Guild Wars 2

Sylvari are just lovely!

8/10
I really like the armor color scheme with the purple skin. I think you need a darker staff—hopefully they will give us better options soon.

I always recommend sylvari!

Necro: 30/20/0/0/20
armor: carrion/rabid
weapons: scepter/dagger staff
skills: consume conditions, signet of spite, blood is power, signet of the locust, flesh golem
food: endurance regen
tries: 20-25?

Overall a hard, but enjoyable fight, and I enjoyed the comaraderie of the dome.

I’ve had Frostfang for quite awhile, but I just got Meteorlogicus. The wind chaser back pack mixes well with the scepter and helps make up for its lack of effects. I’m going for more of a wind wraith look—maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t—but I’ve had a penchant for orreries ever since watching “The Dark Crystal” as a kid.

Here’s my darling. I need to get some new screenshots with all her new outfits.

Hydromancy is great fun.

We don’t need more access to weakness. We already have a cheap trait (weakening shroud) that gives near perma (or perma, depending on build) pbaoe weakness. Give me cleave, faster cast times, more damage, etc.

I have 5 80s, but the necro just makes me giggle more than any other class. Getting off a good corrupt boon or epidemic is absolutely delightful. If I want variety outside my bleed burst build, I switch to power wells + chill. Well of suffering/corruption + guardian dome of death — joyous again! And plague form--how I love thee!

Make axe cleave! Pretty please?

I just wish they would make Dark Path more responsive.

Rare veggie pizza would get him up to 15 seconds if this is a WvW build.

If you’re only fighting organized zergs in the upper tiers, then maybe you’ll see all this rampant condition clearing. From my experience doing smaller group fights in the lower tiers, my conditions stick pretty well. Yes, I come across classes (often eles) where I can’t keep any debuff on them, but for the most part I am finding my own chill duration build very effective—it just depends on what/where you fight.

Hitting warhorn 5 and then going into Lich or Plague form is fairly amusing though.

You get a 10 second weakness from blasting your staff 3 poison field, indicating it is activating twice.

In WvW, it really depends on what you’re fighting. Are you in an upper tier only fighting large organized zergs? Then maybe you’re seeing constant condition removal. In a lower tier, I have a huge variety in what I fight (small groups, bands of 10, 20, some organized, some not), and my conditions often stick.

I’ve quite enjoyed my power wells build with hydromancy sigils and 90% chill duration:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|6.1g.h1l|7.1c.h1l.d.1g.h4|1c.7t.1g.7t.1c.a7.1g.a7.1c.0.1g.a7|2s.0.2u.0.3u.0.2s.0.3s.0.3u.0|u5ac.u349.a2.0.0|30.1|3r.4a.4d.4b.4f|e

I switch out a well for the locust signet if I am not receiving group speed (I usually run in a group of 5-10).

I have to say, I was really enjoying the Chill of Death trait in WvW last night. It felt like I just had to look at someone with low health and they would drop. Combined with my chill duration set up, no one was escaping our group! There aren’t very many useful traits in the Spite tree when you’re going for Close to Death, but an extra Spinal Shivers is great fun!

We may not be able to stack 25 bleeds on a single target in 3 seconds, but it takes about 5-6 seconds for a necro to stack 13 bleeds on 1 target and 25 stacks on 4 other targets. And we can do this every 12-15 seconds. Combine us with any other condition class and we can do this faster.

How are we terrible at stacking bleeds? Staff 2 + mark of evasion + weakening shroud + geomancy is a quick 10 aoe stacks that can turn into 20 stacks on surrounding targets after epidemic. Add in scepter 2/dagger 5 and you can get even more.

I would highly recommend using consume conditions for your heal, and using some form of speed (locust signet, spectral walk, or warhorn).

I really feel like spite is an all or nothing trait line. Close to death is a great trait, but most of the others are lackluster. I would recommend either a 0/30/20/20/0, 0/25/25/20/0, 30/20/20/0/0, or a 30/30/10/0/0 spec. If you opt for the 0 in spite line, you can trade out 2 runes of ice for 2 runes of grenth or sanctuary and not lose any chill duration. The 4 ability on the ice runes is rather unreliable in wvw anyway, since any random mob or guard could activate it.

I ran full pvt for a long time, but I found the damage rather disappointing. I would recommend doing more berserker pieces or a knight/berserker hybrid. Your wells + ds 4 can do pretty amazing aoe damage when more damage oriented.

I was under the impression that condition duration was capped at 100%. I have 90% chill duration. I thought another 40% would be wasted. I’ve thought about adding Mad King or Lyssa runes for another 10% condition duration.

I thought aoe chill would add more utility to the generic power wells build. I didn’t think I had to sacrifice a ton to get it.

Chilling darkness is for plague form—blind/chill spam. I can’t imagine running in a group without it.

I’ve been thinking about adding hydromancy sigils and condition duration to a power wells WvW build.

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|6.1g.h1l|7.1c.h1l.d.1g.h4|1c.7t.1g.7t.1c.a7.1g.a7.1c.a7.1g.a7|2s.0.2u.0.3u.0.2s.0.3s.0.2u.0|u5ac.u349.a2.0.0|30.1|3r.4d.4a.44.4f|e

Any suggestions? I usually run in a group of 5-10. Armor choices were made based on what I have on hand.

Just go for Mjolnir!

Please pick up chilling darkness—we need more chill/blind/poison plagues on our server! Plus it’s another way to trap people in your wells if you don’t have a friendly guardian or ele assisting you (or anyone else with aoe control).

You may want to consider investing more in spite for ‘close to death’ (extra power and condition duration are also desirable) and curses for ‘target the weak’ to increase your damage. I like 30/30/10/0/0 when I run a more berserker oriented power wells build. You can also pick up ‘weakening shroud’ to help with defense.

Izzuan—Sabetha has the Corrupted Artifact for her offhand.

I am liking all the sylvari here!

I am always happy to share pictures of my lovely sylvari.

Like it or not, the necro will always be balanced by our aoe capabilities, and will shine best in situations that take advantage of those capabilities (namely group/zerg wvw and pve). As a necro who primarily runs in a group of 5-10 in wvw, and does the occasional dungeon in pve, I am very happy with my character.

I switch back and forth between power/wells and conditions/corruptions in wvw, but I usually run conditions in pve (well recharge rate is somewhat limiting there). I don’t understand the complaints about damage in pve. It’s fairly easy to set up a quick 20-25 aoe bleed stack, which melts mobs (for instance, mark of blood→mark of evasion→weakening shroud→geomancy sigil→scepter 2→epidemic).

I haven’t done a cof speed run or fractals past 30 (got bored), but I’ve done dungeon master and all the holiday/living story content and can’t imagine many situations where a good necro wouldn’t be effective.

The sclerite staff sits very low on my sylvari’s back in the preview window—the eye is barely above shoulder level. On my norn it is much more normal looking. I like the look of the staff, but refuse to buy it if it looks so terrible stowed. Anyone else noticing any other bugs with the sclerite weapons on sylvari or other races?

I love the sclerite back pack on my necromancer. I would love it more if it had the tentacle animation that it had in the preview window, but I digress. My main problem with the back pack is that it disappears whenever I enter death shroud on my necromancer. I have to go to the hero panel and click hide and then show for it to reappear again. Very annoying bug—please fix!

The sclerite staff sits really low on my sylvari’s back in the preview window. The eye of the staff is barely visible over her shoulder. On my norn, it looks much more reasonable. Is this a bug in the preview window only, or is the staff itself bugged for sylvari? I refuse to spend the money to buy the staff until this gets fixed.

Also, any word on a fix to the sclerite back pack animation? Or a fix for the sclerite back pack disappearing after death shroud on necromancers?

I like the art in this patch, but too many bugs!

On a related note, do any other sylvari necromancers have the staff? I previewed the staff on mine, and the staff sat really low on her back—you could barely see the eye when she is facing forward. The staff is much more normal looking on my norn elementalist. I was wondering if this was a bug for the preview window, or for the staff itself.

I was previewing the sclerite staff on my sylvari necromancer. The staff sits extremely low on her back, so you can barely see the eye of the staff when she is facing forward. The head of the staff is much higher and more normal looking on my norn elementalist. Does anyone have the staff? Is this a bug in the preview window or a bug to the staff itself?

I don’t understand. Rangers can stack well on a single target, but don’t have our aoe capabilities. Engineers are generally squishier and need more skill to be effective. I don’t think landing scepter 2 and dagger 5 is significantly harder than landing grenades—practice leading targets, chill before scepter 2 if necessary, then dagger 5 once crippled. And regardless, you can still get a quick stack of 8-10 aoe bleeds without scepter 2/dagger 5 (which you can then epidemic). More marks of blood aren’t necessary; cool down on weakening shroud is also fair.

I completely understand the cool down on mark of evasion. You could easily get 3-5 marks of blood + geomancy sigil + scepter 2/dagger 5/weakening shroud, and then you have 16 or more stacks of aoe bleed in a very short amount of time. Combo that with epidemic and fear and it would be insane. We can already do a quick stack of 10 aoe bleeds; I don’t think we need more help.

The above is not the best video to show the strengths of the necro, other than, marks are great! Don’t get me wrong, that group did well to shut down those numbers, but now imagine that the necro had actually used epidemic more than once, or wells, given that he was power spec, or plague form, or lich form, or…. If anything, it shows that a good group even at its laziest can still take out the uncoordinated masses.

Rangers and engineers don’t have plague form with chilling darkness.

I also use a build very similar, although I switch out hemophilia for weakening shroud.

The main suggestion I have is to take 10 points out of spite and put them in death for staff mastery. Retaliation is getting nerfed, and more marks means more badges.

You may also consider taking 10 points from blood and putting them in curses. I don’t think well siphoning is especially strong, and you could pick up the curses grandmaster minor and get another useful ability like weakening shroud. I also like axe/dagger over scepter/dagger in power wells, but I could just be blinded by my pretty Frostfang.

I think Anet is planning to give everyone 1/3 health in down state to see if it fixes everyone’s concerns. We necromancers are their test case.

I’ve run both conditions (0/30/20/20/0 or 0/30/20/0/20, corrupt boon, epidemic, locust signet) and power/wells (30/20/20/0/0 or 30/30/10/0/0) in guild 5-7 man groups to good effect. I always use plague form with chilling darkness. I have flirted with spectral walk in my conditions builds, but usually don’t have room for a stun breaker in power/wells.

Use plague form for your elite and trait into chilling darkness. That and greater marks are probably the only must have traits for your build. I would also recommend ground targeted wells and decreasing your well and staff recharge rates (0/20/20/20/0 with 10 free points to put wherever—maybe another 10 into curses for weakening shroud). I like running 30 in spite for smaller groups (30/20/20/0/0 or 30/30/10/0/0), but I think the well recharge is probably more important in larger battles.

As for a second weapon set, I would probably recommend axe/dagger to give you the aoe cripple and retaliation, aoe weakness, and extra condition removal. I like axe/focus for smaller groups.

Solo roaming or group play?

Grenade engineer is a perfectly good addition to any dungeon group—provides good vulnerability, blindness, condition removal, and decent aoe damage. I don’t know why I don’t see more of them—I did dungeon master and fractals through 30 on my engineer and only encountered maybe a handful of other engineers.

I think last night in FC BL was the largest congregation I have ever seen on GoM. Have people have finally tired of Super Adventure Box? Great fun last night! I loved leading plague charges!

You’re forgetting the trait ‘weakening shroud’—it provides a very high up time pbaoe weakness.

I would argue that we are the best WvW class for 20 seconds every 3 minutes. And the rest of the time, we’re pretty decent.

I also recommend 30/20/20/0/0—close to death, chilling darkness, targeted wells, staff talents. You can also do 30/30/10/0/0 if you’re willing to give up the reduced staff recharge rate. Use staff and axe/focus. Rare veggie pizza for increased condition duration. Skills: consume conditions, well of darkness, well of corruption, locust signet (switch to well of suffering if camped somewhere), and plague form. The main purpose of the build is to keep everything chilled. crippled, poisoned, blinded, feared, and buff-stripped, and to assist with burst (ds 4, focus 4, axe 2) when needed.

I also got tired of all this time gated content and tired of having to log in every day so as not to fall behind (or at least have my alts fall behind, and they help make the game fresh). So now I will rarely log in. The poor game has fallen so far from its original manifesto.

I have frostfang paired with the corrupted artifact—looks pretty great and seems to fit the necro thematically.

PvP provides the challenge of taking on another coordinated group of equal number. WvW provides the challenge of taking on a much larger, uncoordinated group. Both have their merits.