Guild Wars 2

Haha… I was just gonna post as I read through the article. zapv already posted a good build in the beginning though.

@Justin,
Being in a 5-man team and a 10-man team is pretty different. In a 10 man team you have a ton more cover fire from your allies, and you likely won’t be the one that’s in the front line, so you can afford to sprinkle in nice damage. In any case I’d still recommend you take either Flesh Wurm or Spectral Walk. That’s just my advice though.

If you go full dire, you’ll be really tanky, but I think mixing dire and rabid is the way to go. Having a crit chance between 30% – 40% is ideal, imo. More crit chance – more damage, less crit chance – less damage but more tankyness. It depends on what you like. I’d personally stick at around 35% or so. If you are running in a group, you likely won’t need all that dire to keep you alive if your allies know what they are doing xD

I think going with staff is a must. Scepter / Warhorn and Scepter / Dagger both work. It depends on your preference. If you have a cleanser in a group, warhorn can become godly. When you don’t take dagger offhand, you don’t have that condi transfer, so if your ally covers for you, it takes care of that weakness, and warhorn allows you to tank really well because it fills your deathshroud like crazy, and synergizes with a lot of things (Minor in curses, plague, runes of krait, on-crit sigils, deathshroud). It also has the AoE daze – nothing like a little more crowd control. Dagger offhand has a nice blind, condi transfer, and ranged weakness and bleeds, which is also very nice to bomb a group with – Grasping Dead + Enfeeble on en enemy group… but you’d have less swiftness (your allies could provide that for you though)… so it depends.

With runes, it also depends. Perplexity is nice, but I’d say that’s more of a small scale thing to bring – maybe a 5-man group. Sure, bringing epidemic could make it more AoE, but the procs are unpredictable, and there is a long cooldown between the confusions so if it gets cleansed you are stuck with nothing. It’s still very good though – if you get 8 confusions on someone with a Necro they might as well roll over dead :P
Another good rune I’d recommend is Rune of the Krait if you have 0 points in Spite. These runes give you crazy duration on your bleeds, and make Plague pretty nice as well (Bleeds, poison and torment when you use it). I don’t think there’s any other rune, aside from maybe traveler, that would be good. But if you are in a group and your ally can give you swiftness in some way, traveler isn’t that necessary.

For sigils, you can never go wrong with one or two Energy Sigils. If you have the money for it. Sigil of Torment is good for some extra condi cover/pressure and there’s sigil of corruption. There’s many variations. I think I’m also a fan of Sigil of Agony (20% bleed duration), at least in theory. Perplexity Runes, Sigil of Agony and Hemophilia would give you the condi duration that Runes of Krait do, but you’d have confusion with Perplexity, for example. You’d lose out on some sigils though. Anyway.

Different people will tell you different things but I swear by Wurm+Spectral Walk. The mobility in small scale fights with those 2 can be pretty crazy, although I’m not sure if that’s good to start off with because it isn’t straight forward. Up to you, and it never hurts to try. If you aren’t using those, and you find yourself dead more often than alive and think you are getting too much focus fire, try using those and see if it changed anything
In a 10 man team, taking both likely isn’t as necessary, unless you are maybe fighting another melee-train guild group. A 10-man group is pretty different in terms of what you need.

The build I use is similar to what zapv linked. He uses Master of Terror, which focuses on damage. Soul Marks is good for sustain as well because it really fills your deathshroud, but you lose damage/CC, so it’s up to you

Well… the thing is… in WvW, when you get focused and you enter DS, you tank the incoming damage… and in many cases all DS gets depleted, completely. This means that deathshroud would be on about a 5 second cooldown now. You could come out, use Spectral Wall, Walk or Armor and re-enter in no time, and continue tanking. If not, you are probably kiting away while recuperating your life force. With this, it will make focus fire harder to deal with, in my opinion. Sure, it was a bug, and yes, it was a nerf, but that doesn’t help the “We’ll give Necros more sustain” that they talked about.
I rarely complain, but I think this is very silly.

All I’m gonna say is:
“Let’s give them more sustain guys!”
“Yeah! Let’s do it!”
“Let’s start by messing with Deathshroud!”
“Cool, they’re gonna LOVE that!”

Shake my head.
A nice kick between the legs.

So what you are proposing is for Elementalists to slowly lose each attunement, down to only fire, when out of combat. Thieves gaining revealed debuff when outside combat, etc. If we’re going to compare things like that, sure

“cheat-y fighting a Necro that has just built up their life force outside of combat by swapping skills”
Cheat-y? Really? …. really?
Do you know how hard it can be to build life force when you start from 0? The swapping you are referring to is minions, which die, and regen your life force. In sPvP… this is pretty much necessary in my opinion- starting with 0 life force is silly. In PvE it doesn’t matter, and in WvW, no one does it xD and even if they did it, would it really matter when a zerg rolls over you? ….so I don’t understand the problem.

Ynot.8397:

I’d say the difference between necros using spectrals and wurm and other classes using defensive utilities is that for mobility those skills can be needed where as the other classes can get those benefits from weapons (think guardian sword, ele swiftness stacking, etc..).

Yeah that’s true that they get it from weapons.. but imagine we had a leap on dagger (comparable to guardian sword#2) and a leap on our staff (like guardian GS leap or ele burning speed)… now couple that with our health, deathshroud and slowing abilities…
I still think that some classes (like ele or mesmer) without lightning flash/blink is risky business (even though they may have mobility on their weapon set). I dunno… I think mobility and defense are similar in a way. Necro can get some mobility from utility skills / Dark path, but has defense/tankyness from weapon skills / Deathshroud. Others get mobility from weapon skills, but nice defense from utilities (endure pain, zerk stance, armor of earth, decoy, elixir s, etc). Although getting mobility from only utilities does pigeon hole you a bit. Either way, I don’t think it should matter in a proper team… for example.. if you are a Necro with… say, JUST wurm or JUST Spectral Walk, and if you have a good staff ele… the ele can cover you by stopping hordes of enemies with Static Field, Unsteady Ground or Frozen Ground. Hammer warrior, ring of warding, Line of warding, or even a portal Mesmer haha, or stealth…

Ynot.8397:

I prefer dagger to warhorn because of the fun you can have with the blind. You can get some pretty neat clutch blinds which really add to survivability and the weakness sure helps. Warhorn is pretty awesome, but that is more down to whether you feel you need the mobility or not. I find that the added mobility from warhorn will not save me, where as the blind or transfer can keep my up much longer.

Yeah I agree on the dagger. I use it in sPvP and I actually like it a lot. It depends on taste :P Locust Swarm can be pretty insane on deathshroud refilling.

Yarr is all on DR or servers in that tier now for the most part. IDK what they rep anymore, but I think you’d find them around. Just ask Silent.

Haha yeah I’ve seen them around :P too bad we can’t spar anymore… but having em on our side? I’ll take it

Its all about grenth and spectral grasp. You can slow people down forever if you land your chills and cripples one after the other. I’ve been told its terribly annoying,. Also you can send a spectral grasp through a shadow refuge if you target something beyond it and pull the thief out. Its kind of the best thing ever.

Haha, sounds fun XD never knew about the Shadow Refuge pull… a thief in dismay? Yes plz
I’ve been using it in sPvP a bit and chilling people forever… caused quite a bit of QQ.
All it took was for me to say “this build is fun” in map chat, the the tears flew forth like an ocean.

Well, mah dear Y Not…

I think that’s kinda arguable. Unless you are in WvW, mobility isn’t too important, and Necros do have a loootttt of health (including deathshroud). That’s why they are beastly in 1v1, for example.

Yes, I use warhorn for swiftness, Spectral Walk for swiftness, sustain and survival, wurm for sustain and survival and Specral wall for survival/damage. But that is no different than a Mesmer using Decoy and Blink. Or an ele using Armor of Earth, Lightning Flash and Mist form. Or a warrior using Berserk stance+ Endure Pain, or guardian shouts -all of those are defensive as well, just like spectral skills.
I use warhorn cuz I’m addicted to swiftness, and I think Locust Swarm is too good, as well as the daze. You could also go with Runes of Traveler, grab dagger off hand, and grab Toxic Focusing Crystal and Sigil of Agony, and you’d be in a similar boat, but with a dagger offhand. You’d have 25% move speed from Runes to make up for warhorn lost, 40% bleed duration (basically like from Runes of Krait) – 10% duration on all condis from Runes of Traveler, 10% duration on all condis from Toxic Crystal, 20% from sigil. You’d also have dagger off-hand, which is bleeds, weakness and condi transfer, and mix in some Koi Cakes… anyway… tangent.

-Sigil of energy is probably one of the best sigils in the game. Necros don’t have vigor, so the sigil is almost like a mini vigor. I use it on basically every class I have. Sigil of Energy+Vigor = dodge mania. It is simply too good NOT to use, and there is no real good alternative, in my opinion.
-Reaper’s Protection is another layer of protection, but it’s also CC and can deal 3k+ damage in AoE.

All I really have for mobility is Spectral walk and Wurm, one trait (Spectral Attunement to make Spectral Walk better) and I guess warhorn, but warhorn is mainly for tanking.
Apart from a few layers of defense, the build (with Runes of Krait) can put out a LOT of damage, sitting at around 2.1k condi damage and 85% longer bleeds, or 95%, if I use Toxic Focusing Crystals.

I think this game doesn’t have many support players. I can’t remember the last time I met someone that said “Oh, yeah, I run a support engi” or something along those lines. And that’s the problem… most people just goes damage and expects things to go well.

[Yarr] is deeply missed <3 :P rare group that caused us a sting :P

Lulz, Grenth Runes… ( I actually like them… working on a chill-mancer)

@vincecontix,
Wow haha, thank you sir… I dunno what to say. It is much appreciated

@dancingmonkey, yes, a lot of people say profession X needs one thing or another but I always find it silly when things are looked at from a solo or 1v1 perspective when the game is designed/balanced to be a team game. I get most of my boons (apart from swiftness) from our shout guardian (or support warrior, if we have one), most of my condi clears from our guardian (or warrior), most of my heals from our guardian (or warrior) and all of my stability from the guardian (except Plague). A team’s support player is just one piece of the puzzle, though. A lot of guild teams I’ve seen run full glass specs, and that’s all good and well until you run into another guild group with an actual team composition (which is rare) or an outnumbered fight (which is not rare). Depending on the team size, we have 1-2 supports, 1-2 frontliners, 1-2 damage dealers. In a 5-man team I like to have 1 thief, 1 Necro, 1 guardian, 1 ele, and 1 whoever. If the “whoever” is a shout warrior, the team becomes pretty beastly. Anyway… :P

@AnonMD,
To add to what coglin (thank you mate) has said…
I don’t mind showing clips where I die or down. You will find this out if you watch more of my videos. I honestly don’t care if I die in a clip, as long as the fight was exciting. That being said… No, I did not die in the first clip, but my friend did. I made a mistake of thinking he’s our thief and left him to the wolves (he was a guardian). I don’t like showing allies die, and if I can avoid showing it, I do xD If you want, I still have the full clip – I can post it in full length so you can see the turn of events for yourself
2) I did not plan on going into the tower. You can see me going back into the fight, right as the Mesmer used Null Field. My Plague’s stability was stripped and I was low. It was only logical to finally go into the tower.
-As dancingmonkey has said, the stomp was no more an exploit than a thief shadowstep stomp. It’s essentially the juke from clip #1. Start SW, Wurm away, then end SW to tele back to the downed person… that is all.
-What help did I get to finish the fight exactly? One person was downed, while another was very close to being dead anyway. One or two warrior bow auto attacks from a Warrior on the wall hardly decided the outcome of that fight. You are essentially saying the encounter was won because of the friendly warrior’s auto attack… when the fight was already done.

If there is a larger-scale fight, and there’s confusion, uplevels die like flies but can still provide some annoying CC for the enemy team. It’s arguable what’s best to do, but sometimes it’s good to take them out first if they are squishy. That’s why, if we called one out, it was because they die like flies and one less enemy is one less enemy…. when you are fighting groups 2 -3 times your size.

Props Drarnor Kunoram That’s true – different people will say different things. If there’s one thing people can agree on it would be Necro sustain needing more improvements.

Cheers to you guys, gonna have to get working on another vid now >:P

Ok I will try. I don’t often zerg around with large groups, but if a fun opportunity presents itself, anything can happen ….maybe I’ll try out a new Chill-mancer build I’ve been thinking of for large groups… anyway…
Ah, it’s not hard to record at all as long as you have the software and a computer/laptop that can handle it. You also need a video editing software. I use Windows Movie Maker… it’s free, but it gets the job done. There’s much better things out there though :P
Good luck

I find that using spectral walk, locust swarm, or both, then going into DS (can even use spectral armor – it alone would be enough) will buy you enough time to outlast their immunity. Warrior approaches you, pops the stance, loses 2 secs while getting to you to avoid your CC, you dodge the initial blow, get another sec or 2, then use the above skills. SW and wurm are good to keep a distance, but I think just one of those would be enough if we’re just talking about berserk stance. Even better, if you drag them away from where you used S.Walk, they’ll be chasing you for a good while, you’ll tele back and by that time Zerk stance should run out. Other than that…. watch for their animations, dodge the important attacks, and run xD … or that’s what I try to do.

@swagolas,
Yeah Undead Runes are good in raw condi dmg but condi duration from Krait is just too good if you got 0 points in Spite :P
Ah, Plague Signet is nice, especially when they made it so it can’t be blinded >:)
Oh I completely forgot about Lingering Curse… I’m guessing your scepter melts people? I gotta try it :P
I’m glad you are enjoying it

@mikeew,
I use Fraps, but I got a new laptop so I’ll be using Shadowplay. Shadowplay is some GeForce program that the newer graphics cards use. I haven’t tested it much but apparently it’s really good (and free). I think you need GeForce 600 series or higher for it though.
What kind of builds/vids of eotm? Roaming or? :O
And sure haha, you can be my friend xD <3

All in all the wurm is good the way it is now. The only thing that’s weird about it is its blast… which seems a bit out of place. Sure, its attacks are strong, but it shines in that it gets you out of sticky spots (stun break and port) so the blast+poison is really… out of place, in my opinion. The only improvement that’s reasonable would be to make the blast around you, as you tele back. So you explode in poison and what not, then teleport to your wurm. This would make it easier to combo with your allies’ fields. For example, if a thief drops a smoke field on you, and you use the wurm to port out, you’d be stealthed and away.
-Its cooldown is in line with other teleports like Blink and Lightning Flash, Judge’s Intervention, and what not, so it’s nothing outrageously long.
-It’s cast time is there but it’s not really relevant because you’ll be summoning it before a fight anyway, so reducing its cast time isn’t that necessary.
-Its range seems in line with other teleport too. Of course, I wouldn’t mind an increased range, lower cooldown and cast time, but overall the teleport is in line with other teleports too so buffing it flat out isn’t justified when the skill is already good.
-Swapping positions with the wurm looks good at first, but you use the wurm to get away, right? So if you swap positions with it, and it lives through the whole cooldown of the teleport…. your wurm will now be back in the fray, which means your teleport will also be back in the fray, and you don’t want that.

Nope, not quitting…. my Necro has seen nothing but buffs

swagolas.9732:

Hy, I’ve used Ascii’s power build for a few months, but then Ive seen your plays here so Ive decided to try out this build and I have 2 suggestions/questions for you:

1) Undead runes over Krait – coz I like to be a frontline warrior and it gives more toughness and toughness based condi dmg, when equipped these runes got +150 condi dmg in raw.

Hello
Sorry for the late reply. Hectic life is hectic,
Undead Runes are really good for their toughness increase and the raw condition power. It may work for some builds, but for the one I currently use, there is just so much defense piled in there that I feel like you do need the condi duration from Runes of Krait. I think the raw condi dmg is excellent for quick damage output, but the toughness is not as necessary (in my opinion). Over long periods of time, I think the condi duration from Runes of Krait is just stronger. 45% bleed duration is almost like dealing 45% more damage, especially if the enemy is low on cleanses (it goes well with the on-crit bleeds from the Curses minor, goes well with Weakening Shroud trait, and goes well with Locust Swarm + Plague, although that was nerfed a bit – they made it so your power doesn’t double so Locst Swarm doesn’t hit as hard anymore. Booo!)

swagolas.9732:

2) Do you use ascended trinkets? Ive had enough laurels to get my ascendeds and they’re fine with Condi/ Tough / Vita / Precision

Finally I have around max. 2100+ condi dmg, ~ 40 % crit , 23k hp , 2800 toughness
Thx 1 more time for the build, wait your next vids

Yes, my whole build is ascended, which brings my armor up to about 2850. I use the +5 vitality infusions. I would definitely say to buy ascended trinkets. Once you buy them, they’ll be good forever, basically, as long as you are condi. I also use the Condi/Toughness/Vitality/Precisions ones, although I do have a few Rabid trinkets too.

Wow…. your stats are really good. I have the same amount of condi dmg, BUT with Guard Stacks, Corruption sigil, and full ascended set… so I think if you had those buffs/ascendeds too your condi dmg would be probably be up there in the 2250 range. 40% crit chance, 23k HP and 2800 toughness is excellent, it hits the spot haha xD How do you find your damage with Undead Runes? And have you tried Runes of Krait or?

EremiteAngel.9765:

4) terrible build for fighting thieves if you ask me…the only thing that is going to really hurt the thief is plague form, but the thief must be dumb enough to stay in your plague circle…

Which kind of thief did you find the build terrible against?
I find this odd because for me, thieves are one of the easiest targets if they aren’t condi, and if it’s a 1v1. If it’s an outnumbered fight, things get a bit more tricky.
-If it’s a dagger/dagger thief, they rely on cloak and dagger. If you can anticipate that and dodge it, then try to burst them, they won’t like it. Also try to stand around in your marks – preferably mark of blood because it has a low cooldown incase they dodge through it. Sometimes if I see a thief use Basilisk venom from afar, I place Mark #5 on myself. They will usually pre-cast cloak and dagger and will steal off of you, but the mark will fear them. Then you can burst them from there – it really depends though.
- If it’s a dagger/pistol thief, it’s more tricky cuz of the ability to reset the fight and the blinds. For them… I try to cast locust swarm when they try to blind with the powder so it negates their blinds (the locust swarm will remove the blind so your next attack actually counts). A good strategy is also to wait for them to do the smoke field, then place the wall infront of them. They will leap through the wall and will get feared back without stealthing.
-Condi thieves are a pain in the butt. I haven’t had many encounters with them, but I already know it isn’t pretty. If it’s a 1v1, I swap to dagger off-hand and plague signet.
-For any melee thief, it is good to kite around your wall. A good position is to grab the protection and stand right infront of the wall so if they steal to you, they don’t steal OVER the wall, they steal on the wall, which will fear them.
- I also try to pull them away as I’m fighting them. For example, using spectral walk and drag them away from where I initially used it (fighting while moving away)so if I need to port back, it’s at a semi-safe distance.

EremiteAngel.9765:

Verdict: I can see the effectiveness of this mobility build for group fights because chances are, the enemy will want to take you out first and with your immense mobility, it won’t be easy for them. But it is more a drawback than a boon for solo fights. Losing 2 utility skills to mobility and having traits centered around spectral makes it too restrictive for the variety of opponents you will face.

Interesting. I rarely solo roam anymore because there just isn’t time – but I also prefer groups. I personally find the build I run can take on a lot of the things in a solo environment… BUT one of the biggest downsides – for me personally – are condi-heavy people (because of low condi removal) and ranged people (jukes don’t work too well when the greatsword mesmer can still hit you). I don’t solo roam often tho, so hearing feedback is always excellent

EremiteAngel.9765:

I am currently running this build. modified off Ascii’s build. a balance of power and condi, carrion + dire + rabid + berserker. Utility skills are not restricted by the traits, very versatile. can take on most enemies.
give it a try for solo roaming =) bad thing is if you run into a zerg you can’t run =D
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRQQNArYWjc0Ubb5NO2wfbCchSqeA6FIAi2o/gJYEA-w
Basically the utility skills in place are very useful in every type of fights. The 2 skills below, can be used in just about any fight against any build to give you a strong advantage.
spectral armor = stun break + protection + DS regaining
signet of spite = instant loading of condis on your opponent
The only skill that I change depending on my opponent is the corrupt boon slot.
- If i am clearing camps, and there is a point I can stack the npcs on, I change it to spectral wall.
- If there is no good point that I can stack the npcs on, I use epidemic.
- If I am fighting a warrior/guardian/ele, I use corrupt boon.
- If i am fighting a thief/mesmer/necro, I use spectral wall or well of power.
- sometimes through the first fight, especially if i lose, and i notice the enemy is full condi, i use plague signet then go and hunt them again for a rematch…works like a charm against them =D

Very interesting. I’m sure if does a crazy amount of damage, and you don’t need Krait Runes because of the condi duration from Spite. Which runes do you grab? It also seems to cover the power-end of damage as well as the condi damage end, but seems to rely a bit more on condi…so if the enemy is resistant against one thing, the other source of damage will still hit hard.
How do you find your survivability with the build?
How do you do in outnumbered fights?

Thanks for the feedback first person to write a throughout feedback post

EremiteAngel.9765:

thanks for the insights.
personally I gave your build a try, slightly modified, solo roaming. i dont have a group.
here are my thoughts on the pros and cons, not sure if you agree =)
pros:
1) great mobility. I can outrun even a warrior/thief!
point in case, a group of pugs, including a warrior chased me up and down the south island and on the third trip around he just stood there and gave up.

Haha yes! It’s excellent when they give up and you know they mutter to themselves “hacks…”

2) unpredictability. with good use of the surrounding terrain as you have shown in your video, all the teleporting around can give you valuable breathing room to heal or reset your skills.

Agreed, most people don’t expect a Necro to port. It’s even better if you teleport behind the enemy. They will lose a few seconds trying to figure out where you went.

EremiteAngel.9765:

3) good synergy with the traits. going spectral traits with spectral skills is a great way of remaining tanky for a long time while dishing out decent damage.

Agreed

Cons:
1) the trait synergy restricts the swapping of utility skills when facing different opponents because when you do swap, you end up having one useless or less effective trait.

This is true. When you swap out Spectral Wall, for example, you have only one spectral skill on your skill bar remaining (unless you take Spectral Armor). Spectral Attunement AND Spectral Mastery are two traits which only affect that one skill (spectral walk). I still think that the two traits make spectral walk really, really good, but I do agree that having 2 traits dedicated to only one utility skill isn’t optimal. With the new update, Last Grasp (Spectral Armor when below 50%) will count as a spectral skill and the buffs will apply to it as well. That might make things a bit better in this regard. If not, you could swap out some of the traits, if it works for you (for example, taking Path of Corruption – I do this in GvGs).

EremiteAngel.9765:

2) full condi will definitely suffer against an anti condi build, regardless of build.

Which anti-condi builds do you mean?
I find that most people cry about condi builds in WvW xD

3) the lack of any form of boon removals means that if you fight headlong against a boon stacking opponent, you are going to be at a bad disadvantage. although as in your post, you kite until their boon/stability run out…

Yes that’s true. Boon-heavy targets can be very annoying. Guardian and Ele are the main culprit, I think, right?
The good thing about them is that they generally have low health pools, which means condis will drain them pretty quick (unless it’s a shout guardian). Some elementalists can also be a problem, especially if they have focus, which cleanses conditions well. The build isn’t good at everything, so I’d agree this is one of its weaknesses (boon stripping). But… some which are boon heavy are boon heavy because their base stats are pretty low, so they rely on boons to basically “make up” for what they lack… unless you are a warrior -_- .

EremiteAngel.9765:

since you are a pure condi build with little to no boon removals, do you have trouble fighting

1) anti-condi builds like diamond skin ele

2) stability heavy builds like ele, guardian, warrior

1) I very rarely encounter diamond skin eles and when I do, it’s mostly with a group so their diamond skin doesn’t really last long before they drop below 90%. I only ever faced a Diamond Skin ele once in a 1v1. It was kind of cheap on their part, but once I switched to Minion Mastery, she melted in less than 15 secs. If I were solo roaming and I ran into a diamond skin ele, to be honest I don’t know how I would react xD cuz it never happened. If you are alone and you are fighting a few enemies, and one of them is a diamond skin ele, I don’t think there’s much you can do unless you focus the others first.
- Other anti condi things like Berserk Stance – I just wait it out and attack another target while the stance wears off.
- Melandru + Lemongrass – the long condi duration of bleeds from Runes of Krait + Koi cakes overrides their condi reduction, at least for bleeds, which there’s plenty of.

2) With stability heavy people I tend to kite until the stability runs out. Slows/cripples work just fine on them still, and scepter auto attack will still melt them xD (along with other skills). If we are in a larger group – around 5 – I sometimes take Corrupt Boon, and that thing just melts people with stability. If I don’t have that, kiting works, at least for me. I don’t find stability to be a huge issue.
If I’m alone, I also try to kite until stability runs out.

So…. trouble fighting Diamond Skin eles? I’d say yes. In a 1v1? No.
Trouble fighting stability? Usually no. In a 1v1? No.

Amins.3710:

Epi + Perpelx.

True, I didn’t think of that. Still though, bringing it has its ups and downs.

P.S. I’m remember you from WvW dat burst tho

Holl.3109:

Whats your staff skin?

It is the Dreamthistle staff skin

They are not OP…
but with regards to the video… very well played :P
It’s really irrelevant if there’s many uplvls in EOTM zergs.. the fact is it’s a lot of people, and as someone mentioned, one smart uplvl could make a difference. People who already have lvl 80s bring their uplvls to EOTM, which means they aren’t complete newbies. They were just outplayed :P

I have never tried using perplex runes but considered it. Some condi Necros actually do use them, and it can be very nasty cuz on top of the Torment, you also have confusion >_> So while you are being feared, you stun break (1 tick of confusion), use heal skill (another tick of confusion)… a lot of damage and pressure. I think they are really good in 1v1, 1v2, 1v3 scenarios, or when you aren’t fighting too many enemies because the runes are single-target. The cooldown on the confusion is too long for larger fights so it can get cleansed off quickly and nothing else really benefits from them. But… for 1v1s it’s pretty OP in my opinion…. but… that’s perplexity :P

Well.. with Greater Marks… you will have larger AoE, and when you cast on groups, you don’t have to worry about Aegis messing up the first mark you cast. You also don’t have to be as precise when you cast greater marks (you can be kind of sloppy, you can cast it beside someone as opposed to drag your mouse directly on top of the person because the marks are just so large. It can save valuable time :P). It’s also really good against warriors’ /engi’s blocks, and guardian heal which you can cast through and even fear with your Staff#5.

If you take Reaper’s Protection you lose a bit of AoE and options with your marks but you gain a few other positive things. Right off the bat, it’s a 4 second fear, which means really strong CC that people may be forced to break out off, and if they don’t, they’ll be pretty far from you after 4 seconds of fleeing (I’m saying 4 seconds because you have long fear duration. For me it’s more like 3 seconds). Not only will they be far but they will take a lot of damage from Terror. With any profession there will always be a window where your defenses are depleted and you can get caught in CC. With this trait it basically pushes people off of you to give you a breather (for example a Basilisk Venom thief tries to gank you, or aTrickery thief – the one that dazes when steals – tries to gank you, a warrior tries to CC you, etc). The only irritating thing is that sometimes people CC you from far away and it goes to waste, but not much can be done about that. A pretty interesting thing that can happen is… when you’re in Plague and you get CCed, the trait can trigger even tho you have stability (I didn’t test this but I’m 80% sure it happens). If the enemies are crippled and feared as you are Plaguing them, they won’t like it :P
The cooldown may seem long but when you look at it as if it was another skill on your skill bar, it’s really not. Sometimes it comes off of the cooldown just in time.

But when it comes down to it, I think it comes to personal preference. Sorry for the wall xD

Hello dear Necros,

After playing other professions (-gasp- unfaithful!) for centuries, I finally managed to get decent clips with Necro. The content doesn’t include too much solo roaming or 1v1s. It starts off with some small scale stuff, then by the middle goes into a chase, and by the end it finishes off with two 1vx fights. I would love to hear if you have any suggestions in terms of footage (what I should/shouldn’t include), or anything else

The build I use is this:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBLhZakjmebLuxvG+bTEMIS26T0NmEgyvXB-TFxCABAcIAo4JAMz+DTfCAIFAMzBA-w

As some already know, it relies on mobility to get around the battlefield and juke your opponents to stay alive, while dealing damage. I tend to play a lot of in-your-face with this build, which is risky, very fun, but it isn’t at all necessary. A dagger off-hand could also be used for more condi clears and far-range bleeds/weakness, but Warhorn provides some tanking by popping Locust Swarm then Deathshroud. Not to mention it’s pretty godly with Runes of Krait :P
- I did not include any armor and trinket stats. I use a mix of rabid and dire such that my crit chance is around 35-40% (more or less depending on if you want more damage or tankyness).

I hope you enjoy

Uriel.6310:

Good deal! I actually like that tip and may give it a go. I’ve always been skeptical about Master of Terror too because a longer fear is not always guaranteed with the many stun breaks and stability that other classes have to counter it right away.

That’s true. But when you have short fears, people might be inclined to wait it out. If you have a really long fear, the damage is just too great for people to not stun break, and a wasted stun break is a wasted stun break
Unfortunately stability is an issue…. but I think it’s best to wait it out and kite until it runs out. Warriors… – shakes fist -
Also an interesting note is that if you take Corrupt Boon, it can corrupt their stability into a fear. With Master of Terror it’s sure to make them cry.
I have never tried the trait because I’m addicted to Soul Marks, so good luck!

@Thustlewhumber & Ragion ty :P

@Uriel,
It looks quite good stat-wise, very similar to what I also have. I plugged in an exotic rabid backpiece as well. I tried putting in rabid crests. Unfortunately they are not exotic, but they do increase your condi dmg by about 120 (when compared to the Exquisite Emerald Jewels), which is pretty significant. Apart from that, it looks quite good

Just as a side note…. I noticed you took Master of Terror. If you took Reaper’s Protection, it becomes a 4 second AoE fear when you are CCed. Not necessary to take it at all, but it seems pretty crazy :P

Other than those things.. thumbs up

Please think for one second. Breathe in…. breathe out. Thank you.

“Our focus for necromancers in this balance update has been on improving their survivability through utilities and traits as well as improving the overall effectiveness of their melee and skirmishing weapons.”

" Along with weapon skill updates, your utility skills have been updated to provide more survivability over time."

-Have they shown us any significant improvements through utilities and traits? Not really. The 15-point in Soul Reaping and Unholy Sanctuary are the only things that got buffed, along with Spectral Armor, but those are hardly the things we needed to get improved for “better sustain”. So does this improve our sustain? No.
-Overall effectiveness with melee and skirmishing weapons? Yes, but only Axe and Dagger.
…Now think again. They announced the Mesmer changes. To my knowledge, they mentioned no PU andclone death changes at this time, which is pretty significant. Then, about a week later they announced the Necro/Guard changes. In these changes, they announced further Mesmer changes. What does that mean? It means the stuff they announce is hardly the full list they are showing us. So since we did NOT get real improvements on utilities and traits, just as with the delayed announcement of Mesmer changes, we can expect stuff for Necro, or at least I am. If not… then… well… yeah…. -clears throat- ahem, ok.

1. Add a permanent (without having to trait for it) Soul Marks
2. Decrease the natural Deathshroud degeneration.
3. Make Dagger#2 AoE.

Nightwrath.1679:

MethaneGas.8357:

Nightwrath.1679:

Another good video Methane but no love for power! But none the less still fun to watch the gameplay.

Now just need the fall tournament to start so u can show them real necro gameplay

Haha ty ty
I sometimes make builds for power through the build maker (I always wanted to make a Runes of Melandru + lemongrass power Necro for WvW) but never actually got around to it :P … maybe one day
I think power Necro is harder….

Hmm runes if melandru and lemon grass never thought of that but wouldn’t it cut our condi in take by a lot which one a main source of our heal plus dagger 4 is always nice

So many options. But now dagger auto semi cleave woo!

Haha :P Well…. it would reduce condi intake – so a) more survival and b) shorter roots. Roots are one of the most annoying (and deadly) things in larger fights, at least for me. And I think most condis last long enough for Consume Conditions anyway. I’ve never really tested it but who knows… it could be interesting :P

Yeah the cleave’s gonna be nice :P Wonder if that will apply to the Deathshroud gain as well… that would be 12% every 3rd attack O.o IF it applies, although I somehow think it doesn’t.

Nightwrath.1679:

Another good video Methane but no love for power! But none the less still fun to watch the gameplay.

Now just need the fall tournament to start so u can show them real necro gameplay

Haha ty ty
I sometimes make builds for power through the build maker (I always wanted to make a Runes of Melandru + lemongrass power Necro for WvW) but never actually got around to it :P … maybe one day
I think power Necro is harder….

@Yam <3 :O

@Kyotee, the path of a Necro is a long one, and different from other classes but it can be incredibly fun to play I haven’t been solo roaming a lot lately… so I don’t know exactly how things stand in this meta when you’re alone. I will say that I’ve been solo roaming in the Borderlands the past few days and the build was incredible – especially in the new area they added in the middle of the map. That place is juke heaven

Anyway… in terms of the build:
-I use a mix of rabid and dire such that my final crit chance is about 35-40%. You can use more dire for more tankyness, or more rabid for more damage.
-Sigil of Corruption and Energy on Staff. Sigil of Energy and Sigil of Torment on Scepter/Warhorn.
-Sigil of Torment COULD be changed, but I like it since it’s AoE, and it’s a unique condition so enemy condi clears have a chance of removing Torment instead of another more important condition (It also works well with plague. Locust Swarm + Plague = AoE Torment (up to 2 stacks from sigil alone), Poison, blinds and bleeds).

This is the link for the build: http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/necromancer/?5.0|6.0.0.0.0.0|b.0.0.g.0.0.0.0.0|0.714.0.714.0.714.0.714.0.714.0.714.0.0.0.0.0.0|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|0.u4a9.k58.0.k4a|30.e|3r.49.48.40.4f|e
Things to keep in mind:
-I did not include any trinkets or armor stats because it really doesn’t matter. You can grab any stats (rabid or dire) you want as long as your crit chance is around 35-40% (again, more dire for tankyness, more rabid for dmg – although I think the damage is more than fine as is).
-Koi Cakes instead of Pizza works just fine.
-The runes are Runes of Krait. On the site they have the older version. This link is the newer version. In my opinion, these Runes give you a massive damage increase. (nice little detail. With Torment sigil and these runes, popping Locust Swarm + Plague can cause up to 3 stacks of torment, AoE. It makes Plague a really high damage skill, in addition to it being tanky). I usually say to pop locust swarm because Locust Swarm heals your Deathshroud, can crit (which can cause nice bleeds), pulses a LOT (triggers Sigil of Torment well), and Plague increases your power, so the Swarm hits for a nice amount too.

Spectral Wall can be subbed to whatever you wish, depending on what you like. When we have a solid group, I sometimes take Corrupt Boon because it destroys guardians/warriors/elementalists. Epidemic is also a good choice, especially if you have more than one condi person on the team, although I never personally take it.

Curses:
- Weakening Shroud used to be a LOT better, but I still take it because I pop deathshroud when I’m in a tough spot (for example, hammer trained) and the weakness can reduce some of the damage you take.
-Terror provides burst from Doom, Reaper’s Mark, and Reaper’s Protection.
-Spectral Attunement gives you sustain and survivalbility. It also makes your Spectral Walk 10x better and the wall too, which you can kite around.

Death:
-Reaper’s Protection because it deals a lot of damage, provides AoE CC, and is another layer of defense – when a Thief tries to backstab, etc.

Soul Reaping:
- Spectral Mastery makes your spectral skills more frequent. More frequent jukes, more frequent walls, more life force. B
- Soul Marks - This gem gives you sustain through a constant supply of deathshroud.

I feel like I went into too much and too little detail at the same time. Anyway, I hope the build works for you You can always personalize it

Why?
PvE = deathshroud is fine.
WvW = deathshroud is fine.
sPvP = not 100% sure but with experienced players, should be fine.

So why a revamp? After playing Necro… since Beta…. I feel like I have more than a good grasp of Deathshroud and I don’t have trouble managing it, although I do trait for it a bit. I don’t think it needs “fixing”… because it isn’t broken.
It’s a team player game and people should stop treating it as a single player game. I think a lot of the time people complain about something but they don’t even put it into a team context. “Oh, I can’t cleanse while I’m in DS”. Yeah, well… bring a shout guardian or shout warrior with/without warhorn, staff ele with 30 in water magic, or other supporty things, and you’ll be fine because others will cover your weaknesses. It’s just how a team-player game works.

The only thing that would make deathshroud a bit easier would be to increase the amount that you gain from common skills because as is, if you don’t trait for it, it isn’t easy to come by – but that’s it. Maybe a tiny buff here and there, like reducing the natural deathshroud degeneration, sprinkle in a permanent Soul Marks (without having to trait for it) but a complete revamp? Nah. I think if they just upped the amount we get from normal Necro things, things would be just fine and there wouldn’t be a need to make it any more complex than it already is.
Just my thoughts.

Wow.. thank you guys. I didn’t even realize people commented the past few days… so <3

@Odesseus, thank you, I am in the process of making another video. I will try to add in a lot of comments within the next video to break down a few “strategic movements” that are done Just need a few more good clips!

@mordran, ty sir.

@kaco, yeah I find Necro to require a lot more work than some other professions. I’ve been playing Ele, Guardian and Mesmer and they were really, really fun but after playing them for so long I realized Necro is simply da best It definitely isn’t easy coming to Necro from a profession like those… but with enough work and time it will be really rewarding.
It’s all about timing, positioning and saving that Putrid Mark for when it’s really needed (although I sometimes throw it around).

@ Wyrden, good luck! :P

Also, I have been using this build lately:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBLhZakjmebLuxvG+bTEMIS26T0NmEgyvXB-TFxCABAcIAo4JAMz+DTfCAIFAMzBA-w
It’s the exact same one as in the video, except I use Krait runes. I swapped to Krait runes the other day as a joke to see what would happen and I don’t often say this, but I was blown away. They only cost like 80 copper and in my opinion, they are far stronger than Torment. Torment is great, but Krait just seems to pack bigger punch because of the massive bleed duration (+45%). In this build, with Runes of Krait, I can safely say you have the damage of (or really close to) a Spite Necro, along with the crazy survival.

I have mained a Necro for a while and until recently I played Elementalist and Mesmer (with a sprinkle of Guardian) instead of my Necro. Their mobility/defense was a real thrill to play…. being able to run between and through a group of 10 enemies (in WvW) almost effortlessly and surviving was unbelievable. But then I stopped to think… my guardian and my ele did extremely low damage because I threw everything I had so I could be a super tank/support. My mesmer did huge damage, but mainly to a single target and couldn’t catch a grandma with a cane. When I came back to Necro… it took me a while to re-adjust. Not only did I live almost as well as my other professions, but I dealt 100x more damage… in AoE (Krait Runes > Torment Runes it appears). After a few days I lived as well as my other professions and I wasn’t even specced to be a tank. Necro is not underpowered… it’s mainly people who play the profession wrong when coming to it from something else and expecting it to be the same xD

If the updates give us more life force generation through our weapon skills and utilities to give us more sustain (through deathshroud) … honestly.. I’ve seen nothing but buffs for my Necro xD

Edit: Oh god. Too bad it’s late… after reading page 2 I’m more than tempted to correct a few people.

A stack of Torment on staff auto attack could be nice :P Our staff auto attack is similar to Mesmer scepter auto attack in that they both do 0 condition damage by themselves but are strongest when used as condition weapons (imo). Mesmers will get torment on theirs… would be nice to get one on ours. Doesn’t have to be long either. Two seconds is just enough to cause some pressure.

What NeXeD is a good idea. Sitting on marks to know when they’re coming is pretty much a must, in my opinion. When the mark pops, they are MOST likely behind you, trying to land a backstab. It depends on the thief you fight, but there’s a few kinds. If they’re power, they are probably Dagger / Dagger or Dagger / Pistol. D/P is the set that creates lil smoke fields and they go invisible. For that setup, try to somehow fear them as they are trying to leap through the field. The best way is to quickly pop deathshroud and hit 3. The only thing that sucks is the attack that created the smoke field shoots a bullet that blinds so your fear can be blinded.

D/D have no smoke fields and they can stealth mainly when they are near you. They have to hit you (in most cases) to stealth, then they go around and backstab. So try to play dumb and make em come near and watch for their attacks. MOST likely they’ll try to do Cloak and Dagger (attack that stealths them). If you dodge that, they will be in trouble. If you burst them then, they may panic and use Shadow Refuge (the big invisibility field with a house icon thing that stealths). If they use this, try to quickly place your Staff #5 skill. Hopefully they will be feared out of the invisibility field. This will reveal them and they won’t be able to stealth for a few secs so you’ll have a huge advantage.

Thieves are tricky to fight at first, especially if it’s a good thief, and if it’s a 1v1. A good way to know the enemy is to play their class and understand how they work and what they do. Having a thief friend helps

maha.7902:

As for Necro’s lack of “team buffs”. I think that’s not really true. Necro, as a class, is not a Guardian. They are supposed to be the debuffers, and that means weakening the enemy as opposed to strengthening the ally. Weakness on a group of enemies is similar to Protection boon on a group of allies. Cripple on a group of enemies is similar to Swiftness to a group of allies.

The problem is, their debuffer role is like almost exclusively PvP-centric. You can apply weakness with other classes in PvE, chill is irrelevant, vulnerability can done by literally every other class too – and poison is a non-issue. Their support utilities need to have a pvp/pve split in order to make necros worth taking.

Well… PvE is sort of a different realm. In my opinion, player skill and class mechanics and all that jazz work really…. differently there. I feel like a lot more builds are viable, but at the same time only few builds and professions are preferred for speed runs or whatever, cuz it’s allowed and the environment isn’t as complex/dynamic as PvP. Not complex/dynamic as in limited build variety (people mainly like DPS), little counter plays, less having-to-know-your-opponent, team compositions, and less crucial clutch moments – game changing stuff.
- PvP is actual players with minds, and conditions are far stronger there because CC condis like Fear, Cripple, Chill actually count. In PvE, Necro’s debuffing condis fall right off (or the enemy is just ranged so slows don’t matter) and in many cases Fear – which is one of the core conditions of a condi Necro – doesn’t even affect enemies.

With that said, I play Necro in dungeons and meta events with my guildies here and there, and I have no issues.

Actually, I feel Necro does not NEED any form of escape outside of WvW, and even there, they do have options (which are only really necessary for roaming, to be honest).

As for Necro’s lack of “team buffs”. I think that’s not really true. Necro, as a class, is not a Guardian. They are supposed to be the debuffers, and that means weakening the enemy as opposed to strengthening the ally. Weakness on a group of enemies is similar to Protection boon on a group of allies. Cripple on a group of enemies is similar to Swiftness to a group of allies.

With that said, I think Necro’s strengths should be debuffing the enemy, whether it’s chill, cripple, blinds or weakness. Unless you grab off-hand dagger, I think the Necro has limited options in weakness right now, which could maybe be improved (For example, adding weakness to Wail of Doom – warhorn daze, after the daze expires – or adding it into certain traits. Maybe adding weakness in trait lines which aren’t Spite, so the condition duration gained from Spite, mixed in with condition duration food isn’t out of control and perma weakness isn’t easily achieved, but is still there).
-I think the Necro is supposed to be the profession that doesn’t directly help allies by buffing them, but debuffs the enemies instead to INDIRECTLY helps allies (after all… it is a Necromancer, not a Guardian).

I don’t know what a Necro’s weakness should be because I think different builds make up for different weaknesses, but generally, I feel like a Necro’s weakness is ranged enemies. A Necro right now can kite melee really well, but ranged units are unaffected by chills and cripples so they can keep shooting.

-I think in group fights, such as WvW, a Necro’s kryptonite is anything that hits hard, is ranged and hides behind a good frontline (hard to get to). A Necro doesn’t have any deflection auras / walls / shields, and so while the melee atackers can be kited, range keeps shooting, ,and that is why I think range is the Necro’s Achilles Heel.

Andele,
You forgot to include Grasping Dead, on a Necromancer. Additionally, this becomes a lot more complex when you include traits and sigils. Traits such as Chilling Darkness on a Necro (blinds chill) increase the amount of CC a Necro can have by quite a bit.
For example, from 15 we go to 19. This includes 4 more chills (plague, shadow fiend, Deathly Swarm and Well of Darkness. Most of those are AoE too).

Anyway, as was already said, listing ALL CC that a profession could possibly muster up is pointless because I’m sure we all know that a Necro can’t have a dagger, warhorn, scepter, focus, staff, and axe all at the same while while having every single utility and elite at the same time, which applies to all other professions.

The fact that you provided no counter arguments and fell back on using religion, etc. (i.e. stuff completely unrelated to GW2) is a testament to how wrong you are.

Andele.1306:

To make a easy comparison, on the fight against liadri with the Exhausted gambid, every other profession has a skill under 30 s cooldown which lets them block shadowfall or a under 15s cooldown skill which lets them evade it, necros dont have either and the additional 12-20k depending on build doesnt actually do anything against a 130k hit.

That doesn’t make sense. You compare one fight, one tiny fraction of the game (i.e. fighting Liadri with Exhausted Gambit —> No endurance --> No dodging —> basically taking out a HUGE aspect of actual in-game combat) and then make claims that we need blocks and evades? Really?

As for your previous argument that CC/Soft CC (of which Necro has plenty) does not make up for Necro defense. Let’s say that there’s a group of enemies, melee. You cast staff #3 and Dark Path into them, then dodge away from them or fear them. They move 66% slower and they can’t catch up to you. If they can’t catch up, they can’t deal damage. Plain and simple. Is that not, in a way, similar to having a leap, or a teleport, but backwards? It is not YOU who is quick, it’s THEM who are slow. You can compare other classes’ CC/soft CC all you want but in practice, a warrior, guardian, mesmer, etc. could never achieve a similar result with such ease i.e. effortlessly (with 2 skills, one which is actually innate to the class —> Dark Path) chill a group of enemies – while still maintaining a reasonable kiting distance between you and the attacker.

Guards can very easily have perma swiftness with a shout build and using a supplementary lootstick (that is, 4 points and 2 traits which would be taken either way for permanent aoe swiftness),

Oh… so now perma swiftness is mobility? I thought only “free” point-click teleports were considered mobility. (P.s. Necro can maintain perma swiftness with Spectral walk and warhorn, and if not that, there’s always runes of Traveler or Speed).

necros dont even have the OPTION to sacrifice everything for high block/evades or even reliable long term cc defense.

You don’t NEED long term CC defense.
1) Because it’s a team oriented game.
2) Because CC rarely equates to perma-CC – a CC train can be broken by the application of stability, even for a short duration, such as 3 secs (or simply stun break). So, for a Necro to sacrifice everything for high survivability (Which I’m guessing you are referring to, as that’s what evades/blocks entail), you trait 30 into Soul Reaping, along with any other traitline with defense, along with defensive runes, sigils, spectral, etc. In other words, you’ll be an uber tank and thus, very survivable.

My final point. The only reason you’d NEED the blocks/evades is for stuff like Liadri, which I think is the root for all your arguments. Liadri, however, is a solo encounter, and I don’t think that’s a fair stance to argue from. Liadri is only one aspect of the game (You also referred to the Exhaustion gambit – no dodge – which further narrows down the small aspect of the game that you were already referring to). Liadri (with the gambit) is only a miniscule aspect of PvE. PvE is only 1/3 of the whole game, so the point from which you are arguing from is incredibly narrow. You may be referring to bosses in dungeons, or this or that, but you are arguing from a solo perspective. The game never was, and never will be balanced around 1v1s.

TL;DR: Addressing CC / Soft CC and damage mitigation. Addressing the fault at looking at the game as if it did not contain any dodges, while also looking at the game as if it were a 1 v 1 or 1 v x.

I’m sorry Bhawb. I’m always up for having a nice, clean debate but when people ride in here, filled with wrong information and call others ignorant idiots… I can’t sit still. I think a wall of text with proper evidence is sometimes the best way xD I’ll limit it next time, I swear

Andele.1306:

Oh i do love the game (mostly for a combination of lore and kinda gripping that old old wow feel in terms of progress one makes), just FROM A OBJECTIVE STANDPOINT the fact that half of our utilities didnt work in DS and right now a fourth still dont work properly, that its scaling and applied effects with it are utter chaos, how Life Blast (and multiple other projectiles starting outside player hitbox) misses if enemy is in 110~ range, how the freaking tooltip of DS (traited with near to death) is still bugged/written incorrectly, etc, etc so that i dont start doing a list of all the mechanical/scripting errors; ITS IMPLEMENTATION IS BAD.

You love the game and yet I have never heard anything positive from you… what a conundrum. If you like lore there’s plenty of GW books out there.
-The fact that the utilities don’t work in DS is quite simple. That’s how it works. You simply need to get over that. It sure as hell doesn’t bother me. It would be OP if you could use utilities in DS, hands down. You could pop spectral armor… wurm… spectral wall, spectral walk, plague signet while IN deathshroud…. it would make Necros literally too tanky and powerful, and denying that is foolish. You and me both know that. Onto the next question.
-You worry too much about minor details as opposed to just playing the game. That’s my take on that.

Andele.1306:

And yeah in concept proper DS usage is a art form, tho any necro who has played long enough or knows at least knows its current functionality will confirm my previous statement.

So I’m a Necro that hasn’t played enough or doesn’t know much, right? Well… evidence would suggest otherwise. Once again, Andele, check your facts.

Technically, true, tho, in practical usage, because of actually reasonable power balance of necros not having any free teleports/mobility nor any evasion/block moves

No teleports or mobility? Once again, un-true. Simply untrue. I’m sorry, I wouldn’t link a video out of nowhere, but I have to. I think there’s no other way.

http://youtu.be/JTUXJl67hPA
THAT, is mobile. When you make a statement like “necros have no teleports/mobility” you are literally saying “they have no mobility and teleports”. A false statement.
-It is true that Necros have no blocks or evading moves but they do have lots of control skills which serve a similar purpose. I won’t get into detail.

Andele.1306:

Best concept, one of the worst executions, sadly like half the game…

Seriously, why do you even play this game? Logic dictates that if one dislikes something, one will stop doing that something.

I personally think Deathshroud is brilliant, and it is very well executed, like 99% of this game. I’m not sure where I stand with healing being allowed in DS, all I know is that it would kick butt :P .
Using and managing Deathshroud is an art, and it takes skill. I’ve fought very few Necros who had good Deathshroud management. Those that did were a very big pain to kill.

Bloodwort MacFangho.4638:

MethaneGas.8357:

Flaphy.7135:

Spectral walk btw enables u to jump from any height without damage, if u time the doubleclick right.

This is true Had a lot of fun times jumping off cliffs before just to see a few chasers jump off happily with me. They soon met their end.

Sorry – this one is new to me .. can you elaborate on how this works? Do you time the activation of spectral walk/Teleport just before hitting the ground (sort of like going into spectral walk just before hitting the ground and then hitting the teleport before the actual hit on ground so that you teleport back up a few ‘units’?)? I assume that’s it – effectively zeroing your downward velocity and restarting the ‘jump’ just above ground level.

Yes, that’s exactly how it works. It resets your falling distance. So if you are falling down, if you quickly press SW twice (so start spectral walk, then use spectral return) before you hit the ground, you will take no damage. The key is to just tap the skill twice some time, or just before, hitting the ground.

Duch.1850:

Amazing video O.O
Could you put full specification with weapons/armor/accesories ?

Ty
I use only dire and Rabid stats on weapons/armor/trinkets such that with 30 points in Curses my crit chance lies between 35 – 40%, which basically means that I have a fair bit of Rabid. For more tankyness, you can easily go with more Dire.
-As for Sigils and Runes: Runes of Torment.
-Sigil of Torment on Scepter, Sigil of Energy on Warhorn
-Sigil of Energy and Corruption on Staff

I actually didn’t believe all the fuss about this trait until I came into OS the other day. I didn’t expect the ele to have it, but alas… she did.

It took her 5 hours to kill me, but she did, as I couldn’t break through it (with her heal signet). There’s a few things I think could work against this, but you’d have to actually spec to fight a diamond skin ele. I’d imagine sigil of Leeching, on top of Runes of Scavanger could deal enough direct damage for you to come in with poison or some condis. My thoughts would be to trigger the sigil and rune life steal, then pop into deathshroud for Doom (only if you have Terror) and Dark path, followed by more chain fears. It worked for me in sPvP, but the eles I fought weren’t that great.

That being said… 1v1 is 1v1. Depends how you play the game… but in small scale fights, like team-fights, I’d imagine a Diamond Skin ele might as well not even use that trait, as even the fly-by AoE will get her HP down.

Lastly, I dueled that Ele again after the mishap. I promptly swapped around a trait or two and specced as a Minion Master. Let’s just say she didn’t want to duel again.

alamore.1974:

-snip -

alamore.1974:

Lol you don’t play necro do you… thought so.
On the ele, they are one of the.most active.gameplay you can get here. They take a lot.more skill to survive then most classes do. But there damage.is.second to none.
And on the.thief part yes they.have.little access to stability, still better then necro… and then.you throw in stealth and the ability to disengage,

I am sorry… I’m sorry. There’s so much wrong here.
Surviving with a Necro is, I’d say, as hard as surviving on an ele (and I’m saying that uneasily, because I actually find surviving with staff ele a little easier…. but that’s just me).
-Elementalist is very mobile BECAUSE they have the lowest armor and health out there. The least amount of base armor and vitality out of any of the other 7 classes out there. Which means what? They need to compensate for that somehow. How? Well, I think TakeCare already touched on that.

-Also: Thief does NOT have better access to stability than a Necro. That’s simply not true. Honestly… how can you say something that’s so… not… true? Good luck wasting your elite skill (on a thief) for a bit of stability, I’ll keep my deathshroud.

alamore.1974:

One class the.runs a cc build.completly shuts necro down f we fit multiple stunn breakers we lose all our utility and in turns makes us practicly usless. Since our weapons are just meh.

Go lv a necro to 80 and play him for a while

This, again, isn’t true at all. I have two stun breaks on my Necro and I have no problem with too much CC. Sure, sometimes I mess up and get thrown around, but that’s why I have deathshroud – it soaks it up, then I pick myself up and bring in the pain. Also… a good player wouldn’t allow themselves to be easily caught in a CC train. Warrior skills are pretty telling – you can see an earthsahker coming. You know their rotation and with that, you know when to dodge. Get your facts straight.

P.S. Necro weapons are amazing.

Bubblez.4612:

If anet doesnt give necros a blink ability then they should at least reduce the cast time of flesh wurm down to 1/2 seconds. This way we would get at least a little more mobility and be able to outrun people better. It sucks not being able to hardly ever get away from people.

Well… the long cast time is a bit of a pain, but my recommendation would be to summon the wurm before a fight starts. Let’s say you see a group of enemies and you want to engage. If things go south, which way would you run? Back. So you summon the wurm at the back somewhere. It will wait like a loyal pet that it is, and when you need it, the cast will be instant, and you’ll port backwards.

Another little “trick” I’d recommend is that if you KNOW that you are in the deep end (the kitten hit the fan), try making your enemies face the camera away from your wurm… like in the pic below. This will cause some confusion and will buy you an extra few seconds to get away while they figure out where this porting necro went :P

EremiteAngel.9765:

the video was an eye opener. well played.

:O

Which sigils do you use, specifically which on the staff and which on the scepter/warhorn?

On my staff, I use Corruption and Energy. On my Warhorn and Scepter, I use Torment and Energy. Torment goes well with Runes of Torment and the sigil was recently buffed (50% chance on crit, 5 sec cooldown). Sometimes the sigil alone can do 2 stacks of Torment on target, if lucky. Sigil of Energy is sorta like a mini-vigor. I used to use the +40% Endurance regen food wayyyy back in the day and when I swapped to +40% condi duration, I needed something to compensate for the loss of endurance regen from food. Since that faithful day, sigils of energy are probably my favourite sigils :P

Flaphy.7135:

Quote: “A good rule of thumb is… if you are on the same elevation as the wurm, it will port you.”

Not entirely correct – you can teleport up to all spots where e.g. a mesmer can use the blinking skill (not speaking about the portal here) or a thief can jump up with his shortbow skill 5. And yes, you gotta figure out for yourselves where that works.

It’s true that you can teleport on ledges, etc. It basically works on any position that lightning flash / blink would work, as long as you position yourself well. But what I meant was with regards to it not porting when it should. If you are standing in a level field, like… I dunno, Umberglade, Speldan, or Obsidian Sanctum dueling area, and it’s a nice, level field, the wurm should almost certainly port :P

Flaphy.7135:

Spectral walk btw enables u to jump from any height without damage, if u time the doubleclick right.

This is true Had a lot of fun times jumping off cliffs before just to see a few chasers jump off happily with me. They soon met their end.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Could I borrow your wurm sometime? Mine likes to give me the big kitten sometimes and just fail blinks me. He’s an ungrateful little guy.

Although it’s partly the game’s fault. The places you can “blink” to are rather inconsistent.

Haha yeah, wurm can be tricky to start with. A lot of people I know who just started using it find it really glitchy (it was like that for me too, at start). But after a while you figure out what works. A good rule of thumb is… if you are on the same elevation as the wurm, it will port you. I generally resummon it before engaging each fight so that it’s not too far away. It’s fine if it’s far but if obstacles get in the way of you and the wurm it can glitch. And after each fight, I reset the wurm by casting Spectral Walk, Wurm teleport, then Spectral Return.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Nice video~ made me finish levelling my necro and gear it up.

I like how spectral walk has no range limit and can port you like 3000 distance back. Also, wurm doesn’t seem to have a limit either, I set mine in my spawn and ran to the other side of the map and it was still alive and I was able to port 1200 distance in that direction

Thank you, good luck with your Necro

Yeah it can be funny too cuz with Spectral Walk… if you are building siege, you can use your supply, pop SW, waypoint to keep, grab supply, and SW back to your team xD Shhh tho, don’t tell anyone
Yeah wurm works like that, makes you go in the direction where it’s at… the only thing that sucks is that if it’s too far there can be a lot of “noise” between you and the wurm, so it can glitch. I wouldn’t know for sure tho cuz I always make sure to keep my lovely little pet near me :P

Samis.1750:

Nice playing and very interesting build. I tried it out last night (without all the gear) and it is fun.

You get around the problem of necros in small scale wvw groups. We get focused on asap for a good reason. The warriors jump around and are tough to kill. The blink classes (thief, mesmer, ele) are difficult to pin down. Guardians are perhaps the toughest to kill. So you are left with the engineer, ranger and necro. Rangers have better endurance recovery and evades and movement skills on sword, gsword, dagger and shortbow. The devs even gave longbow some stealth. There aren’t many engies and many run vigor on kit swaps; Engies also have some hard cc and might not mind as much if you charge them.

Necros have death shroud. But it goes down real fast against minimal focusing. I played a condi necro awhile back in small scale wvw and it was frustrating as we needed babysitting.

Ty sir
Yeah lately I’ve been playing Ele and Guardian a lot, and Mesmer here and there. Ele and Guardian feel effortless and intuitive cuz you can heal right up when you get low. Mesmer can just disappear easily and recover. With Necro, it’s not as intuitive, and I think that’s why some people may have trouble going from a mobile class, or a sustain class like guardian/ele to a Necro. Instead of healing right up, you have Deathshroud which takes hits. I feel like Necro (for me at least) is a lot more unforgiving of mistakes, but a lot more rewarding when you do it right.

Your build avoids the problems of sustaining death shroud and poor mobility. I thought some of the replies by posters in the other thread were unnecessarily snarky. Sure, if you’re running with 4 other guildies who are seasoned wvw players there might be more optimal choices in certain situations; but one isn’t always (or rarely) running with a guild groups in mumble with a guardian to help you.

I think mastering the use of Deathshroud is key to survive, which is why I can’t play without taking Soul Marks with a staff – Deathshroud all day err’day. That’s also why I take warhorn – Locust Swarm is unbelievable. If you’re surrounded by 5 people, you get 2.2% x 5 = 11% of your Deathshroud per second. But that’s more for an in-your-face playstyle… dagger off-hand provides much better condi cleanse and range :P

And yes, I agree 100%. It’s one thing to play without a support and a whole other world when you have one. The build has many layers of defenses, so when we bring a lot of supports (shout guards or warriors), certain things could be swapped for more damage. I think I still wouldn’t ever remove SW and Wurm from my bar, but swapping the off-hand or a trait or two could work. For example, in GvGs, I take the new Curses trait instead of Spectral Attunement. Depending on who else we have in the group, I also take Corrupt Boon instead of Spectral Wall, sometimes.

Narkodx.1472:

Duuuuude no comments yet!? Very well played! Opening chase was awesome you are pro with dark path.

Cogbyrn.7283:

Your mobility Necro vids are always enjoyable to watch. Thanks for the link!

Thank you both . Dark Path is a really excellent (and often under-rated) skill imo. I haven’t played Necro much after the last big balance update cuz around that time I fell inlove with playing staff ele and guardian. With the amount of sustain those 2 professions have… It was odd coming back to Necro… until I remembered it’s all about dat Deathshroud <3

Cogbyrn.7283:

And in before “You’d do more for your group if you used Epidemic”.

Hello all,

I have made a video of some fun roaming times in WvW. The build I use can be very versatile, allowing you to switch roles as needed. In a few of the fights, my +40% condi duration food ran out, which is unfortunate. Nevertheless, and without further ado, here it is:

The build I use is:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fRAQNBLhZakjmebLuxvG+bTEMIS26T0NmEgyvXB-TVw1AAw+DkCAm5AA-w

-The most important traits, for me at least, are Soul Marks (ensures a continuous supply of life force) and Spectral Attunement and/or Terror.
-The warhorn can be swapped to off-hand dagger (although I never do it) and Spectral Wall can be swapped out depending on one’s style or situation. Runes can also be swapped around. I personally like Torment (for now) because it makes Sigils of Torment and Tainted shackles very dangerous. Your heal can apply 2 stacks of torment (although the radius around you is small, it still hits). This allows me to stack quite a bit of Torment on targets (up to 7 stacks), in AoE. Other runes would work as well, depending on one’s style :P .

-The stats are a mix of Rabid and Dire such that, with 30 points in Curses, my crit chance is around 35 – 40%.

I have made a guide a while back on Necro mobility. It is slightly outdated but for those interested, here it is. I will update it soon.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Marin-s-Mobile-Necro-Guide-WvW/first

If anyone’s interested in seeing things from the perspective of the faithful D/D Ele in my video, his youtube channel is:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TakeCare3182/videos

Anyway, I hope you enjoy

Edit: I have swapped to Runes of the Krait. My advice, get them!

I wouldn’t be too worried about it… often when people get outplayed they QQ. The Guard was outplayed by your quick reflexes – you used a skill from our class mechanic and voila. He saw a Necro and should have expected fears.

About a week ago… I was on my Necro. Some glass engi girl attacked me while I was defending a point and she died and said nothing. I saw a friend (who was also a Necro) come to the point so I started leaving. Next thing I know, the engi is back, and she downed my friend. I came back (she could clearly see me coming back), killed her, and ressed the ally. She said “outplayed”. I said nothing. Later on she (being mad and all) tried to gank the 2 of us and basically kill us both with her burst. My friend downed, while I kited around and was basically hanging by a thread. My friend did the downed state Fear. Then I continued chaining the fear (I was not in a terror/condi duration Necro build) with DS 3, and staff 5. By that time she was almost dead and backed off a bit. Being kitteny, she came back, then the downed friend feared her again with the downed state fear, and we killed her. The friend probably has 50 HP left in his downed state. Next thing you know… “Fear Necros take no skill. Downed state fear from Necro takes no skill, keep fearing no skill Necros”. Apparently it was some well-known sPvP engi too – good sportsmanship right there. Anyway, she/he rage quit, we laughed, and it was a happy ending :P

Shockwave.1230:

Diamond skin is useless vs any build that isn’t pure condi. If you find a diamond skin elementalist and you happen to be a pure condi, then fight him with a team member. Condi bursts will melt 99% of builds. When you run into a hard counter you have to adjust.

PvP is not just a 1v1.

This.