Guild Wars 2

Thanks for all the amazing fights tonight on AG bl. 7 hours of commanding, 1300 kills, … and we still lost everything.
To all the riverside guys that defended hills throughout the day: I hate you.
But i really have to admire your perseverance. The amount of superior arrowcarts, the supply runs… You know how to make a keep impregnable!

Rorik Scarchest, UNITY

Edit: We may get bashed pretty hard this week, but i still have more fun and better fights than during the last weeks. Keep it up!

Out of the ~20h i commanded last week i only spent around 15min on riverside bl and nothing on Eb, since BB kept us pretty busy on our borderland. Luckily this seems to change this week.
The video was not about our superiority but about the actions of a comparatively small group of players. Something we believed more people could appreciate.

And special greetings to DTK, who we by the way only beat once on open battlefield when they were in “full raid mode” (out of the dozen times we faced). Hope for some more fights against you – it’s always enjoyable.

Rorik Scarchest, UNITY

In the end friendly culling makes us all look more heroic than reality, and sometimes people forget the numbers on their side.
As i said countless times before, it’s always a pleasure fighting you guys! I even switched back to our borderlands after a little bird told me you were there…

See you on the field,
Rorik Scarschest, Unity

Don’t spoil the fun! It’s about finding his build without a description and very limited footage. See it as a treasure hunt!
He obviously doesn’t use 20 in blood, otherwise his hp would be higher, unless he goes for some knight’s pieces.
I still believe that’s the build he uses…

If i may take an educated guess:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmODbkRrSPcTTjfPRIp4ZXD6h71lziUUshB;TIAA1CtA

For sigils maybe battle (include more weapon swapping in your videos!). Runes probably melandru?

The reason why i believe you need a minimum of “raw survival stats” (toughness, vitality), is random aoe. You don’t aim in these fights and no enemy will notice your presence – but you will get hit by a lot of random stuff that just happens to be thrown in your direction.
If you are “rolled over before you can even see them” – then please set up scouts. And read team chat. And watch the map. Even if you get caught by surprise, you still have two dodges, death shroud and plague form. Don’t just roll over and accept defeat as inevitable but try to get out of the kill zone and reorganize at your point guy (the one with a red cross or blue icon above his head).
If you go down to say 40% after the initial push, you’ll have to play a lot more defensivly, which means your team will lose effectivnes in the counter push.

The reason i like the setup i posted earlier is that i don’t get downed unless my group is wiped. If you get defeated and rally opponents you are a liability.

Concerning damage: Necros are bad primary damage dealers. They don’t do bad damage (even with soldiers), but i believe that their primary role in a template is that of a utility class. Dark combo fields, aoe boon removal, chills, blinds and cripple are the reason i want them in my team.

-I believe that rune of the fighter is garbage. If you want an “on heal effect” – go for altruism, dwayna or centaur. In my opinion the best rune choices are:
a) Vampirism: If you go with soldiers gear the mist form will pop at ~3k health which means that conditions won’t instantly kill you (they bypass the invulnerability), so you can either get your heal off or try to go down on the sidelines. The +1k health on heal an bit of heal from nr. 2 is a nice bonus.
b) Melandru: Biggest problem a necro usually has is the lack of stability/stunbreaker. Which means that if you screw up your positioning and get caught by a earthshaker you are entering a world of pain. You can enhance the effect (either stun or condition) with food.
c) Lyssa: A pretty tricky one. Usually best for roaming in combination with flesh golem, but has it’s uses with plague. The condition removal and boons (especially protection) make you even more survivable.
d) Ogre: For more damage. Pretty simple rune concept.

-For runes it comes down to playstyle. If you have high crit chance and like to stay on the sidelines i’d go for rune of fire. If you play more like a melee and have low crit chance then go for hydromancy. Either bloodlust or perception for the offhand. Just switch to it when you are in the “clean up”-phase for stacks.

There is no perfect build and there are a lot of different options that are viable. In the end it comes down to personal preference (e.g. axe vs scepter) and experience, so just try it out. Good luck

Looks quite good
Just some points/suggestions:
- Parasitic bond: It gives ~1k health/enemy. After a well/mark combo you should have tagged every enemy. In big group fights is basically another regeneration effect. I used to go with 10 points in spite for spiteful removal. Both skills work very well for the way that group fights go in my experience.
- If you go spite, then either go 5 or 30 (for close to death).

- The reason i use soldiers gear is that i’m usually raid leader, which means that i need every bit of survivability i can get. From your comments/build i get the impression that you want to stay at range for the most part. So my suggestion for you would be knight’s gear + omnomberry pie. You don’t lose that much of survivability but at the same time increase your dps. If you feel more comfortable with your build over time you can use some berserker jewels for crit damge.

-Well of blood: In your build it will heal for ~250/s. It’s nice for the stacking but in practice healing rain + thief and some empowers work a lot better. Taking it over consume conditions means that you need another way to cure the “killing conditions” – cripple and chill. The times that i usually get into trouble is when we try to reposition, i get chilled and rolled over. I personally prefer the independence that consume conditions gives me. Just try it out – if it works for you, go for it.

-Both “target the weak” and “deadly strength” (~90-100 power for soldiers) are good ways to boost your damage. I don’t really like the 30 into curses and would rather go with 25 there and put the 5 points either into spite (passive regen) or death magic (extra power). Wail of doom is a good skill, but i find the range too short and the cd too long to make it worth a major trait.

-Scepter vs. Axe comes down to personal preference. What you want from both is the aoe cripple. Grasping dead is a bit more reliable, but for my playstyle the perma-retaliation from unholy feast is too good to pass up.

-Plague: You can either use it defensivly to “dodge” a hammer train if you are out of position or offensivly. Typical example is when you are pushing on a wall or trying to block a choke point. The chill/blind is amazing in these situations. Just remember that you don’t have to use it for the whole duration.

-

Going with berserker gear and glass cannon is usually the worst item choice you can make. Believing that you’ll wipe every group you see is overly optimistic and usually only works on EB pug zergs. If your enemies constantly rally, then you should probably run with less glass cannons…
Especially against other guild groups or in situations where you are outnumbered sustainability is way more important than your damage on the first push (which anyway only works if your team pushes as one).

Bip is a truly horrible choice for group play and you’re better off using any of the wells or spectral wall.
I prefer WoS over WoP because other professions have way better, faster and more reliable aoe condition removal (eles, shout warriors/guards) that don’t require you to stand still.
WoD is a blind and chill field. It’s together with WoC the necro skill i consider essential for group play.

I switched to a power build ~30k kills ago, because (as stated above) it just helps your pushes more and the conditions you apply are basically the same.
A good condition build would in my opinion be something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNArYWjQah6Zaea87JAJFPD9kiuHP6RxBPMA;TgAgyCuoMyYkwIrROjkGB

You’ve already identified some of the core issues with condition builds in core group play:
- You usually have control t on a leader and don’t want to target specific enemies (epidemic).
- Your damage impact on the first push is very small and you’re forced into a utility/support role.
- The survivability is lower. It’s still fairly high (plague, ds, high vitality), but not comparable to full ptv.

In an organized 15+ group damage isn’t important (sounds stupid, doesn’t it?). It’s much more about coordinating the skills of every member on a single point. In order for a build to be useful in groupfights you’ll need a combination of debuffs/cc, support, survivability and damage.
If you only focus on one aspect you will lose effectiveness. Take for example a glasscannon that dies in the beginning of a fight, or a tank that is last man standing but didn’t contribute to the fight, etc. You want more specialized roles, but you should never neglect one aspect completly.

To illustrate what all this rambling has to do with a necro, I’ll use a build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmODbkRLUPTzSjfTBIz45rnU094wCiUU8wA;TsAA1Ctocy4kwJrTOnkOtAZAyGCA

Survivability: high survival stats, ds, plague, vampirism
Control: fear, chills, cripple
Support: heal on transfusion, dark combo fields
Damage: no crit, but very high power (+sharpening stone, higher pve stats, might)

I want to thank both Riverside and Baruch Bay for the fights this week! Especially (since they are freshest in my mind) MMO and NUKE from Baruch, and DW and DTK from Rivers. All these guilds have put up an amazing fight and it will be a pleasure fighting you again next week!

May the badges keep flowing for you,
Rorik Scarchest, UNITY

Your perception of how strong or weak a necro is will vary depending on the type of wvw you play.
You can duel as a necro. The only classes that are next to impossible to beat, if you don’t outskill your opponent, are bunker dd and condition mesmers. But almost all classes have similar problems against them.

You can solo roam as a necro. It just requires you to use spectral walk, flesh wurm and a lot of map awareness. If you want to roam you are better off going for a coordinated group. Necros synergizes very well with any class.

Where the class really shines is in a coordinated guild. Both power and condition builds fulfill the same role: wells and debuffs. The difference in playstyle is minor. If you want to see some footage on how this looks, check out Pryda from RG.

[link to twitch tv channel: http://de.twitch.tv/prydatv/b/355515191]

I don’t play in “zergs”, so i can’t give you any advice on it.
Have fun with your necro!

The truth dies first in a war.
The roman historians had Hannibal cross the Alps despite gruesome snowstorms and hostile barbarian tribes. No wonder this monster defeated the roman armies!
Our guild group, every one as strong as ten ordinary players, was only defeated by a gigantic blob of 50+ enemies, everyone of them tall as a mountain, with legendaries and arah armor!

Herodot counted the Persians as one million strong. How glorious the greek victory over them!
Our small elite team defeated a gazillion enemies, all because of our talent, discipline and sophistication!

On a sidenote: I’m really interested on who we face next week. Three contenders and just a couple more days!

Rorik Scarchest, UNITY

@Kinkywarrior: After this thread you should know that we never ever fight without outnumbering the enemy 4 to 1, having siege in our backs and of course the mighty FURY alliance to save the day! !

Let’s just say that after fighting on EB before i’ve become paranoid about culling. Just see the AC as a sign of love and respect!

See you on the field!

Rorik Scarchest, UNITY

The good thing about Gandara is the sheer amount of great wvw-guilds! Wherever we go, we face at least one guild that likes to do open field battles, be it DIUS, YAK, DYE, TDA, MM, WvW or any other ones i forgot.It’s a true pleasure fighting against you.

May the loot bags be plenty for you!
Rorik Scarchest, UNITY

@Immolator: Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Losing a battle can be a valuable experience – as getting stomped by Dius has been for us!

Yes, Necro is a very viable class in WvW.

Your experience will vary though, as others said, on the kind of game you play or like to play. I can’t comment on what builds you want in the “zerg”-scenario.
The necro is strongest in an organized environment, especially in GvG or GvRest. If you are part of a wvw-guild you should concentrate on your role as aoe-dps and soft cc. A typical build for this would be something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmODbkRrbPUTTjfPBIp46njUU8wUPWn9zB
with knight’s gear + ruby orbs/jewels.
In general you want to avoid condition builds because epidemic is too hard to land and conditions are constantly cleansed.

Yes, you can solo roam as a necro and i’ve done this for ~500h, both as a condition and power build. The main problem is that you don’t have nearly the same options to escape like a dd-ele or thief do (the reason so many bad players use them nowadays).
A power-roaming build could be for example:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fQAQNBmQDbkRrSPczXjhPBIp46njUc8wUPWn9zB
I guess you could switch your traits around for 30-0-10-0-30 but i’m usually too lazy to switch when a raid is coming up.
If you roam as a necro you have to pay a lot more attention to your surroundings than other classes. For camps you have a bit harder time as a power necro, so you will have to pull more.

Also the necro is one of the stronger dueling professions (at least as a power spec). The only classes that will give you a really hard time and are extremly hard to beat, if both players are on an equal skill level, are staff-shatter-mesmers and dd-eles.

From a WvW perspective:
Necros in general are hybrids. They are not tanks, but tanky. They don’t do as much aoe damage as other classes, but still a lot. It’s the same for healing. I don’t consider stacking healing power for a necro as a worthwile option.

Your support potential as a necro is largely dependent upon an organized group. Your main abilities are:
- Spectral Wall: It has no target limit, so casting it in front of your guild before pushing gives protection for the important early seconds of a fight.
- Well of Blood: Scales quite well and is a good addition to healing spring, healing rain etc. while stacking. The only time it will reach it’s full 10s potential is while sieging to heal rams. The main problem using this is that you will be reliant upon whirl finishers to remove conditions.
- Well of Power: Can be quite nice but is usually too situational. A shout guardian or water ele can do the job much better. It also requires your team to stack and stand still, which means you’ll usually eat more conditions than your well can cure.
- Transfusion is a surprisingly potent trait. If you can spare the 10 points to invest in blood then go for it. I just consider other traits lines to be more important.
- The regen from staff 2 is nice and in combination with the other classes you shouldn’t have problems keeping up perma regen during a fight.
- The main support a necro provides derives from his conditions. Weakness from withering precision and skale venom. Cripples, Chill, Poison etc.

“Support” in this game needs a wider definition than simply healing.

It entirely depends on the way you play wvw. For a solo roamer conditions are definitly viable, in the case of a necro even preferable.
In group settings, especially GvG, dots simply don’t matter. Although control conditions (chill, cripple, poison) are very useful, power builds simply can contribute more to the pushes.

I believe that the discussion should be about burst damage in general, not thieves in particular. The problem is also that the most popular current burst builds are coupled with the greatest mobility (with the exception of shatter mesmers, who only have stealth and blink).
If you run a pure glass cannon build there should be a sense of dread, not the certainty of e.g. shadow refuge, shadow step, infiltrators arrow.

On a sidenote: there is a enormous number of thieves roaming wvw whose skills is abysmal. What i’d like to see is not another “epic killing spree thief.” video, but a fail compilation. e.g. “look at this guy: using all his initiative while standing in a well of darkness”

First off: great coordination and personal skill. Also it reminds me that my guild needs more staff elementalists and that Cragtop is a horrible tower to push.

But in a situation like this it’s not as much your win as it is their loss. All they had to do was to run past you while autoattacking. Holding superior numbers at a chokepoint requires not only good use of your abilities, but also the enemy’s cowardice.

The axe is a niche weapon. I personally use it for wvw events as a secondary weapon for pushing. Mainly for the 3 ability. It does moderate damage, but is an aoe cripple, that gives (if you hit 4 players) permanent retaliation. And you don’t have to aim it.

It can also work for dungeons if you don’t want to melee in a situation and/or stack vulnerability with focus offhand.

Other than that i always prefer dagger or scepter.

It is not bugged, but unreliable. To reduce risk make sure you
a) look directly at your opponent
b) strip off guardian aegis
c) use it on flat terrain if possible (“obstructed” -,-)
d) read your opponent and try to use it while they won’t dodge

Despite it being hard to use properly, it’s one of the best utilities the necro has.

“Godmode”:

You get an additional 2748 toughness and 1832 vitality and with a simple mouseclick clan perma poison-blind-chill anybody in a 360 radius.

Man, i’d feel like Thor himself using this one….