Guild Wars 2

mompen.7952:

Nice vid! The build-link is not working for me, tho? Getting, “Bad link.”

You need to copy/past the link. ANet doesn’t like URLs with semicolons in them.

You might like a Power Necro. Check out the video in this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/WvW-Power-Necro-Video/1212438

Oh, this page: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/professions/necromancer/

Where do I sign up for that game? It looks much cooler than the GW2 I’ve been playing!

Well, as I logged in tonite I saw on the client that Colin Johanson has a post today on the GW2 News section, detailing a bit more of their plans:

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/colin-johanson-on-guild-wars-2-in-the-months-ahead/?utm_source=client

For some reason, this isn’t listed in the forum’s News & Announcements section.

A few things I saw:

• “addressing bugs as quickly as possible when they are reported”
• Paid server transfers
• Ascended gear from tokens earned via open world achievements
• Guild-oriented content

I want to believe….

ANet’s communication with players sucks. Sucks hard. Really hard. But maybe there’s some hope. Here’s a post I ran across in the General Discussion forum by Colin Johanson, Game Director. To me, this should have been in the News and Announcement forum or an ANet blog post, where people other than those that happen to read down to page 3 of the Discussion forum can see it:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/January-updates-Any-sources/1136181

========
Hey guys,
Just to help provide some clarity on this, we’ll be releasing within the next couple of weeks a high level summary of our big plans for the first half of 2013 to help provide more transparency into our plans with the game going forward. This will include providing more details about our goals for the game, information about the stories and features that you’ll see in the Jan/Feb/March releases.

To set expectations accordingly, the January release will be a relatively small release that sets the table for the stories and features we plan to roll out with the Feb/March releases and beyond. Also, there will be no new race, profession, or new region with these larger Feb/March releases. One of our major goals with these releases is making our existing world as strong as possible, ensuring there are reasons to go to all the locations in the world we’ve already built, and strengthening the core game we’ve provided. In saying this will be an expansions worth of stuff in these releases, we’re talking about the number of new features that will be rolled out across PvE, WvW, and PvP in early 2013, which usually you’d only find in an expansion for a traditional MMORPG.

More details and specifics to come in the next couple of weeks, but I hope that helps provide some more insight into what to expect at a very high level.
========

What sucks is that he doesn’t even mention any focused effort toward bug fixes, unless one wants to insinuate that from “making our existing world as strong as possible” and “strengthening the core game”. If so, just say it then, kitten and don’t prance about with marketing fluff phrases!

There’s a massive thread about it here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Annoying-Sound-Bug/4769

Try this, rather than using the shortcut:
Start>AllPrograms>GuildWars2>right-click GW2 and choose “Run as Administrator”

I usually have to do this once after each patch, otherwise I get the blank Sell window. After I do this once and it is successful, then I can use the desktop shortcut thereafter until the next patch messes it up again.

Same 2 DEs have been bugged on Borlis Pass for as long as I can remember. I’m not sure they ever worked.

One alternative would be to use Bone Minions as a ground-targetable, lowcooldown well.

They are “ground-targetable” in the sense that they run to the enemy you have targeted.

When you blow them up (Putrid Explosion), they cause 1592 damage each in a 240 radius, same radius as a well.

And the cooldown is only 20 sec. instead of 36 or 45 sec.

Best of all it requires no traits!

Zonzai.2341:

As somebody new to necro, I thank you. This is a really helpful guide and I will be referring to it often. +1

A question, I’ve been leveling (only 34 now) with dagger/dagger since in PvE I often find I fight single mobs at short range. Is scepter/dagger that much superior for leveling?

To me, scepter/dagger offers more defense than dagger/dagger. I find it better to stay at range, kite and kill a bit slower rather than be taking every melee hit. If you do use d/d, Dagger5 is really helpful for reducing incoming damage.

Happens to me too on my necro. I especially hate it when I load up a mob with conditions, hit Epidemic only to find that Epidemic occurred on a different target!

In Options, I have checked:
- Autotarget
- Promote Skill Target
Unchecked:
- Fast-cast

The first says “If you use a skill with nothing targeted…”, so it should not be switching targets on me once I do have a target.

The second says “Automatically promote targets to lock targets when hitting them”, so this should ensure that I do not get any target switching once I have targeted a mob.

Since Fast-cast is unchecked, this target switching cannot be due to any inadvertent mouse placement.

Try to start GW2 by right-clicking the program and choose “Run as Administrator”.

@Taywena, you need to copy-paste the link (its because there are semicolons in the URLs).

1) That build editor is obsolete – the traits are incorrect. Instead, try:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/
or
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc

2) What is this build for: pve, pvp, wvwvw?

@Specter, look on the TP for rare-level “Strong” armor. There are several stat combinations, including CondDmg,/Prec/Tough. Its very inexpensive.

Precision is good if you have a build where you are using ‘on crit’ sigils and/or want some decent DS1/DS4 hits without dumping alot into Power.

Jayne.9251:

Lol folks, check your local.dat file in your documents>GW2 folder …. If its bigger than 15mb, that’s your culprit. Exit game, delete it and let the game reload it.

Mine is 45MB, and I only very, very rarely have a sound issue (very loud footsteps or clunking noises for a short period of time).

(Win7x64, Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme)

Are these builds intended for PVE, PVP, WVW or some combination thereof?

Giver’s weapons duration bonus is bugged anyway. One of several threads on the topic(no response from Anet):

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Giver-s-10-Condition-Duration-doesn-t-work

Here is what I have been using and it been great for PVE:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Looking-for-a-PvE-build/1139814

Are you using Sigil of Air (lightning on crit) on the staff?

Rennoko.5731:

That Gnome noticed seems to be different than what I saw with the SPVP runes. I noticed the first bonus seeming to be 4% and the last bonus making up the difference to 20%, which was noted by someone else earlier. Perhaps the Lich runes work differently?

No, I think you were a better observer. I just reran the test in Cursed Shore with the Lich runes – this time without Hemophilia and food buffs – and the results do seem to match the 4%/16% values, rather than my incorrect earlier values of 10%/10%.

I just checked with my Runes of the Lich while in Orr and it does seem to be 20% cond duration for the 4-piece bonus. With only the first duration bonus, BiP was extended about 3 sec, and with the second duration bonus BiP was extended another 3 sec more. So that would be 10% per duration bonus. See my update post below.

First thing to do is to use a different website. That one doesn’t even have the correct traits listed!

Try http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc or http://en.gw2skills.net

The problem is that those external links have semicolons in them. This causes the “Bad Link” error.

You need to copy and paste the link into a new browser window to get it to work. (In Chrome, you can just highlight the link, right-click and choose “Go to http….”)

Junkpile.7439:

Is there any point even make full condition necromancer because it’s so hard to get Prec, tough, cond dmg weapons and trinkets? I don’t do dungeons and i don’t have gold to buy any overpriced “named” exotic.

Look on the TP for rare-level “Strong” armor. There are multiple stat combinations. One of them is CondDmg/Prec/Tough.

With Deathly Swarm, number of condition removals is dependent upon the bounces. See the Notes section:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Deathly_Swarm

That 30/30/0/10/0 is essentially the stats in this recent thread by Nemesis, which has a link to a worthwhile detailed tutorial video:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/The-ultimate-necromancer-dmg-hybrid-tutorial/1105027

What I’ve been running for awhile now is a 20/20/0/20/10 hybrid, with scepter/dagger & scepter/focus. (Yes, scepter mainhand for both.) I think it is a build you can continually work toward from where you are now as you level up, rather than having to respec.

Using the idea of necro as an attrition class, I’m going for a mix of damage & defense, leveraging cond duration with Spite, runes, and food (pizza). Not an OP build by any means, but quite sturdy for PVE.

My armor is Rabid (CondDmg/Prec/Tough) with 5xLich and 1 Soldier Crest, accessories are mostly Rampager(Prec/Power/CondDmg) with Emerald orbs(Prec/Tough/Power).

This gives me nearly 50% crit, decent power & cond dmg, and with food, BiP ticks for around 54 seconds. When enemies get to about half-health, you can pretty much walk away knowing they are already dead.

Scepter allows you to kite, cripple and bleed.
Dagger OH for condition removal and AOE bleed.
Focus OH for vulnerability (especially just before going into DS) and chill.
BiP + Epidemic is amazing, especially when cond duration is boosted.
Scepter3 & Focus4 for recharging DS.
WoS for AOE dmg, but can be swapped based on context.

Here is the general build. I usually prefer CD reduction traits (since a skill on CD does 0 DPS). Also for the offhand sigils, I am actually using Sigils of Generosity, but that isn’t on their build calculator:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcVczcM9MmFwMMmFwMMGG0GaMoMkzRc8kiO7kiB707kiB7070z7kuC70m

I prefer scepter, but with your build and its limited condition damage, it would seem that dagger is a better choice.

However, with 30% cond duration from Spite points, I wonder if there is possibly some value in using axe for stacking vulnerability so that your minions do more damage? Probably not, but just wanted to mention it.

Lordryux.9785:

Glenn.3417:

Build theory seems rather nice. I do wonder how you get 28k-30k HP and 2500-2600 toughness with 1100 (+/-) condition damage in spvp with shaman gear, or any gear for that matter. I can never get near 28k hp, I get around 19k. The toughness and condition dmg are obtainable, just not the hp.

yea im trying to figure that out aswell lol

I think he meant “2400+ armor”, not toughness. In the vid, he has about 1500 toughness, 2500 armor.

I did Tixx solo as an 80 necro, because I jumped foolishly in not realizing it was intended as a group event. Doh! Died about 6-7 times, but I did it. Not trying to brag, just to note that its possible.

As to the OP’s main point, it does seem that these events need a decent reward for entering them more than once, so that folks especially near the end of event timeframe aren’t left with no one to accompany them.

See this thread also:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/necromancer/Axe-The-Unloved-Middle-Child/1059711

Scepter/dagger + scepter/focus in a high-precision hybrid PVE build:
- DS1 right after Focus4 for lots of good crits.
- DS4 for kiting in a crowd
- DS3 for interrupt
- As a way to mitigate cooldowns (e.g., on Consume Conditions)
- “Panic button”

Advent.6193:

It would be interesting to see the staff re-positioned for each maneuver. Thing is, how much work on ANet’s part would that take? If it’s a decent chunk of code, then – by all means – let’s get bugfixes in first.

+1

Whenever this happens to me (usually after some GW2 update) I exit GW2 completely and then go to Start>All Programs>GuildWars 2>right-click the program and choose “Run as Administrator”. Then the TP will work correctly, even if from then on I start it from a shortcut. (At least until the next GW2 update which causes an issue!)

You can default to always run GW2 as an administrator, but I’m kind of wary of doing that:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Configuring-User-Account-Control-UAC/first#post3962

Some boon examples are Might from Blood is Power, Retaliation from Spiteful Spirit in Spite, and Fury from the Furious Demise trait in Curses.

At your level, if you have the skill points I’d use Consume Conditions for healing, put your 6 trait points into Curses for Barbed Precision (then Hemophilia when you hit 10 points), and use Scepter/Dagger for weapons. You can kite much easier at 900 distance than the 600 of axe.

I too felt fairly weak as a necro when I started, but it only got better as I leveled. Hang in there

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Auto targeting really should have been a priority issue since launch, because it has never worked right.

Even during wvw, auto targeting will prefer to target a moa in the distance, instead of the attacker right in front of you. Auto targeting has caused so many deaths, I lost count.

It will also consistently use a ranged skill on a target that is out of range, instead of the enemy right in front of you. I have wasted quite a lot of life siphons this way.

It will target enemies behind you, rather than target enemies in front of you. Sometimes a spectral grasp is sent flying off screen, to pull an enemy towards me I couldn’t even see on my screen.

It is often impossible to select even huge enemies that cover most of the screen, by clicking on them. Try clicking on the Shadow Behemoth, or the Maw, or any of the other huge bosses. You’ll often end up selecting everything but that giant monster you are directly clicking on.

Auto targeting will often deselect a target during battle automatically. None of the settings in the option menu make a difference in this regard. It just doesn’t work right. I could have Kholer selected as my target, and be wailing on him, and suddenly he is deselected while I’m fighting him.

Agree with this I do.

Airanthus.4592:

Thank you Yareon for your response! I am a man of programming ahead of action ( :P ) and I am trying to find a tool (if it even exists) that allows me to simulate the stats with my traits and armor so I know what’s my Crit chance, Power, Toughness (and how much damage it blocks). I am aiming for around 50 ~ 66% crit chance with as much Power possible and Toughness is what I am asking even possible? :P

Look into Knights gear (Tou/Prec/Pow) and Rampager or Berserker jewelry, with Emerald orbs/jewels (Prec/Tou/Pow) in all pieces. Use weps with precision and the Sigil of Perception. You should then be around 60-65% crit chance if you have 20pts in Curses. That’s what I have for crit in my build (I use CondDmg/Prec/Tou gear in mine, because I’m somewhat more condition-focused).

Based on some posts in the Game Bugs forum and some tests I did with the weapons, both the Giver’s weapons and armor appear to be bugged so that the +cond/boon dur do not have any effect.

I often wondered if Valkyrie would fit into any necro builds. It looks like you’ll have about 43% crit chance, which combined with 46% crit dmg looks interesting. Power is just fair though at 1421. Since this is a DS-heavy build, I’d take Path of Midnight and Unyielding Blast for the first two traits in SR, and then look for another means of recharging DS (dagger, axe, Signet of Undeath, etc.).

Have you tried it yet, or is it still in the theorycrafting stage?

Airdrie.1706:

Hello, i’m playing a condition necro. I have some question for the necromancer’s comunity. I’m playing a full “rabid” set for pve (condition dmg+precision+thoug), and 30/30/10/0/0 on traits. As you know when wintersday cames, ANet gave us a new stats for weapons (condition duration+vit+precision).

I’m here to ask you what is better, condition duration or condition damage. Another question is: what do you think is better if i play rabid set, 30/30/10/0/0 or 0/30/30/0/0 using afflicted runes? on this way i will have a lot of condition damage, but less condition duration.

Should will i go back to carrion set? or is better rabid set for conditionmance on pve? For utility skills i use corruption+blood is power, but not sure what to use as third utility skill, poisoning cloud don’t a real damage.

Thanks

1) The Giver’s weapons appear to be bugged. There are numerous posts on the Game Bugs forum about this. I tried them yesterday and could not get any duration extension on my conditions. So it seems its not just a tooltip bug like with runes with Cond Dur.

2) For PVE, I’d go for duration.

3) For build, you don’t mention the weapons you use, so not sure what to suggest. I’m running rabid gear w/20/20/0/20/10 with scepter/dagger & scepter/focus and am happy with it. For runes, I’m using 2xLyssa (for duration) and emerald orbs everywhere else. I use BiP,Epidemic, and the third is usually WoS/Undead Signet/Locust Signet depending on situation.

Here’s a set I put together today.

Winged helm & mantle
Stalwart’s coat
Feathered pants

Here’s mine in Shadow armor.

Then it looks pretty good to me (although I can only speak for PVE). I use Cond/Prec/Tough gear too, and use all Emerald Orbs (Prec/Tough/Power) except for 2xRunes of Lyssa for Cond Duration. My crit chance is about 48%.

1) Why WoB? I’d usually choose Consume Conditions, unless you plan on primarily being a support role.
2) Unless your gear supplies alot of Power, your DS hits will be pretty weak.

I’m experiencing the same thing (80 necro). Cond Duration from my Giver’s weapons and Lyssa runes are not reflected in the tooltips.

Julius Seizure.4985:

Here is how I know that Axe is utterly underperforming:

I run a Toughness/Power/Precision build with about 40% cit damage, and all my weapons are rare. I also have 30 points invested in Spite and have taken Axe Training. What do you think does more single target damage in this build— using both Axe 1 + Axe 2 or simpy spamming Scepter 1?

The answer is Scepter 1. How the EFF is Scepter 1 outperforming Axe 1 + Axe 2 in a Power/Crit build that also takes Axe Training?

Needless to say, I am respeccing ASAP.

This just seemed unbelievable, so I tried this in the Mists against the Heavy Golem, with no armor/jewelry, 30 in Spite and Axe Mastery, and nothing in Curses. Sure enough, Scepter#1 equalled or bested Axe#1+2. Even throwing DS1 into the axe mix didn’t help because of the long delay before DS1 ever fires. (Edit: Adding Axe#3 into the mix only slowed axe down more because of the long cast animation of Axe#3.)

Hopefully, Anet’s response isn’t “well, this just shows that Scepter#1 needs to be nerfed”.

I like the Ogre Effigy because it goes well with my Godskull Sickle axe.

Axe#1 + Focus#4 are a great setup for DS#1. But as Yumad pointed out, the vulns from Axe fall off pretty fast. If the vulns on Axe#1 were increased from 5 to 8 sec (for example), it might help quite a bit to at least make Axe both more viable relative to scepter, and also a better support tool. Even with 30pts in Spite, 8 sec vuln would only be extended to 10.5 sec (I think).

I also like OmegaProjects idea about Weakness on Axe#1, but I think it should be added to Axe#1 rather than replacing Vuln (but maybe reducing the vuln stacks).