Guild Wars 2

I am in the same position as you. It has been rough figuring it out.

Necro/scourge was really fun to play, but I feel we are going to see them overwhelm wvw, which is what I am mainly interested in.

So, I want to counter that. My best guess is they will get rekt by deadeyes. So I’m leaning that way. I figure at worst I may have to play daredevil, which apparently is a really fun class.

Necro is the Starks of Guild Wars, deal with it.

Ease of play is one reason. Plus condi removal and the explosions actually do a decent amount of damage.

I think the patch has been good.

However, I can’t fathom why anyone would pre-purchase this expansion, especially without a release date.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

How about instead of nerfing burning they

1: Change protection so it also effects conditions
&
2: Give access to the new boon resistance to every class via weapon skills/traits/utility skills (as is only warrior and mesmer have any real access to it and its extremely nice)

1 would help allot

2 would be incredibly good (playing on my warrior I can say with certainty resistance is frekin awesome)

The combination of both would bring conditions in line easily.

So burning is the problem and your solution is to nerf every condition?

Pretty close to what I run when I’m doing MM.

A good PU mesmer can get me down, especially the ones that go the condition route.

Aegis Dominion.4708:

I think necros got some of the largest buffs from the patch. Conditions are insane, and their life force gaining traits are very annoying. They are proving to be some of the hardest professions to take down right now I think.

Their own conditions aren’t very good relative to other classes.

Ranger may have problems, but when I killed a mesmer and they said to me, “You can’t evade taunt? WTF?!!” It was a good day.

I’m guessing because of quick draw.

I’ve been tooling around with this in spvp, the opening burst is really good.

If I have this correct I go in this order:

1. Activate both signets
2. Activate blinding slash from your bird
3. Swoop
4. Switch pets
5. Second pet attack
6. Maul

This kills a heavy golem. If not dead, switch weapons and use path of scars.

Also, I switched to beast mastery for the taunt. Both lines seem to work well, slightly more burst in beast mastery.

Looks pretty good.

Why sigil of generosity? With 4% crit that is what? 1 out of 35 hits will transfer a condition? You have 3 ways of sending them already and a conversion. Maybe something else?

I’ve been running a similar build for a few days now thanks to Dictan who shared it.

It goes with unyielding blast, spectral mastery, and death perception in soul reaping. Death perception gives you 97% crit chance in shroud.

Also, unholy martyr over transfusion. Somewhat more selfish, but still I’m pulling conditions.

Virtually swimming in life force.

With all of that said, I still think MM is a slightly better choice.

This happened to me on a power necro:

http://i.imgur.com/Flvi6OA.jpg

OP? Not really. My own fault for playing a glass build and not reacting quickly enough.

Nikkinella.8254:

Condi necro does not need buffs. Its extremely powerful now. Its just that all the other classes have stupidly OP condi builds now. Condis are out of control right now. They need to be brought down below necro, necro doesnt need to be buffed above them. Last thing we need is more condi spam. Power builds are generally useless on every class now because condi is just superior in every way after its been overbuffed to godlike levels. I’d rather they nerf the hell out of condis on everyone else so power builds actually have a place again. Right now power is only useful in pve.

Rampage warriors, PU mesmers, backstabe thieves, etc. are all really strong in pvp currently and are power based. I’d say they have a place in pvp.

Bhawb.7408:

gin.7158:

btw I have a question, do you guys explode bone minions or not? I wonder if it’s better to let them alive

Generally speaking there is no reason to not immediately blow them up. They lose DPS and Death Nova efficiency for every instant they are alive/not summoned, and due to how Necromantic Corruption works they won’t draw conditions realistically anyway. The only reason to keep them alive after summoning is because “max” efficiency is allowing them to auto once then blow up, and you might need to wait for them to get in range, or maybe wait for a bit better of a position for the poison field.

What do you mean about necromantic corruption?

It seems to be working or am I missing something? They auto draw the condition off of me every ten seconds regardless if in combat or of them attacking anything.

Are they bugging out and I am not noticing it?

Just started a match, I didn’t get any life force.

Yeah, just went through my log, retaliation wasn’t doing damage from it.

Kicker.8203:

CodeHavoc.7926:

I can’t wait for the complaints about reaper.

Reaper’s seem to be their answer to necro viability in dungeons. Skills with this high cast times, and slow movement gonna be totally unviable for pvp. They are still gonna be outranged because they added another melee weapon instead of a proper power based weapon for 1200 range. Staff is the only ranged option but it is meant for condi builds.

They did specifically say they were going to address the necro slow problem in the video when they talked about movements no longer being affected by slows.

lol, this was literally my first experience running this build:

http://i.imgur.com/Flvi6OA.jpg

After that, it went much more smooth and I managed to kill a good amount of people very quickly, which was nice!

In random games I play, they are indeed the strongest class. How that relates to team setups or any organized play is in question though.

Then again, I’m playing rampage warrior today and it feels every bit as strong.

Dictan.4186:

Zin.6170:

Dictan.4186:

I have been using this:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-34-43;0kHFH0C4cJVJ0;9;489A;0158157037;45FX0Z;1rRnCrRnCb0f

death + blood + soul has a lot of nice synergies. I believe a lot of fun tanky builds will come out of it. It generates so much life force it’s hard to get rid of it sometimes. I am trying to remember to burn my life force to 50% and then refill it over and over again. I also was surprised how fat the shroud 1 shots are they help give me some much needed AOE.

I really like this build.

It seems to have a great balance of survival and damage. I’ve only played a handful of games so far with it, but I’ve had some epic fights using it.

If you come up with any improvements, please post them up bro.

I did switch to barbarian amulet and earth runes though. I may switch one dagger mainhand to axe as well.

I’m glad your enjoying it as much as I am. How did you feel about losing the healing power, bonus heal, and condition removal from water? Earth seems like a good choice since the builds main boon is protection. It could let you stack almost 30+ seconds of protection and then wait the downtime out in shroud.

Have you found weapon swapping useful? I was a big proponent of using axe/focus for a quick 20-25 vuln stack then going in with dagger but the cds are so low now I found myself sitting on one weapon more and more.

I barely noticed the healing power loss. With life force building up so incredibly quick, I was in that a good amount of time and with the other amulet, it put me at 97% crit in shroud.

Protection to me is the best boon, so yeah, my intent is to keep it up as much as possible.

I usually open with axe, mainly axe 2 for LF and then axe 3 for the aoe boon conversion. At this point I clear send condis on their way and switch to dagger were I either get health back or pin and auto. At this point you are already swimming in life force.

The main weakness is short on stability and lack of aoe.

I’ve been running it all morning, it is indeed fun. Warrior in general is fun to play currently, even when not in rampage.

Laserbolt.6731:

A necro without some team support is still a dead necro. They have not become anything like a CC Hammer warrior or a Guardian in the new patch. They have almost no stability. No stealth. No escape mechanism. They can’t CC you forever. They just have a lot of health and they can toss conditions in a burst, which you can cleanse.

Yeah, I’m starting to lean that way of thinking myself. Playing my warrior with the hammer I feel like a smashing ball of destruction managing a lot of cooldowns. Necro seems slow and weak in comparison.

Thanks for the advice!

I just need to keep practicing. I also should probably switch my build up to be more focused on dealing with mesmers vs any other class, because it has been a minimum of 2 mesmer opponents in every game.

What do you think is the best build to fight against them currently on a point?

The minions do a fairly good job of eating conditions, they just don’t deliver them very well.

They do eat them every 10 seconds, with the timer starting when they are summoned. It seems to be about a 1200 range you need to be from them and the timer is independent for each summon.

I just wish they got delivered better. At least they still explode and do decent damage.

I’m having a difficult time fighting them in all the specs I’m trying.

Any tips to this fight?

Dictan.4186:

I have been using this:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-34-43;0kHFH0C4cJVJ0;9;489A;0158157037;45FX0Z;1rRnCrRnCb0f

death + blood + soul has a lot of nice synergies. I believe a lot of fun tanky builds will come out of it. It generates so much life force it’s hard to get rid of it sometimes. I am trying to remember to burn my life force to 50% and then refill it over and over again. I also was surprised how fat the shroud 1 shots are they help give me some much needed AOE.

I really like this build.

It seems to have a great balance of survival and damage. I’ve only played a handful of games so far with it, but I’ve had some epic fights using it.

If you come up with any improvements, please post them up bro.

I did switch to barbarian amulet and earth runes though. I may switch one dagger mainhand to axe as well.

Rym.1469:

Zin.6170:

Any changes on the support build Rym, thinking of giving it a go.

I swapped Water sigil (it actually heals for 700-800) to Energy one, just because with current overwhelming damage from Mesmers and Thieves in particular I’m being tunnelvisioned (focused regardless of situation) the entire time, even in Plague, even while I simply don’t die. I believe it’s also hard to understand for not cooridnated PuGs that I’m actually a Necro who heals them (people tend to run all over the place in teamfights and you don’t have 600 range on everything) and I’m often being treated as “bunker”. Have yet to try it with proper team.

So far, in about 30 games I won every single one which wasn’t against 4 or 5 man premades or with some amazing matchmaking like 4 Mesmers and me. It can carry pretty hard.

I’m interested in feedback. Have you tried it? Any success? I admit 30 or so games with PUGs is nothing nearly enough to say if build is good or bad, but I figured out that when I actually can do what I am supposed to do (supporting), it’s very potent.

I’m also thinking of swapping Well of Darkness to Corrosive Poison Cloud. It doesn’t instantly cut the melee pressure from the target, but has way lower cooldown (20s) and 15s Duration (!) with bigger radius. It also brings rather insignificant self-conditions (Weakness and short Cripple) which can be used to boost Consume Conditions and don’t harm main role of the build. Once I’m back home, I’ll give it some proper tests and maybe modify the guide a little bit.

And 2 minute Plague countering every single Warrior Rampage (which becomes quite popular) is probably best laugh ever.

I did about 8ish games. I switched to energy when I put it together. I like the extra dodges.

I’m facing a minimum of 2 mesmers each game, one time it was even all mesmers. The ones who have their burst down are taking me to near death in their burst combo, it is really tough to bounce back from. So I don’t feel I’m getting an accurate gauge on how good it is.

I’ll probably shelve it until the extra high damage mostly unavoidable burst from mesmers calms down a bit, but I do think it is good for a support build.

Any changes on the support build Rym, thinking of giving it a go.

Probably doesn’t matter, but you have your TS info in that vid.

I haven’t watched the whole thing, but good info so far.

Hey Bhawb how exactly does jagged horror summon work? Will it proc on the death of mesmer clones?

I see necros as the Mayweathers of pvp currently. They thrive as counter punchers.

They throw conditions back on their enemies, they can build defensively, and they can keep weakness up near permanently.

They can build offensively as a power based wellmancer, but it seems the complaints aren’t about that build.

Ragnarox.9601:

Roe.3679:

“Necros might be competitive pls nerf”

They are not competitive their dmg is out of the scale now. And lots of ppl playing them and using that advantage while they can.

Enjoy while it lasts.

How is it out of scale?

The minions are hardly tough to kill, they die faster than ever.

If I can’t yell stuff randomly with Ogre runes, not really worth it.

Bhawb, what do you think of rune of the privateer? Does the summon get all the stuff from our trait lines?

Looks good.

I would get death nova instead of unholy sanctuary. Not only do you get more damage, you get a reduced healing debuff that can stack well.

You also get jagged horrors that life siphon and give you life force. I’ve found the extra life force is worth more than the healing you get from sanctuary by a good amount.

So more damage and life pool by going nova.

ozmaniandevil.6805:

I didn’t have much time to play around, sadly, but I was using a power well build before, and am still using it. I’ll have to hold off on commenting though until I can get into WvW and really use it.

I’d be interested in trying a MM build now. Have they fixed the uselessness of minions? When I tried those before they mostly just stood around looking dumb.

They still have some issues, but the change to necromantic corruption seems to make that they will always take the conditions, I’m not sure about the transfer though after they take them.

Tao.1234:

WvW – Necro is still great.
PvP – mediocre.
Damage w/o Marauder/Berserker amulet is simply bad and any bit tanky class will outheal it.

And with those amulets – 1.8k Armor and you go down quite fast…too fast.

I’m ditching necro in pvp mode until they do something with it.
Rekt sustain in PvP by across the whole line.

MM and wellmancer are fairly good. Some people don’t like the idea of playing MM though, which is fine, but they are good right now. I have noticed a few people starting to smash my minions first with aoe, but they are usually so close to death by the time they die, they still lose. It is a bother having to resummon them though.

I’m not a fan of the condi builds. Once the newness of condi builds fades and anet nerfs condis, I think it will lose its luster.

Bhawb.7408:

Roe.3679:

Bhawb you should stream more, that was fun to watch.

Planning on streaming more often, there is a good chance I’ll try to stream any time I’m planning on PvPing a bit that day, though it will generally be in the morning/afternoon PST so sorry to anyone who is outside those time zones (I play League at night with the SOAC guys).

Zin.6170:

I’m torn between staff vs. axe/dagger as my second weapon slot.

I’m used to the staff and like its longer range, but feel I can put out more single target pressure with the axe.

That’s pretty much the choice. Its mostly a preference deal, however I personally find that without axe there are a lot of fights I should have won that I didn’t, and honestly in my build I’m so tanky that its not like I ever need to fight at 1200 range.

I basically agree now. I’ve tested it enough and feel the same way. Plus I can run D/H and A/D to keep my movement buff, I hate moving slow.

Here is my tank MM build:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-34-83;0kHkD0z3VI-K0;9;489A;0036157046;4XwW7U;1oF2CoF2C6A

Things of note:

In death magic I go with death nova due to the jagged horror summons, more minions!

Unholy martyr and necromatic corruption work well together.

Foot in the grave is the only reactive stun break. So be leary of CC builds.

Weapons are D/H and A/D to take advantage of the dagger speed trait, but also they work well together in this conjunction over having a staff.

You get lots of life and lots of life force, you can stay in DS a long time while healing back up.

Go ahead and post it now, nothing wrong with input. Here is my tank build:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-34-83;0kHkD0z3VI-K0;9;489A;0036157046;4XwW7U;1oF2CoF2C6A

I’m still messing around with the runes, just having fun with them. I’m not even sure if the summoned pets benefit from the traits.

I assume you are talking about your typical MM/shroud build. Yes, it can take a beating, at one point my shroud health was simply not going down at all.

When you overhaul a system people are going to initially build for as much damage as they can possibly do. From there two adjustments are made. First, players will start to adjust their builds and play styles to combat against this, second adjustments to skills will be made.

Patience is needed by players and caution by the developers to not overly adjust.

Twonineone.3490:

Supreme.3164:

The sustain is there, I tried it first hand, if you build for sustain then you don’t die nearly as easily as people are saying on the forum, you die faster respect to before..but not that ridiculously fast.

It’s exactly what I’m saying and this is awful. I’ve never played a glass cannon because I don’t give a kitten of killing someone just hitting 2 keys, but now, even playing a bunker build you die so easily that you feel like a glass cannon played before this last patch. Sure, you don’t die so easily than a D/P Thief, now, but as a bunker you can’t stand against 2 people. You don’t either hold out to wait a team mate.
Seems like ANet is pushing us to play only dps, because bunker are completely useless, now. Now you just have to hit harder than your enemy.
And I’m curious to see a fight in Courtyard map, now -.-

I know necros are currently good and holding points as MM, maybe try that?

I’m torn between staff vs. axe/dagger as my second weapon slot.

I’m used to the staff and like its longer range, but feel I can put out more single target pressure with the axe.

Dadnir.5038:

Shiki.7148:

Praise the lord, they did actually FIX not NERF it.

Release Notes”

Necromancer
Signets of Suffering: This trait will now only grant might when a signet is successfully cast.

Should we see that as a fact that the necromancer need boons and them admitting that corrupting boons ain’t a good form of support?

Nah, more of a situation that if people can find a way to exploit, they will exploit.

Might stacking is definitely not a problem currently with the current traits.

Urukami.4796:

Whether you have 3 boons or 7 boons it will be converted to a random condition so using corrupt boon on a guy who may only have stability will cause that stability to change to a random condition doesn’t specifically have to be fear. I’m not 100% sure if this is a bug however if not then it’s working as intended…lol

I don’t believe this is correct, but since it does indeed not appear to be working, who I may be wrong. This is in the patch notes though:

Stability converts to fear for 1 second.

Which leads me to believe it is simply bugged.

Just tried out MM in sPvP for a few hours.

Great googly moogly! I felt near invincible on a point. Very good LF generation, healing, damage, etc.

My main weakness was having only one direct stun break and the spectral armor proc. Overall, MM seems to be performing well.

Since bleeds were already nerfed, I can’t imagine they wouldn’t stay the same if not see a buff.