Guild Wars 2

The Locust Swarm and Swiftness are two separate boon. The Locust Swarm boon (similar to quickness and stealth) cant be increased by boon duration so for example putting 30 points in Death Magic will increase your swiftness to 13 seconds but keep Locust Swarm at 10.

Note: Curses VIII Trait (Banshee’s Wail) will increase the duration of both effects by 30%)

If i was to break down my typical usage of weapons in a small scale WvW fight it would be:

• Axe: 15%
• Staff: 30%
• Lich Form: 20%
• Death Shroud: 35%

Id agree on the fact Staff can be a ‘main weapon’ but only on the condition that its not your only weapon. Different scenarios call for different uses. Main hand with Off hand is completely dependent on the user and there style but we have too many variations on damage to have one “Main” weapon.

barti.7685:

I did exactly the same thing ascii did with sceptre vs axe and my findings are a lot different then his..

my youtube video :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P2haD_2URs

granted i tested with both pvp mistitems since i dont have any exotics i only pvp.. dont pve..

both items had :

5% crit
5% damage runes

Axe time with start 3 build up 1 then 2 then 1 to finish it off :

16.15

Sceptre time with start 2 then spam 1 then eventually 3 and spam 1 to death

13.24 (notice the 1072 and 1121 auto atk crit compared to the axe 875 crit)

sceptre wins in my case

and this is exactly how it feels to me in game too in spvp and tpvp the sceptre jsut pulls ahead + it has the benefit of the poison + bleed and the 300 increase in range makes it a much safer alternative to the axe and its 600 range.

i personally never saw any reason for the axe its a horrible weapon in spvp and tpvp i cant comment on wvwww tho.. staff is great for defense sceptre good for stacking dots on condition build and if you hate staff for power pretty decent for power builds too, dagger great for power builds.. and axe.. axe is just lagging behind it all and is by some overrated imo but ah well what can you say..?!

I would like to see your build, traits and runes for that so i can see why it took you 3 times longer to kill the golem with Axe then i did, also double ghastly claws would of been doable and greater then one ghastly claws with 8% more damage.

Gryph.8237:

Ascii I appreciate the breakdown and I agree with what you have said. Conversely, I think one of the things you have forgotten is the dmg from bleeds/poison that adds to the damage. Diminishing power just a bit, to add condition damage, can match and in my opinion surpass damage from axe (from a greater distance).

The damage in the tests was including the bleeds and poisons :O, also remember that the full damage of Scepter can only be counted if the bleed & poison stays on the target for the full duration which was the point i was trying to make.

Axe damage is pure, guaranteed damage and Scepter is damage over time that can be removed and with the state of the game in terms of boons and conditions at the moment, conditions are too easily removed to rely on them in large scale PvP.

Just also note im only comparing the use of Axe over Scepter in WvW / main map, not SPvP. I do spend the majority of my time in WvW and i find Axe just out preforms in there then Scepter in power builds. In SPvP you cant reach the critical damage % you can in WvW.

Epidemic is really situational and ive tested it alot with spreading chill but i find i tend to be more effective just weapon swapping for AoE chilling then using Epidemic. I would never disagree with not using it, i just dont find it very effective for my play style.

The high critical hit rate is mainly for half decent damage and making sure weakness is on whoever your glued to 24/7. The build is more support through conditions then offensive. When it comes down to Sigil of Hydromancy vs Sigil of Ice ive always found the AoE chill to be on top (especially since you can weapon swap in Death Shroud)

At a push, Well of Suffering could be dropped. Darkness is a must and Corruption helps take down Guardians much quicker. I’ve always preferred triple well as it combos nicely with Dark Pact for a guaranteed Necro Bomb. Think of Suffering as my personal tech, if you find skills work better for you instead of that (i.e Epidemic) use em!

The Soul Reaping points is mainly for the additional tankiness it provides (plus free additional damage on critical hits) its my personal tech as im quite aggressive even when playing support. Instead of Death Magic, have you considered Blood Magic with the Ritual of Protection (IV) trait, healing on hits is just too weak on Necromancers unless you fully spec out for it and 3 seconds per well cast +10% boon duration would help alot more i believe.

Haligator.9615:

People complain about Deathshroud being underpowered, but look at how this thief went nuts and started hallucinating bugs over Deathshroud absorbing his backstab. That must be worth something.

Haha, my natural response to seeing a Thief stealthing or stealing is to-hit F1 and sit in Death Shroud with Retaliation and Fury, Life Transferring.

As Savan pointed out because of Superior Runes of the Undead 6th add-on you can gain 5% of your total Toughness into ‘Condition Damage. Using Power, Precision, Toughness’ or ‘Precision, Toughness, Condition Damage’ armour sets you can hit around 2000 Toughness which adds an additional 100 Condition Damage.

Vitality would be equally as good for non-condition based builds as it adds directly to your Death Shrouds overall health pool better then the Soul Reaping tree does.

Ahhh Xom so you know about me then and have watched my videos, how kind of you

Well seen as you’ve provided no evidence as such ive taken the time to just for you!

This is the time from first damage to death for Axe (7.24 seconds)
This is the time from first damage to death for Scepter (10.09 seconds)

Stats for Axe
Stats for Scepter
Traits

Axe 1 vs Scepter 2
Now comparing the utility of both or even direct vs condition damage. Conditions are too easily removed in this game, almost every class has multiple ways of removing or even transferring conditions to boons which is a vital blow if the bleed stack from scepter is removed as that’s 47% of the damage per scepter hit.

Axe 3 vs Scepter 2 (Cripples)
Scepters cripple effect is a placeable AoE, this means quite simply, it can miss. Its affect area of 240 with range of 900 is trumped by Axes cripple AoE of 1200. Axes cripple is a cripple full stop, unless they dodge roll out of range or block its going to hit. It hits people in stealth and ive killed a fair few people that way and grants retaliation which reflects (at least for me in WvW) 300 – 400 per hit.

Axe 2 vs Scepter 3
Firstly Ghastly claws vastly out damages Feast of Corruption, infact Ghastly Claws is the fastest multiple striking skill we have. Ghastly Claws grants 8% life force on a full channel, Feast of Corruption grants 2% per condition (so at least 4 conditions to match Ghastly Claws LF)

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Necromancer class, and hope you carry on watching my videos!

fixit.7189:

First thing I do when leaving a mesmer port is to dodge. That pretty much gets me out of any amount to AoE enemy happens to place on that port majority of the time. If its a little bit heavier in AoE, I might have to dodge twice. Oh noes!

But then everyone ends up spreading out, rendering to the enemy and getting wiped if you have enough people to survive that then you didn’t need a Mesmer portal in the first place you just needed to jump of the wall and zerg the siege.

A simple tweak for Mesmers portal would be to set a limit on how many people can teleport through it before it disappears.

Catapults through walls replace Rams through gates when the enemy has too many Arrow Carts.

Remember the gate isn’t the only way into a tower or keep.

Isredel.4302:

I disagree on this being an issue for it can be countered with a little forethought.

Mesmer portals are kind of being abused all over WvW like Thiefs stealth with rendering issues but as Isredel said its easy to counter them.

When you see a non activated Mesmer portal on the floor walk up to it and stack on it. Soon as it lights up drop every AoE you have and like magic they die.

One thing ive noticed alot of big guilds do is stack inside a keep or tower and all move out the door portal at the same time causing a rendering issue and letting them fight 5 or so seconds without being seen.

iSinner.4285:

I am glad that you think you provided ANY evidence. I am glad also that you are not a dev. Thank you for your attention.
PS you still have not touched the pve aspect of DS, so please share some light why the dmg in DS does transfer in pve?

On the contrary, the only evidence you’ve shown is doing more damage then DS has in Health doesn’t take it off regular health, i haven’t seen any pictures of this not happening in PvE.

This is a quick test i did on Death Shroud on a mob:

As you can see from the video, i took a 1630 hit when my DS life was pretty much done and it wasn’t taken off my Normal Health. (screenshot is to show my HP at full to show no damage was done.)

Archmagel.1350:

samkong.2719:

/Sigh I see the intelligent discussion is over.

-_- Yep. Didn’t expect it to go very far. Still didn’t answer my question about how his life bar functions, either.

I think its working as intended. Its a separate life bar that in the same way going below 0 health in normal wouldn’t put you at negative health or take the remaining damage of your downed health, falling below 0 death shroud health wont take it off your normal health like;

You fall below 0 downed health, you die.
You fall below 0 health, your downed.
You fall below 0 death shroud health, it dies.

Necromancers are the kings of Dynamic Event tagging. 2 – 4g per 1 Hour 30 mins depending on your MF level

kKagari.6804:

Weakness works differently in different areas IIRC. I’m not sure why you’d be surprised if this didn’t. I wouldn’t put all your money on what the developers say either. The latest patch changed a bug for our elite skills into a feature, only to have a dev reply to me stating that this shouldn’t be happening.

Thats because Devs new way of fixing bugs is to not fix them, such as the Elite skills new tool tips and removing orbs of power instead of fixing fly hacking.

By this logic… Necromancers will be removed from the game soon!

iSinner.4285:

So necros can DS and fall of the highest mountain in the game, and still be alive? no. Guess why?

As several people have pointed out, fall damage is separate from player damage in the same way normal health is separate from death shroud health. Fall damage is % damage of your health, if it hits 100% you die, simple.

And one of the reasons fall damage is like this is so people dont exploit Death Shrouds second health bar, falling in DS taking damage that would of killed you and having DS absorb it.

WoDn.9637:

how do you get 24k health with a full berserker set without vitality?

At the time Orbs of Power was implemented into the game so i had +150 vitality and 15% max health boost, but your health varies alot in WvW anyway depending on where you are.

Sparda.9750:

ye.. i ’ve seen later..
the frustreting thing is that we are not done to be DPS, but liche form and DS are based on DPS build.. sadness..
losing both is like losing a part of the class

It’s not about being able to do lots of damage its about being able to survive and fight, Lich Forms heavy damage is just a bonus in the small scale fights. WvW is not about the single character… excluding Thiefs.. and Mesmers.

Khairos.3890:

I tried this build in sPVP, and had a blast. I was very effective, and extremely fun to play too! Now I may start working on getting the exotics, sigils, and jewels for WvW for my PVE char.

Its more a WvW build then SPvP mainly because you can hit much higher critical damage bonus (117% in Main vs. 65% in SPvP) but it can work with tweaking!

You cant exactly compare Scepter to Axe and say its better because of the 1 skill. Anyone just spamming 1 should be playing a Thief not Necromancer.

Axe isn’t what it use to be in beta, but it can still put out alot of damage. With the current rendering issue and stealth abuse in this game non-targeting AoE’s (Unholy Feast, Life Transfer) are very strong and Ghastly Claws is the fastest channeling multi-hitting skill we have.

As someone pointed out scepter isn’t a precision scaling weapon, its power like every other weapon in-game however scepters damage would benefit from points in the precision tree (aka condition damage) which i think what was implied by TanMan.1374.

I wouldn’t believe this is a bug. Death Shroud isn’t an extension on HP, its a completely new HP pool.

Taking a killing blow in Normal form wouldn’t drop you to negative health, it would take you to 0 and down you and taking a killing blow in death shroud would down or ‘kill’ that form taking you back to normal form.

Yea as Kaarnak.2865 said, Trahearne isn’t a Necromancer he just re-writes the game as he see’s fit.

Firstly so everyone doesn’t have to troll through the whole post reading the build i took the time of 2 seconds to design the build on GW2Skills.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAndWjMaV6ZaGbM8JgJFePO0jc115IFHPMA;TkAKuMcJ4yyljLJXLMGYM5A

Next, im glad you liked my video and yes it is true Axe isn’t as weak as people make it out to be when used correctly but it does have some work to do.

As for 12k damage with Ghastly Claws… ima have to attempt it, but you wont be hitting that with your set up because of the loss in critical damage.

zexion.5842:

Have you not considered using plague elite for more freezes/blinds? Or are you giving up too much damage potential over golem for it?

Unfortunately last i checked the blind from plague form did not trigger the trait to chill, overwise yes it would be the elite to use. Flesh Golem itself is very good for disruption and lets you keep people in the necro bomb much longer.

Actually they said buying the game was region locked i.e. Euros would would buy from the Euro store and not the US and vice versa so they have 2 different support teams to deal with people in your region and not for example a German speaking person asking the US based help service for advice in German.

They always maintained you could play on either US or EU servers no matter where your from so you can play with your friends.

Sparda.9750:

donno i undestrood pvp >> i was convinced Oo everithing change now..

so, in the build critical chance was 19%

anyway.. the staf without greater marks is quite unplayble.. and.. are u sure that 33% to gain 1% of LF is enough to play a DS build?? i guess no.. in this way u gain always from the mark.. but the little form is a bad thing

Marks isn’t the only way to build Life Force, remember this is a WvW build theres people dying left right and center.

• 10% from People or Mobs dying (remember in WvW critters like rabbits, owls are everywhere and give 10% apon being one hit)
• 1% (33% chance) from any critical hit (73% critical hit chance)
• 8% from Axe’s Ghastly Claws.
• 4% from being struck in Spectral Walk.
• 3% Per Life Transfer Tick.
• 10% from equipping Flesh Golem, summoning and switching back to Lich Form.

Im sure theres other ways…

@Sparda.9750 Theres multiple things you’ve pointed out that’s a little inaccurate so i thought id better clear up.

• Relying on Lich Form and its 3 minute cooldown.
  The build doesn’t rely on Lich Form full stop. I can do high quick bursts of damage without even using Lich Form plus the time between fights in WvW is usally longer then 3 minutes anyway.

• 19% Critical Hit Chance
  That is wrong, infact im on 53% critical chance, with almost perma-fury in fights from my runes and going to 97% in Lich Form. World armour cant be represented on http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/ editing page so i left that out, for a proper view at my build check my signature picture.

• Cooldown of Wells
  One round of wells is typically enough for the fight at hand. After dropping wells, Death Shroud Life Transferring then Lich Form nuking wells are back up.

• Focus instead of Warhorn
  Perm-swiftness is one of the most important things in WvW. Mobility between zones is much more important then single target chill and vulnerability and not including Lich Form, Warhorns provides the only weapon interrupt and a very big one at that.

• Soul Reaping Traits
  Life Transfer spamming is the strongest thing this build has to offer. As ive said before non targeting AoE skills are extremely powerful. Life Transfer acts as a huge damage channel (upwards of 6k+) whilst healing you. Spectral Attunement helps keep perm-swiftness up but could be changable depending.

X Trait is just bad for WvW, if your nuking with staff you have no need to build life force plus you would be building it automatically from critical hits and the Curses V trait.

I hope you understand the reasoning behind my build now and why i use what!

Have fully updated the original post with the up to date build and more details into each point of the build, enjoy!

Do enough damage to the Guild Claimer and you get 2 badges per.

Raist.4580:

what runes are u running in armor and what sigil in your staff?

Superior Sigils of Battle in my Warhorn and Staff, Superior Sigil of Accuracy in my Axe and 6 Superior Runes of Rage in my armour.

Its a good idea but things “unique” to a class dont stay unique for long. The devs do need to do something about condition builds losing out DPS in dynamic events due to the 25 bleed stack limit though.

Both are equally as good. Berserkers gives you more critical power when it comes to bursting down people however Toughness gives you more power and survivability if traited with 25 in death magic at a heavy loss to single target crit damage.

stayBlind.7849:

Death Shroud is bland and boring, but other than that Necromancer is decent.

Death Shroud is a free +120% health pool who cares if its boring its free survivability!

I just love the range of the axe over dagger. Dagger puts you right into the range of enemies were as axe allows you to be at a happy medium range doing decent damage, plus the utility of axe 2 and 3.

Eviator.9746:

I loved the video and I’m going to try out the build. I was a bit confused about the 40k axe thing. Unfortunately you lost some credibility because the last number is the sum of the full damage stack, not the last tick in that stack.

I’d re-edit it if i had the originals still, you learn something new everyday!

MysticoN.5068:

why did you chooce Spiteful spirit instead of reaper’s might?

Asking since im running some of the same traits you are, but whondering why might over retaliation. Is it due to your high base Power?

I tend to find myself running head first into crowds dropping wells, going into death shroud and Life Transferring out before picking my target and having retaliation works much better in that situation as i dont Life Blast past 50% and LF tends to drop below that pretty quickly.

Endymion.6180:

Hey, awesome vid
I was just searching a good pvp power build (mostly wvwvw small group hit and run stuff, no zerg) as you can see in my other topic.
Your build sounds interesting and it is much similar to what I was going to try, except I was thinking of maining Dagger.
Is the range of the axe a good tradeoff for the difference in damage (assuming there is a steep difference in dmg as the forum always says)?
Follow up question: Being all power/prec does affect your durability? How much hp do you have right now? Is it an issue?

Thanks

Endy.

The range of axe is pretty important in the build, dagger requires you face to face with your opponent which puts you in there and there teammates range.

Daggers 2 skill is also 0.75 seconds longer channel then Axe 2 and 4 seconds longer on cooldown and i think non targeting AoEs such as Axes Unholy Feast is a must, it allows you to use on the move whilst hitting people behind you and also hit stealth characters.

I’m not as tanky as some Necromancers ive encountered but i tend to favor full offensive and leave support to my team mates.

“The best defense is a good offense.” – Mao Zedong

Aexrael.5918:

FYI you can fix your links easily.

[url=INSERT YOUR LINK HERE]INSERT DESCRIPTIVE TEXT HERE[/url]

Naaaa its not a formatting problem its the URL itself cant be read by ANets External links page see and the other version here

Arolas.5209:

Awesome video, power necro myself, though I haven’t geared up yet.

What jewelry are you using?

Full berserkers armour and ruby jewelery (basically every piece is the Power, Precision, Critical Damage minus my legendary)

My first of many WvW PvP specific videos for my Necromancer. Footage over the past 2 weeks of WvW there for anyone considering playing Necromancer or power builds in general.

My typical play-style is high single target damage whilst laying down combo fields for my team mates. I alternate my utility skills depending on what im engaging into but heres a breakdown of my build and why i use it.

(Copy and paste)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBHhZakRLcvSTTjhPBA9YXddOSByLTpoc4B;TsAKlMKJUyqkTJpSLRGicE5JykAA

• Axe Main-hand Love the range, love the vulnerability and love Unholy Feast for stopping fleeing enemies (all non-targeting AoEs such as Life Transfer are strong)
• Warhorn Off-Hand Wail of Doom with Banshee’s Wail trait shuts down entire groups for 3 seconds and Locust Swarm with Spectral Walk is perma-swiftness.
• Staff Main-Hand A must for WvW

• Consume Conditions A must for WvW
• Spectral Walk Perma-swiftness with warhorn & spectral mastery.
• Well of Suffering Heavy damage, AoE vulnerability and dark combo field.
• Well of Corruption Brilliant disruptor for Guardians, Warriors and Engineers, dark combo field.
• Lich Form Extremely heavy damage, stability with boon removal and knockdown skills, just need to know when to use it as you cant heal in Lich Form.

• Well of Darkness Speced in when running into a zerg outnumbered along with Curses Chilling Darkness trait turning it into a chilling blinding AoE dark combo field.

Full exotic 80 ‘Berserkers’ set (Power, Precision, Critical Damage) with 80 exotic Ruby jewelery (Power, Precision, Critical Damage)

Happy to answer any questions!

Not being able to log out whilst in combat and keeping you online until your out of combat/ die after closing down the client would be the most simple fix.

Sure it would affect people who disconnect but there is no solution that fix’s the issue that wont affect people losing connection.

Ground Stop.9538:

No worries, haha. Was only joking, good sir.

You good sir, must of passed with highest marks!

Skeleton Mobility Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQJBHhLyoFuxwlAiUAwyUFgH

• Lich Form in and out, 30 seconds of stability.
• Spectral Walk & Locust Swarm with traits, perma-swiftness.
• Unholy Feast, AoE 5 second cripple.
• Consume Conditions, remove all conditions.
• Dark Path, massive gap clearer when used on a mob.

How i engage/ break off in WvW.

Ground Stop.9538:

“Bad link” is bad and you should feel bad!

It’s called copy and paste. Well known issue gw2skills sometimes results in bad links.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAnYWjMaV6Zaea07JCpCWD6h71lzoe4uyhOA;T4Ag0CnoKyUkoIbRuikFtEZUyRkdEPRmRA

Cure one condition every 5 seconds… or when you crit… or when you heal… or when you use your elite… or when you kill something… or when you drop a well… or when you use your staff 4… or when you use your dagger 4

D: !

Personally ive always found farming cursed shore for gold beat instance farming. Doing this route i took for my legendary was earning me 2-3 gold an hour which is more then enough to buy single pieces bit by bit from TP.

Just remember Necromancers are the king of dynamic event tagging.

Thats nothing lol, least you was able to get in. Stormbluff Isle is still the jump puzzle kings.

mjharrison.3209:

Yet another reason why downed state is terrible in PVP zones.

It would be nice to get an official ANet response as to poofing like this, whats being done and is it allowed or not. It happens to me too much for me to even give a kitten now i just happened to catch this one on fraps.

Would this count?

This isn’t really a fair video showing Necros being OP, just remember i had 3 orbs of power, im fully decked out to the max in exotics/ legendaries and the people i was fighting were just poor. The video is more to show how i play power necro.

@Berullos.6928 I’ve used clicked in my whole mmo life, its natural habit except the 1-5 skills.

@Sheobix.8796 I use full berserkers. 30, 20, 0, 0, 20.

Just some footage i took earlier of fighting in my WvW build and how i play necromancer in there.

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBHhZakRLdvTTejhPBA9YXddOSByLTpoc4B;TkAKlMKJUyqkTJpSLRGiMJA

Happened to you? Was recording some 1v1’s in EB earlier and this happened…

Houdini would be proud.

• Swap orbs passive stat bonus for a re-occurring point value like camps, towers, keeps and Stonemist. somewhere between 10 and 25.
• Remove Keep lords invulnerability whilst the keep holds the orb.
• Add new buff halfing the damage the keep lord takes whilst the keep hold the orb.
• Make the alter untouchable until the keep lord dies.

Four simple steps, all the problems sorted. Orb hackers will no longer be able to swoop in and break the alter taking the orb because he’d have to kill the boss and orbs remain a high value target to capture, hold and defend.

These ideas have been suggested again and again and again, whats so wrong with them? You could of done this by now and would have no need to remove this feature of WvW.

HabibLoew.2590:

After a careful reevaluation of orbs of power we have decided to remove them from WvW in an upcoming build. As implemented, orbs tend to strengthen teams who are already winning and make it even more difficult for underdog teams to fight back. In addition, the current implementation seems to be irresistible to hackers/cheaters and will require significant modification to prevent cheaters from having an unfortunately large impact on the state of any given WvW game. Under the circumstances we believe that removing orbs completely is a better choice than attempting an in-place redesign/re-implementation as it will immediately put a stop to all orb hacking. It is likely that orbs, or some orb-like mechanic, will return at some point in the future, but only after we are confident that they will not exhibit the sorts of issues that we see with orbs today.

Cant be asked to fix them now, so were removing them….

Hmmm well by that logic shouldn’t you remove the whole of the Necromancer class as you cant be asked to fix them right now?

People have given you clear good ideas on how to fix the orbs overpowering issue for months now and you’ve chosen to just remove them. nice work!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQJhwMLyoppxwlAgesruOHfAZA Would be my recommendation for the absolute must for a Power build.

Weapon depends on what you want more, Axe is much better range but Dagger is more damage.