Guild Wars 2

obviously id rather have spectral armor give us stability but EVERY necro wants that.

I think a nice ability I would like to see implemented on necro whether it be in DS or not is an equivalent to the guardians ‘save yourselves’ shout. drawing all conditions to yourself from nearby party members. (obviously minus the boons, we all know necros dont do boons) but this would be an awesome team support skill. if u slotted plague signet (I think thats the name) you could give those conditions to someone else. jobs a good’un.

I can finish mobs off in cursed shore in about 6 seconds using just bleeds and thats only because of how I use DS. I think its very effective for condition builds. if I could use a recording system like fraps I would make a few videos but I play on my laptop and it wouldn’t cope very well

I don’t know if u read the part about using DS to stack bleeds quickly dralor? ds is awesome for condition builds imo.

also if you have any other uses of DS or examples of play when you feel very powerful using it please comment and share.

im aware DS isnt perfect but you have to optimise the use of what you’ve got to be strong in this game, so please be constructive.

Hello Necro enthusiasts,
it bugs me when I see people complaining about DS being only viable fir power builds and for defense as I use DS equally offensively as a I do defensively (if not more so).

the idea of this post is to give people ideas on how to use DS in other ways that works well for conditions power and hybrid builds other than just to soak up damage.

so I think alot of people under estimate/ underuse dark path, but its a very powerful tool. the port (even though its slow) is very helpful and can be used either to initiate an attack, to slow/snare and bleed which is useful for every build we have and also if you plan ahead you can use it to escape on a different less threatening mob/player nearby if you find yourself in a pinch.

I personally use dark path as soon as its off cooldown as it either forces a dodge or slows your opponent down while adding bleeds too. which in a conditions build is very powerful and a power build is nice extra damage, and in the chilled state you cannot be kited as easily.

in my current build im using weakening shroud as a trait and mark of blood on dodge, if I want to load up my conditions fast, I dodge roll in enter DS use dark path followed by doom and then use my utilities and other skills. Before any other skills are activated I generally have between 8-10 bleeds on a target (if all goes to plan) and my other abilities are going to add to that. I find this to be very strong. if I dont want to waste a dodge I evade when needed and use spectral grasp to pull them into the mark.

doom is another very strong skill, especially in terror builds with fear duration. also can be used in power builds to interrupt heals and for some minor CC. I use doom when ive loaded someone up with bleeds but theyre not near any other enemy players, if I can I fear them in the direction of a nearby enemy or mob and epidemic. therefore spreading conditions from single target to multiple target. obviously this is a very situational example but like I say, this is hopefully going to be food for thought when people explore the uses of DS.

life siphon is imo very strong AoE. I actually prefer life siphon over life blast single target as its not easy to dodge and on my rabbid set up still hits for roughly 2k. I use this when anticipating a thief going into stealth or to add pressure in group fights. also theres other group utility offered by life siphon like healing and drawing aggro.

life blast is the skill I use when everything else is on CD even tho it still hits fot about 1.5k on my conditions spec. This is good for baiting dodges and keeping up pressure. when you manage to bait a dodge when using life blast that is an opening for either dark path, or a burst skill like axe 2 for example.

all of these skills have multiple uses and I dont feel they get used enough.

I hope this has been helpful.

hahahaha im choosing to ignore the epidemic change. its not real until it happens (or doesn’t rather) right? ;-)

dark parth and DS changes <3
awesome

go and practice with rampager amulet in spvp. thats what I did to see if I wanted to invest in the gear. which I did, I still prefer to play my condition build though

so long aswe dont get nerfed ill be happy. would be nice if they could buff staff auto attack movement speed. and of course the condi duration on runes.

yes I agree with what your saying bas, the reason I go duration is because not many of my regular party go conditions, mostly warrs guards and a mesmer here and there, which is why I find the duration beneficial.

a nice grouping for small roaming fights is to have a ?/D ele pop their 5 earth ability and epidemic right when u engage.

I agree with you too rennoko, I just prefer my set up at the moment. im currently wasting some condition damage on 2 runes of centaur I think for the extra bleed duration so think ill swap them out tonight.

I run condition duration over condi damage as I find higher stacks = more damage. my bleeds still tick for roughly 110 (without corruption stacks) and I can reach the bleed cap solo. I know that is seen as a waste in pve but when fighting solo in pvp wvw or big mobs in pve you actually feel very bursty being able to put 25 stacks on a target. I took some of nemesis advice on condi duration and altered it to match my play style.

I go pure conditions most of the time, my DPS is good. my direct damage is terrible though.
When you can reach the bleed cap by yourself you do alot of dps (will time myself killing the giant vet in cursed shore tonight). though this is wasted when fighting in a group.

nice video and game play!

I don’t go far from spawn without getting LF. and I normally use my scepter / dagger whilst 1v1’ing but this guy (as you can see) is VERY mobile and hard to hit with my 2 and5 aabilities on that set so stuck with staff.
I have been ‘ganked’ before and turned the fight around to win it. a fair few times actually. but these guys are good players.
check out his warrior videos to understand the skill of the guy im fighting.

yea I used my golem in the fights to follow that video, but had no success in killing him. I have beaten good thieves that arnt expecting to fight a necro and dont trait heavily for conditions etc, but that build is very powerful vs conditions .necro. very good thief. full respect to the player. but dangerdoom I didnt die in a second, had a fun fight and (I think) we left as friends

I don’t think im a necro god by the way, i posted earlier to explain/prove that necro can kill burst classes. im yet to kill the thieves I fought earlier but have killed ALOT of thieves previously, good and bad.

ill be on until about 3 or 4am. I didn’t realise you were filming :-) will watch it later, hopefully didn’t embarrass myself :-P

also if you thieves dont mind id like to try out 3 different builds? 1 zerk. 1 healing and my other condi build you’ve already faced. if you dont mind id appreciate the practice

ill be back on in an hour or two if your still on. switched a couple traits. look forward to it

I think that a thread on the necro forums where people could post their videos of roaming or pvp would be a good idea. This way people would get ideas on how to adapt their play style etc.

The only issue I can see with this is that people get over critical ^^ and dont offer CONSTRUCTIVE criticism therefore preventing fewer videos to be uploaded through fear of being slated.

its not that important (though it is nice) to get the first hit while playing necro as you can negate burst damage at the expense of LF. and the only class ive played thats capable of catching d/d eles is certain warrior builds and my thief (occasionally)

right thats good to know. Thanks

i cant understand why my asura-s plague elite skill is so tiny in comparison to my charrs.

why hasnt this been fixed?

please tell me its not intended?

and a fix is on its way?

if I could get my charrs plague radius on my asura id never use anything else.

either that or your assuming evrry thief uses the same traits/utilities. I have never used roll for initiative on my thief.

dueling in this game would ‘complete’ the game for me.

im at work for 8 hours will get on a few hours before reset.
definitely up for this will pm you later

im on FA :-) you on tonight before reset?

what server are you thieves on?

I either run rune of the undead. or (im currently using) 3 different rune sets but 2 from each which increases bleed duration. I lose some condition damage but can stack my bleeds higher. imo the bleed duration runes are better but im toying with the idea if nightmare runes for the chance to cause fear on hit. as I run a terror build I can see them being effective

in my opinion I would go with rabbid gear, the only thing not rabbid on my necro is the chest boots and weapons which are all carrion giving me a total of 21.9k health.
this set up can work with lots of build variations and is probably the most effective set upfor necro (cconditions of course)

why are people not giving the OP credit for the fights? they were impressive regardless what the opponents skill level were. the OP demonstrated a good level of skill regardless of whether he had 25 stacks on his power sigil

I would be interested in seeing that danger

ha ;-) ur probably right.

I guess i could cast my staff 1 then use swiftness and run infront of the projectile and get the benefits? ;-)

ok right that ruins that plan a bit then :-( I was running a healing / apothecary build with cd reduction traits for wells and wells ground target using well of blood and power. im not a complete fan of that particular mechanic :-( but I guess we cant have everything.

no your wrong. your assuming we haven’t encountered good thieves because we have killed them?
and you think other classes dont think the same about certain necro builds when we corrupt their boons and give 15 stacks of bleed for their efforts? or a 8k auto attack as a zerker? you just need to learn to fight each class accordingly, sounds like you have most problems with thief.

I see why they changed the combo field for well of blood to light, people were complaining because its no longer dark.
personally I see this as a huge buff because we can now remove conditions with both heals and get a big boost of health if u can stay in the well. but my only gripe is we have 1 combo projectile that is not on CD (correct me if I’m wrong) being the staff auto attack and this is at the best of times unreliable due to its movement speed.

I use staff all the time and this isnt usually too much of an issue but if I want to remove conditions I dont want to gamble on whether my slow attack will land.

if the staff auto attack was made faster/buffed would more people use well of blood as a heal?

I play mostly WvW and pvp.

dont assume that because you cant kill thieves they are unkillable. and blinding 1 attack? you sed well of darkness? (I dont use it now but I used to) that skill alone will buy you 5 secs to negate the damage from the thief. if you come back and ay “how will I cast it if im dead in a second” then u need to spend some time in spvp and practice. and switch out some of that gear to be more offensive, you wont kill anything if you cant hurt them. try switching out some of ur gear (maybe a piece at a time so u can adjust) for knights if you like power builds. condition gear if u wanna try something else.

I have success solo roaming with my condition necro. I dont play support. Although the pressure we provide in bigg fights through AoE conditions can be seen as support. if u are fighting a thief without utilising ur blinds and snares you will die. its timing and practice.

when thieves steal to me and fear me, if I have a couple bleeds on them to proc the 50% damge in terror… they die. if not they have to use all their condition removal /stun breakers. my reapers protection trait procs fearing them for 3-5 second doing 1300ish dmg every second. I can then follow that fear with my other fears. if they survive that they generally are very low and easily finished.

you sound very biased to thieves. they aren’t as OP as you think though granted fhey can be very annoying.

both have valid points ^^ but I have seen people dodge through marks and take no damage from activating them. the trick is to keep your ‘important’ less spamable marks in reserve for when you’ve baited out a couple of dodges.
I have beaten a good condition thief on my necro, more than one actually. I have more trouble with burst thieves which I still can manage without too many problems.

I have a condition build that destroys most of the thieves I come up against. so incorporating that effectiveness into your dagger play could work if you take a staff and greater marks, when they are in stealth anticipate where they are and drop marks, save your fear mark for shadow refuge and fear him out of it. then proceed to stab them in the face.
something to try?

if they made greater marks default my terror condi build would be verging on OP, heaven forbid.

I was stating what I knew the skill did, and I asked if it blocked projectiles. I wasnt praising it imo but I appreciate your comments rennoko. and yes while I agree with what your saying I would still rather take my necro than my other toons, I guess its personal preference.
I posted again because ^^ the above post was constructive.
maybe im love drunk with necro at the moment after 500 hours of play time with him, but I still think we can achieve a wide range of utility that is very fun to play and not hampering the group in any way.
QQ about necro imo is unnecessary.

necromancer is my main. I have an 80 guard, thief and warrior. iff your gonna try be a smart kitten cos I got 1 skills tool tip wrong (when I was asking the question anyway) then I wont be wasting anymore of my time on this post.

ok that was a misunderstanding of the skill on my part, why I put a ? when I said it up there ^^ and OP I was joking at the end of my last post. no offense intended

no rennoko I wasnt joking.
protection from spectral wall is utility, and a projectile block is better than nothing. not to mention the vulnerability, 25% more damage to those hard bose fights. that wouldn’t be appreciated? or 1 player responsible for stacking 22 stacks of bleed (ticking for 150 in a group with might stacking maybe more) on target while everyone else focuses on DPS. thats not valuable? or aoe conditions removal? aoe heals? I could go on…
no these arent all things 1 spec can achieve but theres always room for a necro in a party.

I have an 80 guardian myself and ran a fractal run with 5 guardians. all using the reflection skills etc was the easiest run ive ever done, also the most boring. I prefer necro because it offers something different. and has a more fun challenging play style.

I know you all agree as you wouldn’t be here in the forums otherwise. other than the OP of course ;-)

spectral wall blocks projectiles? with spectral walk you get 2 stun breaks on a 48s cooldown traited. also spectral armor on a 72s cool down traited, how many stun breaks do you need?