Guild Wars 2

Kam.4092:

So you casted Blood is Power and Plaguelands with D/D?

I’d guess the goal would be to be in scepter while you have the highest burn stacks as well as making sure you use the torch skills on cd more so than needing to generate life force.

It might also prove useful to play around the icd on Demonic Lore so casting Harrowing Wave and Oppressive Collapse back to back might not be optimal, but that’s more speculation than I want to do at this point without proper testing.

In any case, Plaguelands or Ghastly Breach would only be every 4th/3rd rotation.

Tried this build during the first stress test but with sc/t and d/d. I think it will make more sense to be in scepter when you apply burning from torch since the durations are so short.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vampiric_Presence

Decimate Defenses: add 1% damage modifier per stack.
Cold Shoulder: Instead of 10% damage reduced gain 10% increased damage to chilled foes.
Split to PvE only.
Done.

Edit: This would only add 2k dps to the current condi reaper before you go there.

Jahromi.2079:

Substatic.6958:

Can you link those builds.

Here’s one example from another player
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC0Gs6ejJyc
The idea is that you don’t want to overcap your bleed duration, which qtfy’s build does by quite a bit making it pretty inefficient. You have several options, such as swapping some equipment out for sinister giving a sizeable boost to condi damage like in the video. Another option is to go for the overall condi duration as opposed to just bleed duration, using a combination of runes like trapper and nightmare. If you do it right you can get +25% condi duration from just runes, which effects not only bleed (and caps it with food), but burn, poison, and torment you inflict as well, dealing 10-15% more damage in those departments.

Spent the whole day testing a myriad of different setups.
The 2 top contenders are:

Full sinister armor with viper trinkets/weapons with krait runes and bursting/geomancy, which lands you almost exactly on 100% bleeding duration.
(If you change one shoulder/glove/boot piece to viper you get the stats Subli is using in his video)

This would theoretically be the best possible setup for fights where you use epidemic since you max out condition damage while still maintaining 100% bleeding duration.

The other is qTs Full viper with krait and earth/geo.

Both deal almost identical single target dps, I’ve tested every variation for the rotation I can think of but there’s just such a marginal difference that it’s not going to matter for single target.

Replace reaper with awakened sorceress.

Not had a chance to try it with everyone in the raid using bgdm so far, and ARC doesn’t seem very accurate. Hopefully these things will improve over the next couple of months, and maybe one day we’ll have the omniscience of worldoflogs.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Take Root isn’t used in any of [qT]’s benchmarks…

Yes, it is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJsQEojjBNQ&t=127s

Rising Dusk.2408:

..because it’s hyper OP for a racial skill and isn’t available to everyone. That alone accounts for a fair bit of your DPS.

Anyone can make a sylvari whenever they want, I personally made a sylvari ranger to use just for condi during wing 4 challenge mode progression.

And “a fair bit” is ~5% over Flesh Golem, if there’s only a single target.

Rising Dusk.2408:

I also take issue with the new build/rotation that drops Blood Magic, as the utility provided by Transfusion and Vampiric Presence help a lot to justify using a Necromancer over anything else.

Neither of those things are justifications to bring a necromancer.

Rising Dusk.2408:

Realistically, the new rotation I think relies too heavily on ice fields, especially since they’ll be teamed with condi Warriors / Rangers / Engis that drop other fields rapidly. This is probably the biggest reason why necro is still so unfortunately weak in raids.

This I agree on to some extent.

Since there isn’t a reliable way to test this, yet, and it would require far more math than I’m willing to do, I’m just going to wait until there is a reliable parser and test this in the actual raids.

Agony and Geomancy, all gear is the same as Farb used in his test: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYRjM0QXNWdDe3A7NWKGs4eYRMJGFAGAJAqhwU4WB-TBSAQBMc/BspkzmKBDo+gOcKAAwTAIkKHio6PBAOAGv4Bw4jP+4jPejP+4jP+4lCYRlVA-e

Cloud and golem 0 thorn stacks: http://imgur.com/a/yGfVv
Can probably go a bit higher with practice, the rotation isn’t flawless, might have to drop dagger 5 below 50% to make up for having to cast cpc with the 2nd Gravedigger.

Can’t recall the exact number off the top of my head, I think golem was ~1-2k lower or so.

Will try it with gs 5→4 and Cloud as well.

Here you go, ~32k with realistic buffs and 5 stacks of thorns in optimal conditions:
https://youtu.be/KGbHsmaiE4I

While I understand where they’re coming from with necro still deemed useless to them, they’re both doing the community a favor, (looking at you fotm pug necros), but also the hardcore necro mains a huge disservice.

Lugi is probably the only one in qT that can actually play necro, but I guess he’s an engi main at heart, at least one of the few that can play the class well. So I wouldn’t expect anything to change while Engi and Condi Ranger is still the highest benchmark. And to add insult to injury they even reference Brazil as a reliable source for anything. But I digress…

What people need to understand is that even if necro did the same dps as Engi, Ele or Condi Ranger, it would still be deemed useless due to the lack of party utility. The truth is that class balance has never been better or as even, dpswise, as it is now with this balance patch. Fact is that qT dislikes Necro as a class, like most of the hardcore community.

Does that mean the class is actually useless?
No.

Does it mean that if you take a Necro as a dps spot you will add minutes to your raid boss kill?
No.

Is Necro the most optimal pick when you want to shave off a few seconds on that record attempt?
No. (Situationally maybe).

But the question that really matters, and ultimately decides Necros fate yet again;
will the average pug Necro perform comparably to the average pug Condi Ranger?
Probably not.

While wielding a scepter, your condition damage is increased. Conditions inflicted by scepter skills have increased durations.

Condition Damage: +150
Duration Increase: 50%

Add for PvE only: 33% Bleed damage increase. (For all abilities, not just scepter skills)

Would be roughly 5-6k dps increase single target.

You seem new to the game, so before you invest too much time in the Necromancer class let me try to help you understand the design philosophy behind the class.

The Necromancer class is essentially Harry Potter when he’s living with the Dursley family. Uncle Vernon, (Anet), absolutely despises Harry and keeps him locked up in the tiny room below the stairs so he’s out of sight and won’t cause any trouble.

At the start of the HoT expansion, due to an oversight with one the Lich Form abilities, (Uncle Vernon forgot to lock the door), Necromancers finally got to taste the sweet DPS cake after several years of neglect.

Mid october last year, uncle Vernon found the key and once again the door was locked, even the tiny window was barred. All Harry has left now is the fading memory of that sweet, sweet cake.

You can forget all about cake you wretched child, you will not have any!

Words can not express how much I hope the fix for this won’t be an icd on Deathly Chill.

KTap.4381:

Quick question about the d/wh setup.

How do you deal with ranged engagements, or enemies that you want to fight at range?

If I want to fight at range I wouldn’t play power, condi is so much better for that. The build I previously linked have enough crowd control built in that I rarely find myself in a situation where I can’t stay in melee. The exception would be a few of the Hero Point champions in the HoT maps, but only if you’re soloing them.

I suppose “General PvE” is pretty broad, it could include world bosses like Claw of Jormag that won’t allow you to be in melee for extended periods of time, then I’d use the staff, same goes for The Mega Destroyer. As I see it though, with power reaper you have access to so much utility, both offensive and defensive. I don’t really feel the need to be at range for general open world solo play as power reaper. Still, if you are farming events with a group then I find the staff is handy for tagging as many mobs as possible.

Lahmia.2193:

Basically the reason I never go double melee. Sure its the highest dps rotation, but since when does pve allow you to do a perfect rotation? Especially in HoT maps, where things will easily down you if you do not kite, and then you won’t be doing any damage if you are kiting. So best bring a ranged option.
I suggest axe/focus (best single target).

While it’s not bad advice, I’d be compelled to use traits better tailored for axe and focus when using them as one of the weapon sets. I feel the trade off makes you lose much of your AoE vulnerability application as well as the CC from warhorn. But that’s just personal preference.

The build I personally play for “General PvE” is this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYRnM0AV3glbCe3As3gFcBL+K2FHjQXtAQLIaD0BGBA-TBSAQBYTJHD3fAAPBAbqEMg6Dio6PhU5QHOFABAOAGv4Bw4jP+4jPejP+4jP+4lCYRlVA-e

If you’re hell-bent on using staff I’d go for something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQJARWjM0QLNWdD20A7NWwFs4r4XsMON2aCVBoBQAoFA-TxRBABLcIAua/R5Hlq/8wFAAPdBmpEEgnAApAGYYF-e

I personally prefer using d/wh and gs for power reaper.