk through it again its another 10stacks) against better players your going to have to do a bit of work this involves the spectral grasp. using both spectral grasp and your 2 seconds fears your going to drag pull and push your foes through

Spectral grasp
Ok so this util is kinda buggy but will only get better. So what does it do well simply put it is the longest pull in the game no other skill has a pull of 1200 range most of the time your going to be using it close combat where it becomes less buggy. what is can and should be used for as mentioned in spectral wall you can use this skill in conjuction with fear to pull and push foes good foes through the wall, less effort is required on noobs who will just blindly follow you through the wall. when defending or attacking a point you can setup marks by your feet the wall in front of you and pull people through the wall into your marks then have your dagger ready to make them unhappy.

- Spectral grasp can also stop a stomp/revive
- Spectral grasp can also pull in fleeing people (buggy here)
- Spectral grasp can also pull people off ledges (again buggy if you can see their feet its has a better chance of hitting)
- Takes some skill but you can pull warriors and thieves while they are focusing a friend

3rd utility so this is where you have a bit of choice ive gone with well of corruption as it is a more reliable source of boon removal than corrupt boon and its aoe and does decent damage per tick in this spec. you can use any other you prefer

Elite as mentioned this slot should be fluid using golem to generate LF.
if your coming up to a point and a 1v1 situation is what you face use golem
if your coming up to a group fight you will need to assess the situation. If your opponent are power based dive right in with the plague form and start blinding.
If your opponents are more condition/boon based and your team have many conditions quickly use Lich form 5 and remove all for boon/ friend conditions now you can choose to stay in lich form and do some damage or pop all the cool downs 2-4 and exit leaving you with the 30 seconds stability and get stuck in killing targets.

Tactics
Group tatics try and get your long duration none damaging condtions out thier and then start focusing on a target

General 1v1 tatics is try and get chill up on them as much as possible and protection on you. DS dancing will give you retaliation and fury.

Against thieves and 100 blade warriors. With this build you should never be without Life force. one of these classes stuns you and starts their barrarge just use death shroud the retaliation will kick in and it’s going to hurt them just as much (more so if you have large amounts of LF you can soak up that damage your going to get that LF back in a few seconds)

Against mesmers using LF 5, Dagger 5 and marks try and aoe down clones/illusions fear/chill the real one if you can.

Didn’t read all of it, but here’s my 2 cents.

Spectral wall is terrible choice, the only reason why you’d take it is for the ethereal field, and you don’t really have any finishers, consider spectral walk instead.

Other things to consider, your runes aren’t very fitting since you have no need for condition damage and you can get 10% duration from other sources with more beneficial stats, try 2x lyssa and 4 of something else, ice or sanctuary both give +frozen. I don’t really understand why people go dagger OH when they are power spec, the other 2 OH’s offer so much more, especially when you’re dagger MH, warhorn has a nice cripple/swiftness and daze or focus has a long chill/boon strip and vulnerability, both of them have additional ways to gain LF, which dagger does not. Using reaper’s might trait is also something very helpful to power specs.

Ha I just switched to this build from 30 20 0 0 20 let me know how it works for you in Tpvp, the toughness seems good over the Crit rating.

Aga.8641:

Didn’t read all of it, but here’s my 2 cents.

Spectral wall is terrible choice, the only reason why you’d take it is for the ethereal field, and you don’t really have any finishers, consider spectral walk instead.

Other things to consider, your runes aren’t very fitting since you have no need for condition damage and you can get 10% duration from other sources with more beneficial stats, try 2x lyssa and 4 of something else, ice or sanctuary both give +frozen. I don’t really understand why people go dagger OH when they are power spec, the other 2 OH’s offer so much more, especially when you’re dagger MH, warhorn has a nice cripple/swiftness and daze or focus has a long chill/boon strip and vulnerability, both of them have additional ways to gain LF, which dagger does not. Using reaper’s might trait is also something very helpful to power specs.

Most of these issues are actually addressed in the post but I will clarify them here

the reason for wall is that it is very useful for vulnerability and protection

spectral walk is used just not on the utility bar all of the time

4 runes of nightmare cause a condition multiplication greater than 2x lyssa giving a tiny amount of fear that lyssa does not, granting a 2 second fear damage tick

condition damage is small but used for the small stacks of bleeds applied via curses 5 trait and the fear damage I agree that 2 runes could be swapped out for extra chill or boon

the OH dagger provides 2 things to this/melee builds Dagger 4 in this build removes conditions which is the main condition transfer of this build (staff 4 being the other) along with blinding which is useful in melee.
dagger 5 can be used prefight to get weakness up which is useful when this build has low vitality and toughness.
the dagger auto attack builds up LF almost faster than you can use it along with the spectral armor gained at 50% health.

why not focus the focus gives LF, vulnerbilty, chill something this build has enough of. personally i would rather have the blind and condition transfer.

why not warhorn The warhorn daze would be of some use but has long cool down, the cripple is nullified with the amount of chill you are inflicting and again LF generation is decent enough.

Reapers might is an alternative to chill of death the second spite trait is up to you.

This build looks quite good. I really like your breakdown and strategy. I am only level 20 on my Necromancer are you able to provide any tips on working towards this build at a lower level?

I am trying out this build right now.
I used to play a condition necro and got so bored of it.
I love the retaliation on the DS with the power scale.
I love the freeze duration and the wall.

Still learning to play it

Question about the staff rune. It seems liek the tooltip is bugged atm so not sure wich one you have added.

Seems like the Freeze rune in the dagger has a tooltip bugg aswell :P

The sigils in the weapon are only a suggestion. I generally play around with them a bit.
In the linked build the staff has the minor accuraccy sigil, which in PVP gives you about 2.4% chance of extra crit per kill up to a total of 12% at the cap of 25 points (5 kills without being downed)
the MH dagger has the sigil of ice giving a 2second (+duration)
the OH dagger has the sigil of chilling which adds 10% chill duration this sigil can be swapped for many other depending on playstyle