Guild Wars 2

Allie Murdock.8152:

Could someone point me to where we have said that the March 18th build is the feature build? I’m trying to understand where the idea is coming from and why it has gotten to this point. I was out for 3 months so maybe I missed something.

could you specify what is “feature” build? i presume that feature = new content, so maintanence = improving current game aka fixing balance…
noone cares how you call it people just wanna know will there will be balance improvements on 18th or not

TBH i think game balance is maintenance and not new feature, so by the sake of anet headquarters i hope this is misunderstanding cause otherwise WE WILL RIOT!!!

thx didnt know that, but even with 3 ticks i wont admit that close to death is better, its just matter of preference and team setup. if close to death would be clearly better then i would actually use it, but grandmaster trait thats easy to avoid and most of the time does absolutely nothing just isnt for everyone.
And the amount of kills i get on high avoidance professions cause of dhuumfire is just too kitten high both in wvw and tpvp

People who dont know that dhuumfire ticks 5 times (which is no bug as 2 sec + 30% = 2,5 ) Try to “explain” me for what its meant.
Fine. Arenanet totally added hard hitting short duration condi that scales bad with condi dmg because they did`nt want condi necros to put 30 points in condi traits but instead put 30 points in power traits. Cause anet totally doesnt use logic when making changes in this game same as people dont use logic when theorycrafting this game.
Same i agree with the guy who dodges and line of sights condition damage.
And i agree with the guy who thinks that destroying gates and killing AI controlled minions is more important than fighting smth that hits back.
I agree with the guy who says that condi necro dhuumfire is only 2k and my 1200 condi damage necros 3045 dmg hitting dhuumfire is just visual bug.
Just because i played necro back when you were fishing in runescape doesnt mean anything cause playing necro and using common sense when making build for specific cause means nothing and whining on forums is much more benefical.
Sorry that i tried to force my false information on you, keep playing the way you play and maybe someday we will meet on battlefield.

It does not even matter what they people wont be happy anyway. They listen to players, they care about game, they try to improve it but what to players say? That they dont.

amiavamp.9785:

Leeto.1570:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Tell me, why would any power Necro ever take Dhuumfire over Close to Death?

Despite Spite being the Condition Duration line, no condition build had points in it pre-dhuumfire. Once Dhuumfire hit, most of them have 30 points. This is not a coincidence.
: you’re a prime example, Leeto.

Cause basicly dhuumfire IS close to death just meant for pvp environment… or you just keep preassure on shortbow thiefs with your direct damage…?
Its gonna be made on life blast but it stays ON CRIT… why they dont just remove on crit part? because WHO has 90% chance to crit with lifeblast? thats right power necros.

Hmm signet of spite does average direct damage + gives power… and has every single condition that power necro might need in situation of panic that condi necro has easy acess to.
I know its hard to understand but devs actually try to make power spec viable in pvp instead of making condi spec faceroll and overpowered… shocking right?

Devs make very logical decisions but they forget that people dont care about playing balanced specs they just wanna maximize one thing (like you try to maximize power necros direct damage and screw everything else) and then come and whine on forums when they get assckicked.
Im not talking here about whats better to kill bads in hotjoins im talking here about how devs designed the game.

Dhuumfire in SPvP without condition damage does 656 damage on a 10+ second cooldown (or 984 if that +30% condition duration is enough to make it proc 3 times). This is assuming that the burning is not removed. This is also in comparison to Close to Death, which boosts all direct damage by 20% when an enemy is at their weakest and attempting to heal or flee, and it is well known that necromancers have difficulty catching fleeing enemies if the enemy cannot be killed fast enough or miraculously hit with multiple chills/immobilize/pull.

I have no idea what you are trying to say here, it sounds like you try to explain how dhuumfire is better but you are replying to me so i have feeling you think i am wrong.

Dhuumfire procs 5 time, with my 100 condi dmg it hits 359 = 1759 dmg every 10 second.
My life blast hits ~2600 so 20% would be 520 dmg.

When does dhuumfire work? When opponent cant clear condition.
When does close to death work? When opponent is below 50%, has no dodge, cant line of sight you, cant CC you.

Both traits are basicly equal and meant for power necros.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Tell me, why would any power Necro ever take Dhuumfire over Close to Death?

Despite Spite being the Condition Duration line, no condition build had points in it pre-dhuumfire. Once Dhuumfire hit, most of them have 30 points. This is not a coincidence.
: you’re a prime example, Leeto.

Cause basicly dhuumfire IS close to death just meant for pvp environment… or you just keep preassure on shortbow thiefs with your direct damage…?
Its gonna be made on life blast but it stays ON CRIT… why they dont just remove on crit part? because WHO has 90% chance to crit with lifeblast? thats right power necros.

Hmm signet of spite does average direct damage + gives power… and has every single condition that power necro might need in situation of panic that condi necro has easy acess to.
I know its hard to understand but devs actually try to make power spec viable in pvp instead of making condi spec faceroll and overpowered… shocking right?

Devs make very logical decisions but they forget that people dont care about playing balanced specs they just wanna maximize one thing (like you try to maximize power necros direct damage and screw everything else) and then come and whine on forums when they get assckicked.
Im not talking here about whats better to kill bads in hotjoins im talking here about how devs designed the game.

Avigrus.2871:

Dhummfire…

I know i have said this countless times already but ima say it again. Dhuumfire was put in game because power necros were in need of more sustained damage and its perfect for that.
The problem is all other traitlines, condi necro has no key traits beside terror so theres no reason to put 30 points in curses and the extra condition duration that is so needed for power necros works well for condi necros too. If they wouldve maybe buffed terror a bit more and moved it straight to grandmaster instead of master then maybe we wouldnt even have all this whining about dhuumfire cause condi necros wouldnt put 30 points in power traits, but maybe im wrong cause theres not much for 20 points in any line either so people might just go 30/30 in spite and curse

runeblade.7514:

Or still overpowered in the current state?

Discuss.

You come to necro forums and ask this? “Condi wvw necro is UP compared to most condi builds.” this shows how biased we can be.
I hear we dont have same dps on dungeon bosses or some other AI controlled stuff, so by that logic the fact that we can faceroll over pretty much everything in pvp and wvw makes us balanced.

Agree this is bullkitten, they say we gotta get rid of consumables yet we have to farm glory to get 4th crafting material…

Mazzak.7536:

Leeto, i was running a build that uses alot of the same concepts and thought process, but really whiffed on how strong 3% lf generation on marks could be. Thanks for the post! If you have an updated build i would love to see it, as i keep tweaking mine and finding new ways to play this core build.

Oh in past month ive played alot around with this build, have tried different variations, dropped spectral walk for blinding well and used chill on blind for more support in teamfights. But anyway my todays version of this build would be – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW4YjMax7da+a87JEoH7CuAiRFOGqHuD78hA-TgAA2CvIYSxkjJDTSmsMB

Amulet is still a problem, i dropped barbarian for berserker and once i got grip on it i was fine, but when playing against top 50 players it feels like lacking survibility so i started to use barbarian again, tomorrow gonna test berserker more, maybe im just not good enough.
Lately ive been thinking about 3% LF on marks too, just few days ago i decided that maybe it is not a must trait but still i cant find a better alternative trait. -30% cooldown on DS sounds cool but it has no real use, all it would give is to let me tank dmg more ofthen, but as i generate less life force then basicly i can just take less damage more times.
Have any cool takes on this build? Im almost somewhat dissapointed that multiple months after making this build ive barely changed anything.

Ah ye, i didnt have traveler runes so i played with 30/0/0/20/20 for a while, more fun overall but when you gotta go in for a finishing burst and your lifeblast doesnt crit then fun is over. So im back to my normal 30/10/0/0/30

Well i reuploaded the movie i made few days ago on dailymotion! In case anyone care to watch it –
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1c07qq_leeto-gw2-dagger-necro-wvw-duel_videogames
Even if you dont care about the video you can at least check first and last time how dailymotion website looks.

Last necro PVP video for a while.
Viva la dailymotion viva la france

They deleted my soundtrack so no more video.

Pregnantman.8259:

@Leeto
Do you intent to keep Dhuumfire after the changes?

Well its kinda getting buffed in pvp and on demand might be even better than passive.
+much of my build is spamming life blast anyway. I`ll See.
But i assure you that i would rather spent 10 pts in other traitline than to try pvp with “close to death”.

Was testing well of corruption cause i now roam wvw with 2x dagger spec and as always people start bugging me about why i run the kitten i run!
This one even says he saw my “guide” on forums and still asks me things that i`ve explained there in multiple walls of text, afterwards he tries to explain me how my “Quickening Thirst” aint good for dueling…
Im casual player and i use only 1 build in whole game so its meant for roaming, tournies and duels. If you want max your stats and traits for some purpose do it! But dont bug me about stuff i play!
At least thanks for reporting my behavior so i get muted in /map /say, after that i couldnt hear those channels and it was very pleasent evening.

Edit: Im very bad and dumb player so please don`t try to teach me what to play, im too stupid to understand anyway.
I ofcourse dont want to offend your “calculations” but my dhuumfire hits for 1640

You know what disgusts me? People with dishonorable debuff.
Cant play? Fine stay in hotjoins but dont kitten up my games.

Good guide, huge improvement since your “how to be virgin guide”.
Informative and well structured.

If Necromancers get pistols… i will shoot myself

@armagedon
I have no idea wtf are you talking about. People asked me why dhuumfire over close to death in MY BUILD, so i gave rough comparison and explained reason behind it. Why would i compare it with dhuumfire in condi spec?

@muchacho
Ofcourse i would switch, necro already have high hp pool and is anti condition so toughness is alot more useful than vitality. atm i play with berserker + settler jewel, but havent tested it in tourneys properly and dont want to update anything before i see what new patch brings.

Ye im trying to get this build on myself in WvW too, but dont want to change all my gear cause no idea what patch will bring.
In PVP i have continued to play this build since i posted it here, and atm i consider it my main build, the more i play it the more potential you feel behind it.
Hopefully the build will be only stronger with the new dhuumfire and who knows if they implement precision + power + toughness amulet then this build might become absolute killer.

Heavy target golem –
Dagger nr1 spam only
With Close to death ~14 seconds
With Dhuumfire ~15 seconds
Life Blast spam only
With Close to death – 11 lifeblasts
With Dhuumfire – 10 lifeblasts (9 if you let burn finish him off instead of casting extra one)

Dhuumfire incrases your dps always, close to death only if target is below 50%.
You need condition removal to avoid dhuumfire, you can line of sight, dodge, CC the necro, stay above 50% etc. to avoid close to death dmg incrase.
Dhuumfire helps to protect your CC conditions from condi removal, close to death just incrases your already high dmg.

For me personally Close to Death is garbage trait and i would never use it cause its just plain dmg incrase and is very situational, but i understand people who like to see big numbers yet i dont understand how can you flame dhuumfire when its basicly same dmg incrase yet 10 times better trait by design.

It is a buff but its a powermancer buff because dhuumfire is a powermancer trait, and their not forcing condimancer use death shroud more their trying to force condimancers to stop using dhuumfire and go back to condition traitlines.

Regeneration
Chill + poison
Best kind of condi removal aka transfer
AoE CC
Horrible?

None, the trait is made with idea that powermancer goes with traits full into power and defenses + uses power amulet so trait is balanced around having 0 condi dmg, anything above it makes it more powerful than it should be.

Yes im talking from pvp perspective. Never compare skills from different classes, its same like saying necros are OP because they have 2 health bars, and why no other class have 2nd health bar.
I never do PVE but have your tried dhuumfire build in tpvp or wvw? People literally MELT, you can kill everyone with no effort at all.
Dhuumfire aint OP but if you combine it with condi dmg + terror then its such incredible dmg, few months ago noone focused necros in pvp because we were more about supporting our team etc. but now necro is main target because if they dont take us out then we will kill everything in seconds.
Dhuumfire + terror necro is most powerful thing in pvp i have seen since release hands down.

No man your just looking at it wrong, dhuumfire is not meant to be better than close to death, it is meant to be same as close to death only its meant for different environment.
And this is buff to condition builds because dhuumfire + terror is hybrid not a real condi build, atm theres no choice at all, if you want to play condimancer you gotta go 30 points and spite and not because full condi builds suck but just because dhuumfire is OP as hell for condimancer, now when it will be weaker im pretty sure many necros will take out points of spite and put them in real traits that are meant for condimancers.

Dhuumfire
Lately i have feeling that only me and anet know truth about this trait so i will explain it.

Dhuumfire IS a power necromancer trait. It is a PVP version of close to death. Basicly if you test it then you will realize that dhuumfire gives even higher overall dps than close to death.
So why is it that good for condi necros?
Average necro doesnt realize 1 thing –
Dhuumfire on power necro = good
Dhuumfire on condi necro = overpowered

What makes dhuumfire overpowered on condi build?
1) It procs off crit – critical chance is basicly main stat for condi necros, so its really easy to proc it.
2) Spite tree incrases condition duration – Longer conditions = meant for condimancers. Right? WRONG! Necromancer is meant to aply conditions in every build because it is hes utility too not only dmg. Incrased condition duration is there to make your immobilizes, chills, poisons, cripples longer not to incrase your dmg from condis.

Next patch – No more dhuumfire abuse by condimancers?
I really doubt this, cause players always want to abuse things they find strong.
Theres already alot of talk about how to spam most life blasts in condi specs.
But anet is making step to right direction and trying to avoid dhuumfire beeing abused by condi specs. So obviously their longterm goal is to get condimancers back to actual condi traits.
On my condi necro i am testing atm – 0/30/10/0/30
Build is basicly old school condimancer that relies on weakness and long fears + good LF generation.
In current state its weaker than dhuumfire build but with incoming nerf i think it might be the new meta build for condimancers, and they might be again CC/support in high end tpvp instead of main dmg dealers like their now.

All changes good and reasonable.
Dhuumfire getting more on powermancer side so condi necros cant abuse it so much, so every thing going as planned from start.
The fact that basicly every single change from livestream was reasonable and improvement to game only show how much anet cares about their game instead of random noob whining on forums.
Theres still necros who think that grandmaster power tree trait is meant for condi builds so its only normal that theres lots of confusion on forums where most of people have no idea what they are playing.

Rename topic to “Lets See Your Necromancer 2014 edition” and admins might just sticky this

Of course its cybervampireninja

Staff is almost must for roamer, it just brings so much crowd control and survibility, 2nd weapon set can take whatever you want, probobly axe if you roam with other people and just dps from back.

Well well another wow playa, the basics will seem very simple and you will get used probobly quite fast after wow, but just imagine it as completely different experience at start, its nothing like wow but actually the skillcap is very high.
The more you play the more you will start to notice about combat, the pvp in gw2 actually is as tactical as WoW arena and even more face paced.
Start with learning all boons and conditions, and then start learning all important skill animations, cause here you dont watch castbars but animations instead.
Skill floor is quite low, you can roll most of builds and be succesfull in hotjoin against people who just playing around.

Well its not build thats based around rotation, its quite simple and straightforwarded, mostly just 1 spam for dmg, but theres alot of neat small combos you can pull off with this build, and it has pretty decent skillcap.
Example – When in medium range and hes just kiting you.

DS>Tainted Shacles > Dark Path > Fear > Leave DS > Dark Pact > Dagger 1 spam

What this achieves is that while your dark path travels you fear him so he cant dodge + fearing him will make him turn back on you, then your gonna use dark pact while hes feared so he cant dodge tainted shacles and basicly when your dark pact lands then your tainted shacles will land too so hes in long immob + is turned away from you so he cant hit you with most skills. + Hes probobly gonna use defensive cooldowns all while beeing chilled and when immobilize is over you have ~2 second left DS recharge.

Heres a vid how to execute it – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd6NjtTaGVM&feature=youtu.be

Now when i dont melt everyone in 1v1, ive been having lots of funzies doing 1v1s so playing team q and soloq very casually but since the new years drop from leaderboards due to inactivity i have gotten to top 250 teamq with 2 casual teams, one play with voicecom 2nd without, and top 150 soloq, the only problem atm i feel is when your out of cooldowns and 2 melee start bursting you.
I might try out Weakening Shroud but i really love mark of blood as you can find stealthed people + get regen alot.
Updated my build a bit too. Dropped lyssa for runes of speed and took plague, but mostly forgot to change elite from flesh golem after 1v1 server
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNAW4YjMax7hb+a87JkpCfD0jdBXARqHuD78hA-TgAA2CnIYSxkjJDTSmsMB

In PvP everyone hates necro cause we are too powerful.
The path of darkness we all must walk on our own.

And how high you`ve went on leaderboard with this build? Im just imagining it from my perspective what i would give to team with this build, i couldnt do condi preassure, my direct damage would be average even on target golems where i can free cast and noone is preasurring me, theres no stability stomp and LF generation relays on cooldowns, only thing i can do is bunker point and still will give less support than guardian or less dmg than engi.
I dont know how you play but i cant imagine myself getting even in top 200 soloq with such build. Build aint bad just selfish.

Mystogan.4157:

also i have yet to test a set of clerics on this im not sure it the healing power would scale enough to cover the loss of vit

Dunno, i think its too tanky. Anyway if you rely your damage on vulnerability stacking and LB spam then i would suggest remove 10 points from Blood Magic and take Vital Persistance from Soul Reaping, you can just sit in DS like 1 min instead of 30 sec as long as you avoid dmg means 2x as much life blasts or something.
Isnt necros role damage in teams these days?

Theres alot to improve, but first one question, this is bunker build? If yes then dont even bother, theres alot better bunker classes than necro, especially power necro, if you want to really be bunker on your necro then you could try MM build and be close point bunker.

MM is OP, easy to play, annoying to fight etc. etc. but the reality is that MM is not even good for PVP. Seriously how many necros from top 100 do play MM? Its garbage build that only can hold side point against 1 player. That is what annoys me the most, its bad build for bad players who are to bad to actually play a useful build.
I seriously hate more having MM mancer on my team than on enemy team.

Very well thought out builds and seems you have put effort into maximizing them for your intended role. But i gotta say this stuff just wont work in maybe ~top 500, in team que maybe even not top 700.
My build got called bad but yours is completely opposite, so your gonna recieve overall positive reviews but believe me over time the more you play pvp you will realize flaws in these builds.
As i have played 2859 pvp games and recieved 2805 top stats i do something better than others almost every game and that is the reality of pvp, you gotta adapt to every role your team gets in, your builds focus way too much on completing 1 role which actually dont even exist in PVP. In high end pvp you can roughly say that theres only 2 roles, bunker and damage.
And every damage spec got to be able – survive, decap, kill, stomp, ressurect, cc etc. etc.
I know atm all i say sounds stupid and wrong, but in few months or maybe year remember my words and it will make you chuckle to realise i was right

Bring the player not the class.

Souldestructor.9576:

To be very honest about this i have used this build and i tweaked it with using blind well and it’s pretty good. not gonna lie it can be situational but this breaks that situational barrier.

Edit: I have been playing necro for over a year and a month with pvp tried all and this one is kinda fun.

Glad to hear you enjoy it, curious which utility you gave up for well of darkness?

I dont hate theorycrafters i respect them and check new builds whenever i can to improve my own.
I dismiss hes arguments cause they are based on maximizing hes builds potential in perfect predictable conditions, but thats not how PVP work.
For example close to death, in theory this gives more overall dps and incrases your burst right? Situation: You take side points to spread enemies and then you gotta go middle to start working on guardian so when your warr gets there hes not full health and has popped defensive cooldowns, when warr is there you do quick cc burst and kill him. So what gives you more burning or close to death here?
Arenanet introduced dhuumfire for power builds, because they lack sustained damage and are easy to avoid. Dhuumfire is not meant to make condi builds overpowered even tho it does, its meant to make power builds viable in pvp.
You even know how many life blasts you can pull off against good thief? Almost none, but just yesterday thief was trying to kill me but as i was jumping in death shroud for defense all the time my retaliation did 4k dmg to him.
2 days ago was dueling elementalist, after the game he said that he thought im power and he lost cause he didnt use condition removal heal… why? because he actively avoided most of my dmg and bleeds from marks + burning was the thing that did huge part of dmg.

The thing with most of you is that you look at builds from necro viewpoint and dont take in consideration that target think or counter what you are doing.

I did not add “for high end pvp” cause i think im so pro leet skill necro i added it because it is made so.
Soldiers give you more survibility, close to death gives you more dps and will make this build more powerful and easier to survive with than it is in my version, if everything you want to do in this game is killing bad players with life blasts while laughing that they cant kill you then you should totally do it but dont expect it to work against good players.

Edit: I know i start to sound like mad kido, but it just starts to kitten me off that i make build for pvp where i have thought over every single possibility just so the build is good in pvp and then people say its bad and starts suggesting how to incrase my dps in arah and when i try to explain why i dont use it they just go “nope your wrong numbers show otherwise”. Every single thing that has been suggested i have already considered.

Enzo Kensei.9850:

Leeto that’s a great great build. Try it out in tPvP and man its so fun to play it! Seeing the enemys panicking because of the DS blast crits its just rotfl.

Instead having dual dagger, i did put a focus on offhand, still trying to see what it fits better, a focus or a warhorn. But nevertheless, great work man

Thanks man, you can change alot in this build depending on preferences but i guarantee dagger offhand works best, when see me running to them penetrating the air with 2k dagger crits only thing they can do is cripple, chill or immobilize me and then they recieve it back in face.
If that doesnt sound good enough then just look how awesome dual wield dagger looks, if you cant kill people with style then whats the point.

You even realize how much this would kitten up necro in pvp? If enemy can tell not only that i cast mark + which mark i cast but WHERE i cast it then i might just start working on 4x dagger build :P

Yes i dont even know what most necro skills does and dont do math, but your one of necros who uses spectral armor so we have completely different opinions on how pvp works in this game.
If you dont want to play this build fine play your own, but dont try to suggest how to “improve” it by changing every single thing that makes it good.

Maybe all your math works on giants in straits but in reality when you have to put your teams win on game then 10% = 0 and 40% = 50% and 90% = 100% hopefully.
So you have 0% reliable crit chance outside of death shroud cause you never enter shroud with this build for less than 5 seconds.
Your so good at theorycrafting so maybe you could think about how higher HP pool incrases the amount of damage you can tank in death shroud.

Every mark cast has different animation already, so your asking for longer cast time on marks so you can better notice that animations are different or what?
Mark of blood – default
Chillblains – hand glows green
Putrid – hand glows black
Reapers – whole animation different and looks like poke with staff

So you basicly took away 40% crit chance, made ds burst unreliable, took away good amount of healing power, took away boon removal, sustained unavoidable condition that kittens up engi and ele passive condi removal and protects your cc.
And you traded it all for lower cooldown on skills that you normally use in PVP once per 2 minute and to get more survibility in build thats already almost unkillable?
Fine man if that works for you thats really cool but thats completely different build from mine and with my playstyle and pvp situations im normally in it would never work.

Stx.4857:

Flumek.9043:

Guys, please chill. Leetos one of the better necros around and its a fact that different stuff works in different “tiers” of tpvp. So dont bash, rather ask how and why.

And the builds are basicaly all the same, rewolving around +50crit in DS :P

I respect his accomplishments as a Necro in PvP, but saying things like “Axe3 is pretty much a horrible skill” just really makes it hard.

My personal debate with him is about vitality being useful as a defensive stat. My personal experience tells me that using Barbarians amulet grants no extra survival compared to berserkers, because in my experience, having more health but still very low armor just doesnt help much, (especially on a Necro with high base HP).

Also, it is possible for a player to be great at playing the game, but not great at creating builds. Basically this type of player could succeed with a crappy build due to skills.

I didnt even know there was such thing as barbarian amulet in this game cause noone uses it, so when i made this build it used soldiers and thought the build is quite average because you do damage only in death shroud cause soldiers give no crit chance.
Then i went to 1v1 server where soldiers is banned cause its bunker amulet so i tried with berserkers, the damage was OP but any good player would one shot you, then i saw barbarian on some necro and decided to test it out and realized that this build is super good.
I repeat 3rd time, you dont get crit chance with soldiers amulet so you wont do damage outside of death shroud and death shroud is necros survibility + damage + utility, in pvp you cant rely all your damage on death shroud cause sometime you gotta save life force just to survive.
28k hp, perma regen, 22k death shroud life pool with reliable LF generation + dagger heal + 2 defensive utilities… how the f you can lack survibility in this build?
If you want to be bunker then yes soldier is better but this is not bunker build so barbarian is 100% better.