Guild Wars 2

ChungHan Ho.5837:

Hi, Molch, you mentioned in another thread that theoretically dagger does 30%-50% more damage than axe or DS1. So does it mean that dagger is a better option than axe/DS build for a pure direct dps role? Thank you.

Haven’t you been listening to Nemesis? It has better DPS but (probably) worse DPS uptime! Have a dagger on the second weapon set and use it if you can but you can’t stand in 130 range 24/7 with a glass cannon build. Getting downed will make you lose more DPS than you gained by using the dagger.

To Molch: Interesting points and math! Thanks for spreading the message! It’s always easy to miss something and you pointed that out perfectly. Also kudos to Nemesis for admitting this. ^^

Man, I love this community. Everyone are so helpful. Keep doing what you do, guys!

On the spot. It’s always full berserkers.

spoj.9672:

Thing to note is that signet of spite doesnt boost your power in DS. Honestly I think signet passives should work in DS. Would make signet of undeath useful for a DS bunker build.

That is indeed weird, I never doubted it would work in DS. It’s still worth it for the power outside DS though since half of our damage is there. If you really want to put your all in DS you could choose a more LF generating utility instead of the signet.

This is my EXACT build, with every utility skill! o.O Great video man, we think alike. Blood is Power and Signet of Spite will supply a lot of damage for… everything. Even the use on Signet of Spite is a waste, passive power is enough. xD

Thanks for doing these videos and the math.

Rym.1469:

I bring these utilities because you can easily run out of stacked LF when focused or no deaths around

True. It’s hard deciding on more damage or faster life force. If you get life force faster you will deal more damage since you can use DS more often. I guess it’s best to try it out and see what works best.

Rym.1469:

Recently have tested 30/10/0/0/30 build in PvE (solo, events, dungeons, dragon event), equipped mostly with Zerker for armor combined with one Soldier piece, 3 valkyrie pieces and 2 cavalier for trinkets + Berserker axe/Berserker Focus. I had great fun with it and was really surprised with it effectivity since I made that build for laughs. Purely DS oriented with huge LF generation and massive damage from Life Blast. I’ve always liked casters and couldn’t really find any classic caster in GW2 so far. So, to all people looking for some old-school casters with huge damage on hit, feel free to try. Worked great in speedruns doing more damage than zerker warrior, in AR and all normal explo dungeons. Has potential in solo PvE since it two shots mobs, but works better in group. Kinda funny in WvWvW, has decent survability (You can switch Reaper’s Precision with Weakining Shroud) and doeshillarious damage ( most of the times, 3-4 Life Blasts and foe was dead) .Blast is from 3,5k-6k by itself, but can do more damage with Vun and Might stacks. PvE utilities : Signet of Undeath, Spectral Grasp, WoS, whichever elite you like.

Exactly like me then, except for the utilities.

Signet of Undeath is a good team ability in sPvP or dungeons but for maximizing damage, try Signet of Spite. The passive power alone is a decent bonus to your damage and the signet can be used on bosses etc. I only choose it for the power though.

Same goes for Spectral Grasp, good LF gen but for max damage I will try Blood is Power. Again, I don’t care about the bleed on BoP, just the might stacks. Pop this before going into DS and you’ll improve your damage a lot, combined with might gained from DS 1.

Well of Suffering is obviously a great choice.

I’m not saying your build is wrong, I’m just giving some ideas. Whatever suits your playstyle ofc. ^^ Also removing Signet of Undeath will make you give less to the team but you’ll provide more damage so if someone else can do the reviving, you’ll be a damage beast!

spoj.9672:

You still want to do that because of strength of undeath but thats only for 25 in soul reaping. So yeah not relevant in this build.

Exactly, got a little confussed. I guess it’s easy to oversee things in guides during patch times.

Ravezaar.4951:

Nice I prefer the 30-0-10-0-30 to take that Axe dmg Increase into DS with me for harder Life Blasts and now with 100% Crit its insanely fun.

This is my plan for the necro. Awesome stuff but this build is no DS build, I think it aims more for sustained damage (no matter what life force you have, you will do decent damage with the axe). Therefore it doesn’t focus on getting life force fast either.

Interesting. You don’t think it’s worth it to go for Deathly Perception with 30 in Soul Reaping, sacrificing Target the Weak? I guess you focus on more damage overall and not going for a Death Shroud build but considering the strength of Death Shroud after this patch, what are your opinions?

blutstein.2468:

^^ this

Full Zerker in PvE,
Knights, Cavaliers, berserker, soldier mix in WvW.

82% Critdmg 20k HP and 1600 Toughness are fine in WvW and roaming. At least for me

It works but it’s emotional to let go of Crit Dmg… I’d prefer to always have it on all the gear. Valkyrie + Berserker all dayyy! A little lack of toughness ofc but Cavalier trinkets work.

Xhean.3452:

Bajenalex.3405:

Yeah just remember that you lose a lot of precision in valkyrie gear and adding cavalier trinkets will lower your crit chance further. Even in DS it’s nice to have guaranteed crits and without Fury it becomes hard without precision gear.

It’s all about your preference of course. ^^

The trinkets will not be touched, still zerker, it’s true can’t loose too much crit chance. The food will have to give precision as well to make up for it.

Yeah, Butternut Squash Soup is awesome. The problem is that there is no Cavalier armor except from loot in fractals. You can buy weapons on the TP if you wish though but Valkyries + Berserker will serve you well if you choose the HP path.

Xhean.3452:

might stick 1 piece of cavalier somewhere just for the heck of it :P

Yeah just remember that you lose a lot of precision in valkyrie gear and adding cavalier trinkets will lower your crit chance further. Even in DS it’s nice to have guaranteed crits and without Fury it becomes hard without precision gear.

It’s all about your preference of course. ^^

spoj.9672:

Bajenalex.3405:

spoj.9672:

You want to keep power as your primary stat so go with valkyrie. In the high level fractals survivability wont help at all as you will still be 1shot. But you can still achieve better dps with a deathly perception DS build with valkyrie and sharpening stones so its not a bad choice.

Sure, you want power as the primary stat but won’t going vitality without toughness give you a big health pool which will drop fast? You can take 1 round of bursts but you can’t maintain a high health for as long as you would with toughness. If you go for toughness, your heal will be worth more.

What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah toughness is better than vit due to heal scaling and damage mitigation. But the valk gear allows you to survive a bit more burst even if you cant heal it back up efficiently. In high fractals survivability isnt worth it as ive said already. The best form of survivability is to kill things as fast as possible. If you go Valkyrie with some Soldier trinkets then that should be enough. Although Id personally never go into that much survivability.

Hope that helps. :>

Yeah ofc, what we want is gear with Power as main and then Toughness + Crit dmg but the gods of Tyria haven’t been that nice to us. I think my powermancer will go for Berserker armor and Cavalier trinkets since we do a lot of damage outside DS and crit is needed there too. The toughness from the trinkets will have to be enough survivability.

spoj.9672:

You want to keep power as your primary stat so go with valkyrie. In the high level fractals survivability wont help at all as you will still be 1shot. But you can still achieve better dps with a deathly perception DS build with valkyrie and sharpening stones so its not a bad choice.

Sure, you want power as the primary stat but won’t going vitality without toughness give you a big health pool which will drop fast? You can take 1 round of bursts but you can’t maintain a high health for as long as you would with toughness. If you go for toughness, your heal will be worth more.

What are your thoughts on that?

I agree with you on going for Valkyrie or Cavalier, depending on if you’d prefer vitality or toughness.

While I like having a lot of health, effective health is what is – you guessed it – effective. I would go for Cavalier since it’s fairly easy to heal and maintain the health bar on a necro. The toughness will also work in DS (or so I’ve assumed & heard) so I think the choice isn’t really hard.

Edit: Since you can’t buy Cavalier armor, a few pieces of Soldier could be worth looking into since you can buy them with karma = free armor. The only problem is that you lose crit but maybe you can get some Soldier for a lot of survivability and keep some Berserker to keep crit.

Or maybe Cavalier trinkets with Valkyrie armor?

Wow, a PvP spectating issue, really? I constantly find myself wondering why I’m not auto-shooting anymore on boss fights etc because of this feature. It’s not the biggest problem in the world but certainly one of the only remaining annoying bugs in this game. Please continue to be awesome in supporting the community and look at this.

Thanks for an otherwise awesome game!

Alex

Wow, what a nice article. I think Anet definitely know how to make these kinds of stuff but just lack the time (read prioritations). However, your article brings it up and stirs the topic around a little. Good job!