Guild Wars 2

any necromancers using full beserker gear advise me how viable it is for wvw roaming? id (probably) be using 30/0/10/0/30 for the toughness while channelling.

dagger and axe with focus off hand. I may use warhorn with dagger but haven’t decided yet

I have alot of success in spvp with this set up but opinions on WvW?

As a power Necro unless you’re with 5 people all the time this build is going to be squishy. I wouldn’t advise trying to solo with this build because you go down uber fast to 2-3 people which happens like 95% + wvw fights. If you have a set group that can keep you alive it might be viable.

I would probably tend to go toward Dagger/dagger axe/ focus for this kind of build though. The weakness and blind might be beneficial for this type of build.

Sounds crazy. Most classes I’ve seen using zerker has distance closers, reliable ranged abilities, are outright invisible or escape combat quickly. I’de enjoy hearing the tales of a necromancer who is pulling this off.

right ok fair points dariroch. I will mostly be in a group, but dont want to be reliant on my allies to survive and I would like to be able to roam solo too. maybe ill do more testing in spvp before I invest in gear. thanks for ur constructive comments dariroch.

How many skills actually channel for a decent amount of time? and with a glass cannon build 400 toughness isnt going to save you. Id spec into curses or blood with those 10 points instead. Dagger + dagger isnt really viable imo. Your better off taking a focus or warhorn in the offhand. Use axe + focus or staff in second set. I tend to go dagger + warhorn and axe + focus.

If you know how to play a glass cannon necro you should have no problem with that build. I killed a mesmer last night just by immobalizing and then popping WoS and WoC on top of him. He stealthed so i ran past, looked behind and he was down already with my wells still ticking 1 last time. Even more tanky classes and builds will struggle to survive long enough to kill a zerker necro who knows how to use DS to stay alive. My combined wells do over 25k damage and you can easily cc some1 enough to keep them inside for the full duration. Plus thats only a small portion of your arsenal.

I play a Full Berserker Gear with Rubys instead of Runes Necromancer.
I use Staff Main and off Axe/Focus.

My Marks hit for 1,000-3,000 damage depending on the mark and my Lifeblast hits for 5,000-8,000+ damage. Necrotic grasp regularly hits for 2,000 plus damage.

My damage well does a ton of damage as well.

Its perfectly viable, and can throw some people off since they are not used to taking huge damage from the Necro.

Axe/Focus is better in roaming for the lifeforce and vulnerability/regen. Dagger does huge damage but you gotta be in melee.

Im finding this works better in roaming and zergs then when I was all Rabid gear and Scepter/Fear Spec.

Nemesis is the only person to post a video about the build. Keep in mind his videos are for PvE generaly so you will need to tweak to your preferance.

But gearing wise
All Berserker Armor, Weapons and Accessories.
Instead of Runes use Rubys, for Accessories you can get a Berserker backpack called Guild Assassins backpack as part of guild armor. Exquisite Rubys go in accessories.
In your weapons I prefer Force+Accuracy Sigils for +5% Damage and +5% Crit.

You will have like 45% Crit(Sigil of Accuracy dosnt show in tab) and around 109% critical damage. As a Charr blood is Power+Battle Roar helps spike the damage.

I run full berserkers gear on my necro. I find that I last longer with this build than by using more toughness or survival stats. I kill things so much faster that I end up taking less damage. Put 30 points in Soul Reaping and you’ll get not only more crit damage but also a larger life force pool, faster life force generation, and access to stability which adds to your survivability.

Also, make use of omnomberry ghosts for heals when you crit.

I personally wouldn’t roll with dagger off hand. I say what id like to use in my original post ^^^
I was thinking of the 10 points in death magic for the options in there really. so protection on wells. cleanse a condition when in ds bigger marks etc. I shouldve said that in my original post but that minor trait would be situational.
I would like the life force gain on crit or chill on blind in spite due to WoD and possibly plague form but dont want to waste the condition damage.
I will play around with my build tonight and see what is more optimal.

Thanks for the numbers (damage) and tips also. my necro is my main so am familiar with most tricks but never tried zerker gear. thanks again

I’d say that most other classes with zerker builds will outperform the necro… with ease.
Lifeblast is good, but is so easy to avoid… and if you meet up with decent dmg dealers your lifeforce will be zilch in moments, possibly soon after you’ve gotten of 1 Lifeblast.
Only the most overeager people will fall for wells, and many can avoid em even after dagger 3 through a variety of skills.
Your short range and lack of closers will get you focussed down first as well in any group fights.

The best you can expect is a few kills due to people underestimating your dmg output and generally being inexperienced in dealing with direct dmg necros. Most of the time you will get stomped flat.

But then again I am trying hard not to just dump my necro and play a class that actually gives something back for the effort I put into it. Right now, I am kinda disappointed…

Having played solely zerker Necromancer since launch (1900 hours) 30/15/0/5/15 would be my recommended optimized bare minimum build.

The remaining 5 points is purely based on user preference:

• Curses (2% Critical chance, +3 Bleed +5 Poison damage /sec)
  (VIII) 15% quicker Warhorn skills and 4 second AoE Daze on Warhorn-4 and perma-swiftness on Warhorn-5.

• Blood Magic (+500 Health, +690 DS-Health, +6HP Regeneration boon /sec)
  (I) 15% quicker Dagger recharge for Immobilize on Dagger-3.
  (V) 32 Health & additional damage on critical hits.
  (VI) AoE 2.6k heal for teammates on DS-4.

• Soul Reaping: (+5% Critical damage, +1132 DS-Health)
  (IV) 20% Faster Spectral Walk for big LF boosts & perma-swiftness
  (IX) +0.65 second on DS-3 Fear & Staff-5 Fear.

I appreciate your comment drachshyish and im aware that wells are easily avoidable. but I will be running with probably just the one WoD to negate melee damage and possibly chill if I chose to pick the trait.
I will be running with spectral skills too. and maybe corrupt boon for guardian fights if I can slot it fast enough.
ill try this tonight and update you on my progress. This will be in pvp not wvw. as I haven’t bought the gear yet.

ascii your build interests me. I will also try that out tonight.
your stats are also interesting thank you for your input. much appreciated

For my power/zerkermancer i roll PVT armor with the exquisite rubys on my armor.
full zerker accessories. I find that with the PVT armor your adding a little more your survivablitity sure you wont be hitting AS much as LastDarkness but trust me you still pack a punch.
I roll 30/0/10/5/25
I use my DS to shrug off the self-bleed from BiP
my weapons are dagger/warhorn axe/focus
spectral walk/bip/spectral grasp
still working on getting my zerker weapons, may even go pvt with weapons tho with sigil of force and precision sigil

hit and run tactics, spectral grasp and dark pact
and use your DS Fear effectively to finish them off
mostly run WvW

Big buff to Axe 1 & 2 skills, beautiful for any zerker Necromancer. Another 10% damage on Ghastly Claws coupled with the x1.5 + CD multiplier on critical hits.

After patch I had Axe 2 Crit for over 10k damage today, was awesome.
Still want to see some Spinal Shiver damages though.

As above ^ this still is a Glass Canon build to keep in mind. Our high health pool and deathshroud just give us buffer room to compensate with better skill and tactics.

I was messing with Daggers a bit today and can say it does insane damage on the #1 (I hit for 5k several times on some of the hits) but you have no closers and little ability to stop runners. I have trouble running down thieves and dagger/dag elementalists. As a physical attack it is great to #3 a Thief who then stealths while you drop suffering then swing at the air where he was to see him unstealth dead lol.

Im really trying to work a Staff build though for keep assualt/defense. A guildies also been asking me what scepter is like in berserker since feast of corruption does some insane damage on power builds though I only think that would work in PvE.

I find it very fun but it is kinda costly to buy off Trading Post or Farm from Dungeons.

At least were seeing Axe buffs this patch, im hoping for more soon. (Side note Retaliation from Axe does pretty good damage on a zerker so consider that in for your output)

ah ok, I played around with my usual build axe/focus and dagger/warhorn and I no longer felt the need to switch to dagger for close range DPS. so I switched it out for staff. as axe has always been my favourite weapon on necro this patch made me very happy.

Bull Zooker.1672:

ah ok, I played around with my usual build axe/focus and dagger/warhorn and I no longer felt the need to switch to dagger for close range DPS. so I switched it out for staff. as axe has always been my favourite weapon on necro this patch made me very happy.

Indeed though there are several times I can see where Dagger #3 the root would help along with the Warhorn skills to move into melee faster.

Axe/Focus just synergise too much for this build.

yea I love dagger 3. but I can now do similar damage at range with the new buff to axe so no longer REALLY need dagger as I can snare just not root. I often use spectral grasp (the pull ability) in spvp and i believe that will almost make up for the lack of dagger 3. I will miss the warhorn though.

i roll axe/dagger on my zerker build! pretty good ^^